Winning Connections won three awards in the live call category last month at the first annual Reed Awards, presented by Politics Magazine and MC’ed by journalist Matt Cooper, of Libby leak fame. With more than 50 firms participating, Winning Connections won all the awards offered in the live call category. Our winning clients included the League of Conservation Voters, the Froehlich for State Representative campaign, and the Mike Skelly for Congress campaign.
Last fall, we held TeleForum events for the Sierra Club and T. Boone Pickens, who reached environmental voters for interactive discussions about hot issues like drilling and economic packages. We are working with Congressmen like Mark Schauer, Jesse Jackson Jr., and Martin Heinrich, who are reaching thousands of constituents through Teleforums and other franking programs. In fact, just last week Congressman Schauer spoke with over a thousand concerned voters about the stimulus package and what it would do for Michigan.
Look in February’s issue of Politics Magazine for an article penned by Winning Connections’ own Mark Kanarick and Ari Appel on the We Are America Alliance’s successful Latino turnout operation. The firm worked closely with WAAA staff and consultants to motivate and turnout low-propensity Latino voters. We used innovative phone tactics and integrated phones with media, mail and canvassing to engage and empower Latinos. The result: Latinos became a decisive voting bloc in 2008 and their influence will be felt for many elections to come.
After the Senate version of the stimulus package eliminated vital funding for education, the American Federation of Teachers needed to fight for their cause. They contacted Winning Connections and set up a patch through program to convince Republican Senators Snowe, Collins, and Specter to support the conference version of the bill that provided more money for teachers, school construction, and early childhood education. Winning Connections patched through hundreds of calls from concerned members and constituents, and convinced all three senators to support the bill.
Looking to the long health-care battle ahead, we have set up a legislative hotline for the National Community Pharmacists Association that connects their members and customers to important information and offices to advocate for issues that impact their daily lives.
We are thrilled to welcome Aimee Tavares to the Winning Connections crew. Aimee will be the Vice President of Grassroots Advocacy, and comes to us with over a decade of issue advocacy and political campaign experience.
She started her career as a door-to-door canvasser for Clean Water Action and went on to become the organization’s RI State Director. Aimee has served as Deputy Political Director at the Sierra Club, National Field Director for Wal-Mart Watch and Campaign Manager at Public Campaign. Welcome aboard Aimee!