It’s easy for political pundits and campaign operatives to Wednesday morning quarterback a campaign’s effort. More often than not, this evaluation process means unfair praise for the winners and excessive blame for the losers.

 

That’s why I wanted to take a moment- to recognize the stand-out campaign manager of the cycle.  The best campaign manager doesn’t mean the best campaign.  It doesn’t even mean that you won the race.  The best campaign manager means the person who best executed the X’s and O’s of a ground campaign.

 

The 2008 Primary’s Campaign Manager of the Cycle is Barrett Tetlow.

 

Barrett is an experienced campaign operative, who arguably managed the primary’s best ground effort.  The Larry Dick campaign was always walking precincts and calling voters. They walked every house several times over in an “unwalkable” district and chased them with a phone call.

 

A sign of a good campaign headquarters is what’s on the walls.  There should be an inexplicable mess of maps, post-it notes, flags and pins.  Check out a few photos from the Larry Dick HQ.

 

An effective ground campaign is separate and distinct from the air and ground wars orchestrated by Sacramento consultants.  With an effective ground campaign, a campaign can be competitive, even if they are outspent and out-mailed.

 

Such was the case in the 60^th AD race.  As Jubal explained in a recent post on Red County, the mail has been “at least 3-1 in Hagman’s favor — especially during the crux of VBM balloting.” 

 

You don’t see that many experienced campaign veterans give up a cushy state job to return to the grueling hours and frenetic lifestyle of a campaign.  (Other than Barrett Tetlow, only Jimmy Camp comes to mind.)  In Barrett’s case, he could have easily stayed as District Director to Assemblyman Van Tran. Instead, he chose to work on the Victory 2006 campaign.  He could have stayed with Assemblyman Martin Garrick’s Capitol Office this cycle.  Instead, he chose to sacrifice for the cause.

 

When the first hit piece lands, young managers are half way through a bottle of Tums. Barrett is the model that these young, inexperienced CR-types should aspire towards.

And I think Barrett and Larry Dick both would join me in congratulating Curt Hagman the victor in his successful Primary campaign.  Hagman has been a gracious winner and Orange County welcomes him to the fold.