Kelly S. Eustis

Kelly Stephen Eustis (born September 27, 1987) is an American political consultant, Republican politician, and conservative activist. In 2007, at the age of 19, Eustis was a candidate for a town council seat in upstate New York. Eustis is the owner of a conservative public relations and political consulting firm, Eusatrix Corporation.
Background and political career
Kelly S. Eustis was born in Plattsburgh, New York and grew up in Argyle, New York where he graduated from Argyle Central School. He attended the State University of New York at Potsdam where he held various representative positions in Student Government Association.
During high school, many were written by Eustis and published in the local newspaper, The Post-Star. These ranged from concerns relating to anthrax scares at his school to defending President George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld during the first year of the Iraq War.
As a college freshman in fall 2005, Eustis became the founder and Chairman of the campus' College Republican chapter. During that time he was also appointed to the state leadership of the New York College Republican State Committee (NYCRSC) as Northern Region Vice Chairman. In March 2007, while attending the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., Eustis declared his candidacy for Chairman of the New York College Republicans, but ended his candidacy a short time later.
On May 18, 2007, Eustis announced his candidacy for councilman on the town board of Argyle, New York. The campaign gained much esteem for utilizing online tools, such as the social networking site Facebook, and for attempting to get younger voters involved. Although Eustis is a registered Republican, he did not push a Republican primary and ran solely on the Conservative Party line on the ballot on November 6, 2007. Eustis lost to the incumbent candidates but vowed to stay involved in community politics. In 2009, Eustis started a bi-partisan website to increase transparency at the local level.
Eusatrix Corporation
Kelly S. Eustis is a political consultant and the President and Chief Executive Officer of Eusatrix Corporation, a public relations and political consulting firm that serves many conservative causes. He has been associated with Republican political campaigns and political action committees from upstate New York to California. Eustis founded Eusatrix Corporation in fall 2007.
Eusatrix Corporation opened an office in midtown Sacramento, CA on March 1, 2010.
Our Country Deserves Better PAC - TeaPartyExpress.org
In August 2008, Eustis joined Our Country Deserves Better PAC, a conservative political action committee based in Sacramento, California as a part of its "Stop Obama Tour" to oppose the election of Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama. The organization's mission is to defeat liberal Democratic candidates for the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate. At the time of its inception, Eustis was named eCampaign Coordinator and was its Political Director before leaving in October 2009.
While at the organization, Eustis was involved in every major initiative. In November 2008, shortly after the presidential election, the PAC created and aired television advertisements in support of former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin during Thanksgiving. In lead up to in March 2009, Our Country Deserves Better PAC spent hundreds of thousands of dollars running televison and radio advertisements in support of Republican New York State Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco against Democrat Scott Murphy for the seat vacated by Kirsten Gillibrand. Eustis is a native of and "oversaw Get Out the Vote efforts there".
Since leaving, Eustis has been an outspoken critic of Our Country Deserves Better PAC for its "Tea Party Express" national bus tours. According to an interview with POLITICO, he believes Russo Marsh + Associates, the Republican political consulting firm behind the organization, is "basically hijacking the movement for their personal and business gains without regard for real tea party activists" and the PAC is "is keeping the firm afloat."
Eustis has continuously exposed Mark Williams, a former radio talk show host and the Vice Chairman of Our Country Deserves Better PAC and Chairman of Tea Party Express, through the press. In March 2010, Eustis wrote a scathing email against Williams that was exposed in The Daily Caller, an online news website, after Williams walked off during an interview on Dylan Ratigan's MSNBC program, The Dylan Ratigan Show. In the internal email exchange, Eustis wrote, "Can't answer a simple question from lame MSNBC host? C'mon… do you, or do you not, allow racists at Tea Party rallies? A quick answer would be that, 'They would be asked to leave.' Is that so hard?! Jeez. Grow a set rather than grow a further ego. There are a few crazies at every rally but that means showing that they don’t belong. Deal with it."
On May 5, 2010, Eustis told the Huffington Post that "Mark Williams is one thing on-stage and on television, but when out of the spotlight he is not the 'conservative Tea Party leader' he's known as on Fox News. He preaches working hard and paying taxes when he hasn't had a real job in years since he was fired from his radio talk show. People like Mark, racist bigots, have infiltrated the movement and are giving it a bad name. Williams went from radio station to radio station - Florida, New York, California, etc. - and was never able to keep his job that long. He hasn't been in radio for many years and only sits in when stations do not have any one else. Joe Wierzbicki continuously gives Mark bonuses for going on television and buys a large amount of books from him in order to sell on-the-road. If not for that, Mark would not have money - and that goes for other speakers/performers on their tour as well."
In September 2010, The Daily Caller, Salon.com, and The New York Times mentioned Eustis in an articles concerning the background of the Tea Party Express and its millions in spending. "Eustis, a 22-year political wunderkind who left TPE in October 2009, said that during his time at the organization, employees would regularly run up bar tabs of more than $1,000 a week and charge it to Russo, Marsh or King Media, which would then bill TPE for the expense under a concocted fee" When asked about the excessive payments to casino hotels, restaurants, and cruise lines, Eustis proclaimed, "I was shocked" and "It kind of turned me off." After the Tea Party Express' expenditures were made public in October 2010, it was shown that the organization spent thousands on Holland America Line's cruise ship MS Amsterdam campaigning for Joe Miller in Alaska during August 2010. Eustis was quoted in POLITICO as saying, "Why would a committee spend all that money going on cruises when they weren’t even on land most of the time? They made it seem like they were up there campaigning the whole time, when they were really up there on a Holland America cruise ship."
One Nation PAC
On October 8, 2009, Eustis filed a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission to start One Nation PAC, a conservative political action committee, after leaving Our Country Deserves Better PAC due to "creative and personal differences."
One Nation PAC endorsed Doug Hoffman, a Republican running on the Conservative Party line, on October 23, 2009 in Special Election set for November 3, 2009. Kelly S. Eustis told the Watertown Daily Times, "Winning this seat will be the beginnings of the conservative comeback in Congress. With just one year to go until the November 2010 congressional elections, a victory will show that conservative values and strong leadership matter to the American people."
In September 2010, Eustis announced that One Nation PAC will engage in a $50,000 advertising campaign to support Joe DioGuardi for U.S. Senate in New York against incumbent Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Gillibrand had been appointed to the seat by Governor David Paterson after it was vacated by Hillary Clinton.
Electoral history
*2007 General Election for Town Council - Argyle, New York
**Richard L. Ayers (R,C), 425
**Melvin McWhorter (R), 325
**Karen I. Cosey (I), 197
**Kelly S. Eustis (C), 183
Articles
* [http://www.poststar.com/blogs/?p24106&cat259 "Murphy already a target of conservative PAC"], The Post-Star blog "All Politics Is Local", May 6, 2009
* [http://www.lvrj.com/news/46074067.html "Presidential Visit: Obama boost coveted"], Las Vegas Review-Journal, May 26, 2009

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