Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA)

Political Context

As the 2008 Senate races heated up, only one incumbent Democrat was considered to be in danger – Sen. Mary Landrieu in Louisiana. Having won two elections by the slimmest of margins – a runoff each time – and running against a Karl Rove-picked opponent in a state where the Democratic presidential ticket was going to lose, there was no room for error.

Strategy

Conventional wisdom dictated an early and negative start – our opponent had big potential but was not well known, so the theory – pushed by the DSCC – was go negative first, in part because early media was not working well in other states. We had a different take. We knew in past races Sen. Landrieu had never made her case. This time, she had a record of real accomplishment. So we ran an opening :60 that positioned her as a moderate, effective senator and had third party verification of it. The spot dramatically moved her numbers and defined the race on a dimension that disqualified our opponent. And once he went on the air, we struck back, never letting him define himself.

Outcome

Senator Landrieu went on to win by her biggest margin ever and avoided a runoff for the first time.