April 5, 2011 was a successful night for our firm, as we went 3-3 in Illinois’ municipal elections. We helped re-elect a mayor, a new village trustee, and helped pass a school referendum in southern Illinois — and proved that robust online programs can make the difference in local campaigns.
In Homer Glen, IL, we served as general consultants for Mayor Jim Daley. We put together an efficient campaign plan geared heavily toward online communications. With the help of our friends at Integrated Web Strategy, we built a state of the art campaign Web site, engaged with voters through an aggressive voter email program and a targeted online advertising campaign, and directed a direct mail program that effectively delivered our campaign’s key messages to the voters we needed to reach. It worked — as Mayor Daley won a three-person race by about 150 votes.
Also in Homer Glen, we built a direct mail program for Trustee candidate Tedd Kagianas that focused on turning out his base voters. The result — Tedd won re-election by more than 1,000 voters.
In Paris, IL (in southern Illinois), we served as general consultants on the “Yes 2 PCHS” school referendum campaign. This campaign provided local residents the opportunity to build a new high school to replace their dilapidated 102-year-old existing high school. With limited campaign resources, the primary means of mass voter contact was via the campaign Web site, an aggressive voter email contact program, and a robust Facebook network. In a race where only 3,600 votes were cast — we had a voter email list of more than 1,900 voters, and a Facebook network of more than 540 fans. This online outreach helped fuel an impressive landslide victory (more than 60% voted “yes” on the referendum) in a tough political climate.
In the coming days, we’ll share more details of these individual case studies. In the meantime, congrats to all our victorious clients!