Our firm had the pleasure and honor of managing Judge Powers’ campaign.  The people of Will County are fortunate to have him on the bench.

Congrats, Judge!

(Click here to read more about the work we did on his campaign).

Jason made a strong commitment to building his campaign’s strategic online program, and we were honored to help him build a strong, statewide online grassroots network that was a strong component of his winning effort.

Over a three-month period, our firm helped the Plummer campaign build one of, if not the largest, statewide Republican voter email networks, as well as one of the strongest “social networking” outreach efforts in Illinois.

We also were honored to work on the gubernatorial campaign of former Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan.  Jim came up short in a closely-contested Republican Primary, but we were proud of the work we did for his campaign — and honored to work for a great man and a dedicated public servant.

On that note, we were proud this week to launch a new Web site — TheJimRyanIKnow.com — for one of our clients, Illinois gubernatorial candidate and former two-time Attorney General Jim Ryan.

As many of you know, Jim not only was a former Attorney General, he is also a two-time cancer survivor who, along with his family, has weathered significant personal and professional challenges.  Please read his bio here.

He has handled these challenges with grace. Whether it is through his fight with cancer, his work to help the less fortunate, or his time spent on the faculty at Benedictine University, Jim has served as an inspiration and touched the lives of countless people and families across Illinois.

TheJimRyanIKnow.com is a place where the people who know Jim best can tell their stories.  We invite you to visit the site and watch the stories. Below is one of these stories told by Jason Wildge, one of Jim’s students at Benedictine University:

Here we are quoted in a Gatehouse News Service story that is running throughout the state, specifically speaking to the strong online effort we are helping manage for Former Illinois Attorney General and current Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Ryan:

Those running for statewide office see the Internet and its new social networking tools as inexpensive, invaluable gateways to reach voters – their way on their own terms.

“Is the Web the end-all-be-all? Of course not,” said Curt Mercadante, an e-campaign consultant for Ryan. “But it’s a key component, and it allows us to do things in a way we’ve never done before.”

Mercadante said Obama succeeded online by making it a top priority. He said Ryan, the former attorney general making a political comeback, is taking the same attitude.

And this excerpt is from an Associated Press story:

A consultant for Republican governor candidate Jim Ryan says the Web is at the forefront of Ryan’s campaign.

“We’ve managed to get our fingers into every single part,” said Curt Mercadante, who is helping Ryan on the Web.

We’ll post more this week on some of the techniques we’re using with a variety of campaign to help them build solid, active online networks.

It’s been only four weeks since Jim announced his potential bid — and we already have built the strongest e-campaign of any other candidate in the race.

We, of course, launched a new campaign Web site.  And, aside from the statewide Republican voter email list we have built (85,000 and growing), we also have the largest Facebook fan base of any other Republican candidate (and growing by several hundred each week), a growing following on Twitter, a heavy volume of viewership on Flickr, and full, comprehensive content campaign.

We also launched a new site (using the great tools at UserVoice) called Ideas.JimRyan2010.com — seeking ideas from Illinois voters on how to reform Illinois.  This keeps with our commitment to empowering our network to get them involved and have ownership of the campaign.

Jim and the campaign leadership team have made the e-campaign a major priority, not just paying it lip service like most political campaigns.  Photos, video, tweets, status updates … The e-campaign is part of everything we do — focusing on harnessing and creating content that we can deliver to educate, motivate and empower our online grassroots network.

Take a look at some of the early stats we’ve seen in just the first 24 hours since Jim’s announcement:

• An initial deployment of more than 85,000 emails to Illinois Republican voters.
• More than 1,200 viewers of our photos on Flickr.
• Almost 200 new Facebook fans (Facebook insights have a three-day lag and we are awaiting a full rundown of stats.)
• 72 new ideas submitted at Ideas.JimRyan2010.com — with hundreds of votes cast for reform ideas.
• 162 trackable click-throughs on our tweets (using Hootsuite).
• More than 100 volunteers signing up on online.

In the coming weeks and months, we will not only grow our email list — we will segment and target the list by issue, geography and intensity to keep people engaged, deliver our message and, yes, raise money.

Most important — we’re not only communicating.  We’re also listening.  We are constantly monitoring Facebook, online media, Twitter for conversations about Jim, so that we know who is talking about our candidate, what they’re saying, if and how we need to respond and how we can improve on our communication.

In recent months, we’ve observed the other campaigns here in Illinois abuse their email lists, ignore their online campaign and miss prime opportunities to use new online tools to engage voters and build their campaign organizations.

