Carl Wagner, 72; adviser to many famous Democrats

Carl Wagner, a Democratic Party strategist, organizer and adviser for 40 years who counseled and worked for President Bill Clinton, Sens. Edward Kennedy and George McGovern, as well as a corps of other Democratic officeholders and office seekers, died June 23 at his home in Washington. He was 72. A spokeswoman for the D.C. Medical Examiner's Office said determination of the cause of death is pending further investigation. His daughter, Alex Wagner, a cohost of "CBS This Morning: Saturday," said he had heart and lung ailments.

Wagner co-chaired Clinton's victorious 1992 presidential campaign and was a longtime friend of the former president.

They met in 1972, when both were working on the Democratic presidential campaign of McGovern, the South Dakota senator who lost in a landslide to incumbent President Richard Nixon.

Wagner was helping run the McGovern campaign in sections of the Midwest. Clinton, fresh from Yale Law School, was directing McGovern's efforts in the Southwest.

"For so many years, Carl was there with clear-eyed analysis of a tough problem, honest advice in a tough spot, and unflinching support in a tough fight," Clinton said in a statement. "He played a big role in helping us think through my decision not to run for President in 1988. . . . [He] was one of the finest organizers and one of the best political minds of our generation."

Wagner was serving as director of political activities for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) when Kennedy, the Massachusetts senator, hired him in 1978, two years before Kennedy attempted to wrest the presidency from incumbent Jimmy Carter, a fellow Democrat.

He was Kennedy's "field general and a palpably brilliant strategist and tactician," David Axelrod, a top political strategist in Barack Obama's presidential campaigns, said in an email to The Washington Post.

To Les Francis, deputy chief of staff in the Carter White House and a former executive director of the Democratic National Committee, Wagner was a "hot type" political tactician, "very intense, high energy . . . could push, demand, got things done."