Benenson Strategy Group Celebrates Victories in San Francisco, Mississippi and Virginia
November 14, 2011
Benenson Strategy Group congratulates its clients across the country after an exciting and important election day last week.
In San Francisco, BSG is thrilled to have been a part of the successful effort to elect Mayor Ed Lee to a full term.
“Despite all the baseless attacks against Ed Lee, voters in San Francisco overwhelmingly responded to Lee’s positive campaign and understood that he was the right candidate to move the city forward,” said Joel Benenson, firm co-founder and President. “Lee has built a strong record turning San Francisco around since he took office nearly a year ago and voters wanted to give him four more years.”
This is the firm’s first home-field win after recently opening an office in California, headed up by Vice President Amy Levin.
In Mississippi, BSG and Project New West took on a daunting task – convincing voters in one of the most conservative states in the nation to vote against a seemingly innocuous amendment defining when life begins.
BSG and PNW identified a targeting strategy with voters who may be ambivalent on the issue of abortion. Our messaging architecture leveraged these voters’ deeply-held concerns about government overreach and linked them to the view that these are “personal decisions better left to a woman, her family and her faith.”
“At BSG, we pride ourselves on pushing the envelope, challenging assumptions, and crafting messages and strategies that win tough elections. We couldn’t be prouder to have been part of the team PNW put together to help defeat personhood,” said Benenson.
In Virginia, BSG congratulates State Senators George Barker and John Miller on winning re-election. The 2007 victories of Barker and Miller helped secure a Democratic majority that year. And, this year, their re-election has denied the Republicans two of their top targeted seats and stopped the anticipated Republican wave in Virginia.
According to BSG Principal Pete Brodnitz, who has worked with former VA Governor Tim Kaine since 2001 and continues to serve as his pollster for the 2012 U.S. Senate race,
“the victories of these two Senators and the fact that the Republicans did not manage to win an outright majority of Senate seats is a clear indication that Virginia remains a politically ‘purple’ state – in part because of the strength of the Democratic Party in key media markets such as Norfolk (where Miller won) and Northern Virginia (where Barker won).”
Barker’s success is confirmation that Virginia’s largest county – Fairfax – has firmly shifted from a “bellwether” to a Democratic county, which is a significant factor in the shift of Virginia from “red” to “purple.”
