| Netroots Rising author Nate Wilcox has an interesting interview with Democratic consultant Kelly Fero that I recommend reading. Most of the interview focuses on 2002, when Fero, a long-time ally of John Sharp, witnessed the beginnings of what would become the "Dream Team." The way Fero tells the story makes it seem like the "Dream Team" wasn't so much about electing a full slate of Democrats as it was about electing one man in particular. [Garry] Mauro lost by 19 points at the top of the ticket and the next race down was essentially a tie, showing that Perry wouldn’t have won without Bush’s big coattails. The thinking was in ‘02 who could we get at the top of the ticket who could fix that problem because Sharp wanted to run for Lt. Governor again. So after looking at demographics we thought how bout a well-funded Hispanic. So we thought of Henry Cisneros. I’ll never forget that meeting. After the long pitch, Cisneros looked at Sharp and said, “Sharp, could I win?” and Sharp goes, “No, but I could” only partly tongue in cheek.
Fero is also pretty hard on Tony Sanchez's campaign, who spent $87 million and didn't have much to show for it. ... I got a call from Hidalgo County in the final days before the election saying that the field program that we were hearing about for months amounted to kids standing in medians holding up Sanchez signs. Another person working for the Sanchez campaign told me that the day after the election he tried to return $80,000 in cash to the campaign and they wouldn’t take it. So he bought a new car. In the end the NASA like command and control center turned out to be a typical street money in south Texas operation. We could’ve run a campaign like that for slightly less than $87 million.
Read the entire interview and consider purchasing Netroots Rising. |
