Stennis-Capitol Press Luncheon Report

Brad Chism of ZATA 3 spoke at the Stennis-Capitol Press Luncheon today held at the University Club in downtown Jackson. ZATA 3 is a direct voter contact company committed to helping Democrats win elections. They are the winner of 27 Pollie awards for direct voter contact awarded by the American Association of Political Consultants. ZATA 3 had two men on the ground in north Mississippi for the Childers election, both of whom were in attendance today.

Bobby Harrison of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal gave a brief introduction after we were given time to eat a bite. Chism took the podium to talk about two main themes. The first half of his talk was devoted to how technology is changing the political battleground in key areas. The second half was focused on the Childers win that ZATA 3 played no small role.

I made a few notes, here are a few of my scribbles from earlier.

• The name of the game now is bottom up politics (see Obama), especially in the fundraidsing arena. Online fundraising has done more to level the playing field than McCain- Feingold.
• In the tech world he made mention of the power of YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, and the blogosphere. He pointed out that people might not read a transcript you forward them, but they will more than likely watch a one minute YouTube video, and then forward it to their friends.
• The progressive blogosphere is the political counterweight, albeit a decade later, to the right wing talk radio echo chamber.
• The Democrats have benefited by moving away from the social wedge issues and running on kitchen table issues.
• We have seen the high-water mark of wedge issue politics that have allowed shoddy Republican candidates to win elections hollow on political answers but instead on guns, gays, and abortion.
• Number one in the MS-01 is that we had a GREAT candidate. The smears trying to tie Childers to Rev. Wright rang hollow when folks had a chance to get to know Travis and his blue collar background.
• Contrary to what the Republicans are saying, Greg Davis was a good candidate. Davis is now being blamed in Republican circles for being the reason they lost. He did win Mayor of Southaven for two terms as well as serving as a Representative in Jackson. He also carried his home county overwhelmingly.
• Davis got what he needed in Desoto county but needed a split in both Lee and Lowndes, and achieved neither.
• Bennie Thompson played a very helpful role in the background. His support was instrumental especially in counties that used to be in his district before redistricting.
• Obama stayed quiet on the whole ad campaign directed both at Childers and Obama, as well as staying clear of Mississippi. His ground team of under 30 year olds armed with WiFi laptops were a strong presence.
• Steve Holland is a hero. He ran a positive, clean race in the primary, and after narrowly losing he put his best foot forward for Travis. He turned over all of his data, and fully endorsed Childers the NEXT day after losing by a handful of votes. This in direct contrast to the shootout at the OK Corral that was the GOP primary.
• Dick Cheney, South Memphis, 'nuff said
• Childers had a tremendous field campaign. For the first time, we Democrats out-hustled our counterparts on the ground and it paid off.