Winning Connections Tops the Polls at the “Oscars of Political Consulting”

Washington, DC — Winning Connections won fifteen awards for its phone campaigns from the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) at the premier annual event for political professionals. Winning Connections was recognized in 10 of the 17 phone categories, winning Pollies for programs ranging from statewide candidate campaigns and early get-out-the-vote efforts to 527 work and grassroots advocacy.

At the awards dinner on Saturday night, Winning Connections took away more Pollies than any of the other 13 phone firms receiving awards. In fact, Winning Connections has won more Pollies than its competitors in five out of the past six years.

"We’re proud of the innovative work we did this year on behalf of progressive candidates and causes all over the United States,” said Winning Connections President John Jameson. “We did ground-breaking work in early voting efforts, which were so important in this election cycle, and also helped to register minority voters and fight voter suppression efforts,” added Jameson.
The AAPC cited Winning Connections’ work on a broad array of campaigns, including:

• AFL-CIO Voter Protection (award for Live Call/GOTV/Early Vote/Vote by Mail) – In Florida, Winning Connections conducted a “patch-through” call program that connected voter registrants directly to elections supervisors who had wrongly rejected their applications.  21 percent of registrants Winning Connections reached actually had their claims resolved.
• Justice James Graves (award for Automated Call/Candidate: Statewide) – In Mississippi, Winning Connections helped Justice Graves, the only African-American on the Mississippi Supreme Court, win election in a solidly white district.  (Graves had previously had been appointed to fill a vacancy).
• California Teachers Association – Sacramento School Board (award for Automated Call/Candidate: Local/Municipal) – Winning Connections did a series of calls for the CTA to mobilize voters against the incumbent school board. The campaign was successful in ousting three of the five board members.
• Democratic National Committee (award for Live Call/Independent Expenditure Campaign/Issue Advocacy/527/Party) – In nine targeted states, Winning Connections conducted calls to amplify mail pieces on President Bush’s economic failures and Kerry’s economic plan.
• Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (award for Automated Call/Independent Expenditure Campaign/Issue Advocacy/527/Party) – In South Dakota’s special congressional election, Winning Connections helped Stephanie Herseth win with a call from President Clinton aimed at boosting turnout among Native Americans.
• Floridians for Patient Protection (award for Live Call/GOTV/Early Vote/Vote by Mail) – Winning Connections was hired to recruit early absentee votes against a measure to limit medical malpractice suits.  Even though the 67 Florida counties set their own ballot mailing schedules, Winning Connections was able to reach 363,000 voters and secure commitments to vote against the measure from 200,000 of those targets.
• Blanche Lincoln for US Senate (award for Live Call/Candidate: Senate/House) – Senator Lincoln’s poll numbers been dropping, and Winning Connections conducted a phone program targeting various groups of seniors.  Winning Connections proactively used language now being embraced by many Democrats to raise awareness about President Bush’s Social Security agenda.
• Buddy Dyer for Orlando Mayor (award for Live Call/Candidate: State/Local) Winning Connections delivered a program to respond immediately to negative mail attacks on Dyer.  The targeted calls helped Dyer survive the attacks and squeak out a narrow victory with 50.96 percent of the vote.
• Citizens for a Strong Senate – Daniel Mongiardo (award for Live Call/Independent Expenditure Campaign/Issue Advocacy/527/Party) – In Kentucky, Winning Connections conducted calls highlighting the bizarre behavior of Senator Jim Bunning and newspapers’ suggestions that Bunning hold a press conference to demonstrate his fitness for office.  Mongiardo nearly overcame Bunning’s double digit lead in the polls.
• Winning Connections also won Pollies for its work on behalf of Jim Hood for Mississippi Attorney General; the Jackson, Mississippi Convention Center; Andy Rosenberg for Congress; Alice Woldt for state representative in Washington; and ACORN (voter suppression in Florida).

Winning Connections is one of the nation’s leading telephone voter contact and grassroots advocacy firms for progressive candidates and causes.  Winning Connections has worked for more than 1,200 candidates and campaigns in 48 states since 1996.  Our clients include political candidates and progressive interest groups as well as organizations in the health care, telecommunications and real estate fields.

For more information, call 202-544-5910 or send an e-mail to Grant Perry: gp@WinningConnections.com