The Stakeholder
Washington Post - Campaign of the Year Runner Up: New York 23rd District Rep. Bill Owens
The campaign run by Owens, a Democratic businessman, in the 23rd district special election to replace Secretary of the Army John McHugh, was largely overshadowed by the madness surrounding state Assemblywoman Dede Scozzafava and conservative party nominee Doug Hoffman but, in retrospect, it was the best campaign of the three and the second best campaign of the entire year.
Why?
Owens got into a race that was a two-person fight between he and Scozzafava. Halfway through it turned into a three-way battle between he, Scozzafava and Hoffman. By the end of the campaign, it was a two-man fight between Owens and Hoffman.
Through those various iterations, Owens and his campaign team -- media consultants Steve Murphy and Mark Putnam, pollster Jef Pollock and direct mail adviser Ed Peavy -- stayed flexible but consistent, talking about his record of job-creation in the economically depressed district and painting him as the reasonable centrist.
The campaign -- with a major assist from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the White House -- also pulled off a huge coup when they convinced Scozzafava to endorse Owens after she left the race in its final days.
That endorsement helped put Watertown -- Scozzafava's geographic base -- into play and the DCCC's field program (61,000 phone calls, 55,000 door knocks in the final weekend) roared into action. On election day, Owens won Jefferson County, which contains the city of Watertown, 48 percent to 46 percent -- a mirror image of his district-wide win.
Owens' victory made him the first Democrat since the 1850s to represent the western New York district in Congress. A historic win for a very, very good campaign.
