On an otherwise horrific night for Democrats, The Mellman Group is proud to have played a pivotal role in helping secure crucial victories for Senator Harry Reid, Senator Barbara Boxer, Senatorelect Joe Manchin, Governor Pat Quinn and Mayor?elect Jim Gray, among others. In putting together this string of victories on an otherwise dismal night, The Mellman Group beat 100 to 1 odds, as computed from New York Times assessments.
As CEO Mark Mellman put it, “Some rode the wave, while others were washed away by it. We’re thrilled that most of our clients proved strong enough to prevail against it.”
In Nevada, scores of polls and pundits declared Majority Leader Harry Reid politically dead. Reid was kind enough to tell the press The Mellman Group was “the best pollster in the country,” in part because ours was the only polling that showed Reid leading and nailed the final result on the head.
Perhaps more important, as part of one of the best campaign teams ever assembled-including manager Brandon Hall, the vaguely titled, but centrally important Rebecca Lambe, media consultant Jim Margolis, Reid deputy David Krone and direct mail maven Mike Muir-we crafted a strategy, based on the research, that helped secure a victory others judged nearly impossible. Working for Harry Reid, a principled and productive Leader, in the single most important race of the year, has been one of our firm’s greatest privileges.
The Mellman Group has been honored to work for Senator Barbara Boxer and with her outstanding campaign manager Rose Kapolczynski, the aforementioned advertising virtuoso, Jim Margolis, along with Mark Armour, since the Senator’s first race. This cycle, sensing vulnerability, outside interests poured millions into defeating Boxer while some polls erroneously called the race a dead heat. Once again though The Mellman Group’s surveys proved precise and accurate, while providing the foundation on which our team plotted a strategy that brought about a well deserved, 9?point victory.
Our work for Senator?elect Manchin was part of the DSCC’s independent expenditure program where we were privileged to work with IE Director Brian Smoot and top flight media consultants Dixon/Davis.
Despite joining the Quinn campaign for Governor of Illinois late in the cycle when he was far behind, and New York Times prognosticators gave him just a 9% chance of victory, we worked with a wonderful team that included campaign manager Ben Nuckels and media maestro Joe Slade White to craft a winning strategy for the initially unelected incumbent.
The Mellman Group is also thrilled to have helped secure victory in eight Congressional races, including bouts for Leader Steny Hoyer (MD?5), Congressman John Barrow (GA?12), Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (NV?1), Congressman Ben Chandler (KY?6), Congresswoman Jane Harman (CA?36), Congressman Dale Kildee (MI?5), Congressman Jim Langevin (RI?2), and Congressman Sander Levin (MI?12).
We take special pride in having worked with distinguished father and son consultants Jamie and Dale Emmons and leading media light Doc Sweitzer to help elect Lexington Kentucky’s first openly gay Mayor, Jim Gray, by defeating the incumbent.
The Mellman Group emerges from this most difficult cycle not only with an enhanced reputation for both accurate results and winning strategies, but also with two firm records still intact: we have never lost an incumbent re?election for Governor or Senate and we have helped pick up a Republican seat in every election cycle we have been in business.