The following are my personal reflections on the campaign, based on my involvement, and should not be tied with any of the associations or affiliations I currently have. They do not necessarily reflect the sentiments of those mentioned, who had nothing to do with my writing this piece. In fact, if it were not for those working hard for Creigh in the primary, he quite possibly wouldn't have even been the nominee! - Dan Kalbacher (Communications director, Fairfax County Deputy Sheriffs Coalition)I put my heart and soul into the primary for Creigh, especially in Northern Virginia, where "Team Deeds NoVa" was essentially [a Deeds Northern Virginia field staffer who has - for whatever reason - requested anonymity; henceforth, she will be referred to as "ANON"], Creigh's daughter Amanda, one or two others, and myself. For a very long time, it wasn't cool to be a Deeds supporter in Northern Virginia, and Creigh was working with an extremely small, loyal, but dedicated team who worked to the death for him. I remember putting out 10,000 signs in the cold, wind, and rain all day and in the middle of the night with Amanda Deeds and James Martin prior to the primary. As teacherken noted, those signs literally went up overnight. I also personally made well over a thousand phone calls to voters throughout the state (with the phone records to prove it) on behalf of Creigh Deeds.
In the end, Creigh Deeds' primary victory in Northern Virginia was accomplished with maybe 10 volunteers, although it felt like we did the work of 100 plus. I'd equate it to a military Special Forces unit, where the attack of 12 men feels like an infantry battalion.
Now that the background is set, here are where things began to go downhill. While I agree what many have said, that campaign decisions and actions (or lack thereof), were Deeds' downfall, a few key decisions regarding staff were critical in that they exacerbated future errors regarding Northern Virginia and communications.
After the primary victory, we were given a few days to "decompress" (or so we were told). After our few days of rest, I was getting a good response from the labor community people, who wanted to get to work immediately to maintain the momentum we'd gained during the primary. Volunteers from both Brian's and Terry's campaign were excited and ready to follow the urging of Brian and Terry to help Creigh. So, I got in touch with "ANON," but she had nothing for me from the new headquarters. I kept inquiring as the days became weeks, but I still had nothing. In the end, I never really got a response from anyone on the campaign to my requests. Given the fact that my local union had donated our Fairfax City office as Deeds' Northern Virginia headquarters, it sure seems like I should have been given some information; hell, a phone call or even an e-mail response would have been nice. But no. Nothing.
As if all that wasn't bad enough, the state party was getting busy pushing people from the primary out the door. For instance, they wanted to demote "ANON" to field organizer and probably reassign her somewhere (to Southside or Southwest). It was nothing more than a way to force her out, because they knew she couldn't accept this transfer. I guess Corey Medina was going to be the state political director and Levar Stoney was going to be the assistant and also in charge of NoVa. Eventually, Corey got axed because he was worthless, and then Levar became Political Director and Joe Montano took over NoVa. Joe did an awesome job by all accounts, and should have been in charge of a lot more than he was. I'll come back to this and the Northern Virginia disaster a bit later.
Now, on to Brooke Borgenhagen, who was the Communications Director for Deeds in the primary, but was fired and replaced by Jared Leopold from thestate party in the general. As far as I understood, Brooke was not guaranteed a job in the coordinated when she took the position with Deeds, but she did an incredible job and did not allow for many of the gaffes that we saw during the general. Brooke did everything expected of her, and she certainly should have been kept on board. Instead, she was let go. I am not sure whether or not this was a major mistake by the campaign to let her go but how many times did Jared stand by during those disastrous interviews with the press following the debates and didn't really do anything. Obviously I am not an expert in the field at all but look at all the problems that allowed Creigh to repeatedly shoot himself in the foot which eventually made for classic GOP commercials. This goes back to whether or not a change in personnel was really beneficial in the end.
What Creigh had during the primary was a small, loyal, and dedicated team of folks who did everything that was asked of them and then some. It's hard for me to believe that during the primary, or even during the general, that Northern Virginia was given its appropriate focus. One field director for the entire area and no other paid staff? That's not enough. In fact, if it were not for organizations and individuals who were with Creigh from the beginning, the campaign would have had no paid staff in Northern Virginia because they were busy reorganizing their staffing and writing off Northern Virginia. Those people who were supporting Creigh (labor and a few individuals) did not want to write off Northern Virginia because anything less than 15% vote share in the primary would have been the death of him and also they believed (correctly) that Northern Virginia was still in play. They had to step up and pay the salary of the Northern Virginia staffer and it turned out to be the best decision they made and proved those in charge of the primary wrong. While we'll never know what would have happened if they pulled out of Northern Virginia I strongly believe that Creigh would have lost and not made up those numbers in other areas of the state.
