Case Study: Houston

Houston mayor, Lee Brown, won his re-election bid in November by a very small margin against a surging Hispanic Republican candidate, City Councilman Orlando Sanchez, pitting them against each other in the run-off in early December. The enthusiasm that was a driving force when Brown had been elected the first African American Mayor of Houston, a city with 30% African American population, was missing from his re-election bid. The Mayor seemed to have lost touch with the community over the years and was being vilified by his opponent. Orlando Sanchez, meanwhile, was endorsed by the President, former President and First Lady George and Barbara Bush and Rudy Guiliani. The Mayor was on the defensive and being outspent approximately 3 ½ to 1. The campaign was in trouble.

The DNC asked LSG to come to Houston, diagnose the problems and restructure the campaign so that it would be able to overcome the challenges Mayor Brown was facing.

In Houston, LSG organized the team to implement a strategy redirected from intensive media to a focus on field operations and voter turnout. An aggressive vote goal was formulated. It focused less on traditionally Democratic voting Hispanics, a major component of previous Brown victories, who were instead supporting Brown's opponent, while the goal for African American turnout was increased, as was the goal for liberal white voters.

If used properly, Early Vote, a program traditionally used by Republicans and white voters to its highest advantage, was an opportunity to build a strong base of African American support heading into the final GOTV push. Five entirely African American Early Vote locations were identified and targeted for early get out the vote efforts. Walkers were sent into targeted neighborhoods to pull out the vote just as they would on election day. As the result of an intense effort, total Early Vote jumped from 52,000 in November to 71,000 in December, a total turnout increase of 36%. The five targeted sites showed a 61% increase in December as opposed to the 36% increase citywide. Those sites represented a 28% of Early Vote in December, up 5% from 23% in November. The African American share of Early Vote climbed 5% as well, from 28% in November to 33% in December. After only a handful of days on the ground, our team was able to use Early Vote to build an organization and the necessary momentum in the race that would be replicated on Election Day. It marked the first time that a Democrat had ever won Early Vote in Houston.

Following Early Vote, all focus was on Election Day. It had become clear that the only way to win was through an aggressive, strategic ground campaign. In the span of 8 days, LSG's campaign team recruited over 2,000 Election Day workers were recruited as ground troops to pull out voters in targeted areas of the city. Workers were recruited through colleges, neighborhoods, churches and unions. Our campaign team rented over 150 15-passenger vans from across the state to transport workers throughout the city. Workers were processed through 10 staging sites citywide, each van team flushing 2 precincts 3 times throughout the day.

Each van was supplied with one two way radio for contact with staging sights and HQ, and enough breakfast, lunch, water, t-shirts and literature for each walker throughout the day. Our campaign team managed all of this while staying within a tight budget. The operation was planned and executed in only 8 days with spectacular results.

Between November and December, turnout went up 2 points among Hispanics, stayed the same among whites and increased 7 ½ points among low income African American voters (accounting for approximately 80% of Houston's African American population) and 6 points among middle income African American voters (accounting for the remaining 20% of the AA population in Houston). African American share of the turnout increased from 28% to 35%. Through an extensive walk program in the liberal white areas of the city, combined with visibility, mail and phones, Brown's share of the white vote increased by 5-6%. This increase more than made up for the drop off in Hispanic support since 1997. Overall, there was a 7-point turnout increase that met the vote goals our team put into place.

LSG walked into a meltdown, and all of the momentum was with the opponent. There was little to no enthusiasm amongst the supporters of the Mayor. The campaign needed to be able to distribute literature on the streets, run sound equipment through the neighborhoods, and have canvassers and walkers go to every door immediately. Houston is the fourth largest city in the country, more spread out than any other than L.A.; it is a place that's geographically difficult and organizationally overwhelming. Our campaign did all that and hired an operation that was able to physically pull out the votes that we needed, both during the Early Vote and on Election Day itself.

The day after the election the headline in the Houston Chronicle on the front page that said, "The Ground War Beat the Air War" and that is what LSG is hired to do -- to figure out who it is we have to go after, how to best contact them, appropriately allocate our resources, and be able to motivate people both inside and outside of the campaign - not just convince them to be with us.