The Trifecta: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida

LSG Strategies did the phone work for the DNC's coordinated campaigns in the key battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida for Gore-Lieberman 2000. With call centers throughout the United States, LSG simultaneously delivered phone contact programs for Gore-Lieberman in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and elsewhere.

While LSG has the capacity to deliver over 10 million calls per day, the true value-added comes from the integrated and strategic advice on targeting and campaign strategy that is born of the years of experience running campaigns and field operations. Unlike other phone vendors, LSG brings to the table valuable expertise in the day-to-day operations of campaigns, grassroots management and targeting that facilitates more innovative and powerful uses of this communications tool.

For example, for the Gore-Lieberman 2000 campaign, the Michigan and Pennsylvania swing voters tended to be older adults and senior citizens who had been eroding from the Democratic base and migrating toward the Republican Party over the past several years. LSG's targeting provided the context for a strategic phone contact program that was enormously compelling for this important voter segment.

In Michigan, LSG recorded a message by Texan Ann Friday, who discussed George W. Bush's record on nursing home standards in Texas and was delivered to nearly 300,000 homes in that state. The recording was widely viewed as controversial and quickly put the Bush campaign on the defensive. The substance of the message was proved accurate, and the calls succeeded in reinforcing Gore's message that Bush could not be trusted on issues important to seniors. Gore won Michigan, a key battle ground state, by a comfortable margin, and LSG won a Pollie Award for the best use of automated phones during the 2000 election cycle.

LSG has also shown the ability to adapt to changing circumstances, and to respond with innovative and strategic advice for campaigns. After running the Election Day phone program and analyses for the Gore-Lieberman 2000, LSG was contacted by the campaign and asked by the AFL-CIO to spearhead an effort to disentangle the complex and changing circumstances surrounding voting irregularities in Palm Beach, Florida. LSG coordinated an expansive headquarters and grassroots campaign with over 300 organizers to collect affidavits and establish an infrastructure for Gore's legal team and recount program.

At the same time, LSG was asked by the Gore-Lieberman campaign to determine whether voters, who had been previously contacted by LSG on Election Day, felt they had problems with their ballots or casting their votes. Over 70 percent of voters contacted in a follow-up phone interview by LSG claimed that they had problems with the butterfly format of their ballots, which became an important piece of evidence for the Gore-Lieberman campaign during the Florida recount.

The diversity of roles played by LSG during the Gore-Lieberman campaign, as well as the sheer volume associated with the phone programs, speaks to the unique capacity of LSG.