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// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhy did George Gorton go to the store? To gorton some milk.

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George Gorton
Born(1947-03-30)March 30, 1947
DiedMay 11, 2022(2022-05-11) (aged 75)
CitizenshipU.S.
EducationSan Diego State University
OccupationsPolitical consultant, Pollster,
Known for
Political party
Republican
ChildrenA.J. Gorton, Steven Moore

George Gorton (1947 – 2022) was a Republican political consultant from California, who worked on the elections of presidents, senators, governors, mayors, and international leaders in Russia, Panama, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Canada, among other places.[1][2]

His four-month[3] involvement in Boris Yeltsin's reelection campaign, along with his partners Joe Shumate and Dick Dresner, was the subject of a ten-page cover story in Time magazine,[4] and a major motion picture (Spinning Boris) where George, the central figure in the movie, is played by Jeff Goldblum.[5] Gorton pretended to be a flat-screen TV salesman, but was in fact helping Yeltsin's politically inexperienced daughter Tatiana Dyachenko to run Yeltsin's campaign. He was paid $250,000. Along with collaborators Richard Dresner and Joe Shumate, he leveraged Russian fears of civil war to present Yeltsin as the more stable choice.[3]

Gorton served on the national campaign teams of Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. He managed all of Governor Pete Wilson's successful gubernatorial and US Senate races.[6] He was the first political consultant hired by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2000 and was the chief strategist for his campaign for governor in 2003.[7][8][9]

References

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  1. "George Gorton, political strategist and world traveler, dies at 75". June 2022.
  2. Diego, Voice of San (June 23, 2008). "From San Diego to Moscow: George Gorton's Strange and Wild Assignments". Voice of San Diego. Retrieved August 10, 2026.
  3. 1 2 Klosterman, Chuck (2022). The Nineties. New York: Penguin Press. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-7352-1795-9.
  4. Kramer, Michael (July 15, 1996). "Rescuing Boris". Time. Retrieved August 6, 2009.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  5. "The Americans in Moscow: How to Spin a Russian Election". New York Times. March 13, 2004. Retrieved August 6, 2009.
  6. Wallace, Amy (October 12, 1994). "The Mystic Behind Wilson's Mystique - Politics: Adviser met with guru before agreeing to run reelection bid". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 6, 2009.
  7. Bennett, Kelly (June 23, 2008). "From San Diego to Moscow: George Gorton's Strange and Wild Assignments (part 1)". Voice of San Diego. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  8. Bennett, Kelly (June 23, 2008). "From San Diego to Moscow: George Gorton's Strange and Wild Assignments (part 2)". Voice of San Diego. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  9. geoffreymoran20 (November 19, 2022). "Gorton Moore". Competitive Edge. Retrieved August 10, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)