We are proud that Jim Ryan and his campaign team have brought us aboard to use our experience to manage their e-campaign.  We are committed to victory.

For example, the response rates to emails about tax hikes far exceeds those for, say, tort reform.  A Facebook campaign for the “Fairness Doctrine” explodes, while a similar campaign for most political candidates just does so-so.

While obviously not scientific, it is a good, early measure of the overall intensity that exists for certain issues and candidates.

The reason we write this is because the intensity we have seem over the past seven days for the potential Illinois gubernatorial candidacy of former state Attorney General Jim Ryan has been extremely strong:

• We garnered more than 1,000 Facebook fans in less than a week.  That’s almost equal to what each of the other Republican candidates have garnered during the several months of their candidacies.  And our fans are extremely engaged:  commenting regularly on our posts, driving the majority of traffic to the campaign Web site, signing up for the petition drive, and contributing money.  What’s more, the Facebook page has garnered more than 4,000 page views during that seven day period.
• Our initial email received an “open rate” that exceeded the typical rate for a “cold” list by about 700%.  This shows that, after seven years out of the public spotlight, the candidate is still recognized and people wanted to hear what he had to say.

The consistent flow of volunteer sign-ups on our Web site is atypically strong for a candidate who hasn’t even announced — and we see a large influx of visitors to the site from search engine queries.

We’ll keep you updated as this campaign progresses, but if the online activity is any indication — there is significant energy and intensity for this campaign.

We were asked to help the cause — and one week later, we have a basic “splash” Web site up (please see to the right), and are engaged in an aggressive social media program on Facebook and Twitter.

We also hit 75,000 Illinois voters this morning with the first email of the young campaign — which, to be clear, is still in the “exploratory” phase.

We are proud to be part of this campaign, as Jim Ryan (in addition to being a fellow alum of Benet Academy High School) is a man of integrity and honor.

Stay tuned for more on this campaign …

But we are still keen observers of how political campaigns are using online tools to reach voters and win.

Needless to say, we continue to be woefully disappointed in how candidates in Illinois fail to either engage in a coherent online strategy — or simply ignore such a strategy altogether.

Given the ongoing corruption scandals within state government (and Cook County government), a worsening economic climate, and a series of proposed and enacted tax increases — the political climate is ripe for the minority party to make gains in next year’s governor’s campaign, state legislative races, and key congressional races.

In many, if not most, of these cases, the minority party will be outraised and outspent.  Which means every cost-effective advantage they can use to reach voters is extremely valuable.

Pop quiz:  what is one cost-effective way to reach tens of thousands of voters at the click of a button?  You guessed it:  a strategic e-campaign.

Unfortunately, not a single major candidate at the legislative, gubernatorial or congressional level is engaged in anything resembling such an e-campaign. (And no, a strategic e-campaign does not involve weekly or daily mass “e-blasts” of event invites and fundraising appeals.)

Here are some examples:

• We met with one congressional campaign who told us they absolutely, positive saw the power of what Obama did online and were committed to engaging in a similar effort.  Months later, they remain disengaged online and an increasingly crowded primary field.  They continue to spend time and resources walking in parades and attending smallish “party faithful” events of 30-100 people — the equivalent of spending money to run in quicksand.  Fail.
• Earlier this week I received an email from one gubernatorial candidate in which he announced his “government reform” proposals.  I received the verbose, wordy email at 10:30 p.m.  This comes after months of receiving haphazard, every-few-weeks emails that neither communicate a message or anything meaningful about the candidate.  Fail.
• Yet another gubernatorial candidate’s “online program” consists almost entirely of Friday afternon “e-newsletters” which include a compendium of information and rundown of campaign events from the prior week or two.  These email compendiums only serve as ego-boosters to the candidate (who likes to see their own photos).  Please read our prior posts (here and here) about our feelings on the “e-newsletter.”  Fail.

I could go on and on about the failure of Illinois political candidates to engage online, but that would make this post far too long.  I don’t write this because I necessarily want any of these campaigns to hire our firm — I write this because it frustrates me to see campaigns perform poorly.

Why in the world would a campaign not want to engage in a cost-effective effort that:  builds an email list of tens of thousands targeted voters that communicates the campaign’s key messaging with these people on a regular basis.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.  It’s money better spent than the bumper stickers, tongue depressors and t-shirts on which these campaigns are no doubt currently wasting their valuable dollars.

You’re leaving voters on the table, folks.  Get with the program.