It was not until the Washington Post's general election endorsement that they decided to refocus on Northern Virginia. Unfortunately, "refocus" didn't mean extra resources, it just meant substantially more work without providing the tools to get the job done. Still, Team Deeds NoVa went into overdrive, worked through the potential disaster of the signs missing the "Paid for and Authorized" disclaimer, still got all the signs out there and made sure that Deeds' rallies had a solid showing of attendees. I know that I don't know very much about politics and everything else the way my colleagues do on the blogs, but I know when things are done right and when you're getting good results, you don't change it. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Instead, they decided to "fix it."
Again, Brooke did an exceptional job as Communications Director during the primary. You may recall that there weren't any significant "misspeaks" like during the general election. Maybe that's because Brooke knew when to essentially "save him" if he was getting into hot water with questions. Jared Leopold, on the other hand, I feel did not bring the goods that were expected of him. As Communications Director, you really need to know when you're making statements that aren't working or lacking a clear message. During the primary, there was a clear message, and I'm just not sure how that failed to continue into the general.
Communications is key, and in my opinion, the change from Brooke to Jared was another reason for Tuesday's debacle. I know that the folks from the statewide party were supposed to be all "high speed" and the "pros" of this job, but I definitely don't think that was the case! I mean, how could they have been "pros" when this campaign was such a trainwreck, one that went into hiding immediately after the primary and then lacked a clear message when it reappeared? Ben Tribbett noted that 25,000 bumper stickers arrived that were again missing the "Paid for and Authorized" insignia. Seriously, I can expect a mistake like that occurring during the primary where they are missing the "experts" or "pros." But during the general when all the loose ends are supposed to have been tied up? Come on. Again, if these people were brought in because they were such "pros," then why did such a simple mistake keep occurring?
Campaign manager Joe Abbey called what we had during the primary a "rag tag army." I take that as a compliment. I mean, think about it -- that "rag tag Army" outperformed the "professional, paid staff during the general election! Don't believe me? Well, then, ask yourself this: which candidate won Fairfax County on Tuesday night? Nope, it wasn't Creigh Deeds. The "rag tag Army" that was essentially kicked to the curb following the primary did something that Deeds' general election staff couldn't do, which was win a reliably Democratic area. The "rag tag Army" was fiercely loyal to Creigh, and even though they didn't have the fancy qualifications that those who were brought in possessed, they got the job done when it was necessary! I am not saying that those who worked on Creigh's campaign in the general weren't loyal, BUT those that were brought in obviously didn't have what it took to get the job done, particularly in Northern Virginia. Let me repeat: WE LOST FAIRFAX COUNTY!!!!! I'm pretty certain that during the primary the strategy was "Don't lose Northern Virginia so bad that we can't win in the rest of the state." Well, they exceeded that during the primary, but for whatever reason it didn't translate the general. Maybe other political experts can go into that.
Finally, as far as the problems with Creigh Deeds and his communications abilities, let me just repeat that the problems we saw during the general weren't experienced during the primary. Nothing changed with Creigh Deeds, who was still the same, "unpolished" speaker from the primary. That leaves the communications team , which is responsible for ensuring the candidate is ready for all questions and issues he might face from reporters and voters. Why the communications team didn't prepare Creigh adequately, I don't know. Unfortunately, during the general, Creigh was allowed to go into interviews with the press without the necessary preparation and basically drown. I don't hold Creigh responsible for this because candidates really rely on their staffers, who are supposed to be the experts in this. Unfortunately, the candidate is the one who gets the blame in the end, but if candidates can't trust who they have working for them, then why are those people in this business at all?
Anyway, I know this is long and probably rambling, but a lot of the problems that occurred during the general with regards to messaging and staffing were really foreshadowed by those two initial staffing decisions coming out of the primary. The campaign simply did not put the right staff in place to win or do what was necessary when the stakes were highest. True, Creigh Deeds did not connect with Northern Virginia voters, but I don't think he was ever given the opportunity to do so by those on his campaign.
In addition, the entire field operations failed miserably with ID'ing voters and getting people motivated about working for the campaign. Frankly, Deeds' numbers would have been substantially worse if it wasn't for the incredible organization and ground efforts of the House of Delegate candidates! There is no excuse for the campaign to still have been attempting to ID voters the day before the election. No excuse! There is no also no excuse why Creigh did not know how to respond to questions more cleanly when pressed or, in the worst case, have one of his "professional" staffers save him. No excuse! While it's not ideal to "save" a candidate from reporters, it is necessary to prevent what happened. The end result: some of the most damaging clips for the GOP to use against Creigh, over and over throughout the general. In contrast, bob McDonnell and Ken Cuccinelli were shielded from reporters at the few occasions relating to the thesis, and also regarding Ken's crazy remarks regarding anti-discrimination.
In the end, the candidate is responsible for his campaign, but I think those with knowledge as to how campaigns work must also bear a substantial share of the blame as well. Candidates have to trust those whose job it is to run and manage campaigns. If not, then they shouldn't be in the business and candidates might as well be running their own races. The lack of message and prep and lack of field operations, especially in Northern Virginia, were without a doubt the two major factors that sunk not only Creigh, but our entire statewide ticket and even many good House candidates. And for all that, there's simply no excuse.
