It seems like only yesterday that we wrapped up on the mid-term elections that left us road weary, but ready to rumble. Here we are, a year later, and what a rumble it has been. The results of the November 8 elections in Ohio, Kentucky, Maine, Arizona, and Mississippi have reinvigorated progressives, Democrats and everyone in our firm. We’re already getting pumped up for 2012!

In this election cycle, grassroots solutions is proud to have worked with a historic coalition in Ohio to repeal a controversial anti-union law that could have sounded the death knell for collective bargaining rights as we know them. And we proved that Democrats can win big, even in Kentucky and even in an off-year, as we helped re-elect Governor Beshear and drive wins in five out of six statewide races there.

Ohio Voters Reject Controversial Anti-Union Law

On Election Day, the people of Ohio overwhelmingly repealed a regressive law that would have set a dangerous precedent for collective bargaining rights and protections for working families. In a stunning reversal, a whopping 61.4% of voters cast their ballots to repeal Senate Bill 5, the bill that Republican Governor Kasich and the GOP-controlled legislature had passed in March of this year. Five months of intensive effort later, in late July, 1.3 million signatures had been gathered to get the repeal on the ballot, and the push to educate voters and get out the vote was on.

Shortly after Governor Kasich signed the anti-bargaining bill into law, grassroots solutions began working with We Are Ohio, a bipartisan coalition of public and private sector employees, faith based organizations, student groups, and existing activist networks, to build the grassroots movement that got the issue on the ballot and fueled last week’s victory. grassroots solutions helped this diverse coalition assure victory as we:

• Designed and oversaw the systems for a mass-scale and highly disciplined signature gathering process that resulted in the largest number of signatures ever collected to qualify a ballot initiative in Ohio.
• Trained thousands of volunteer trainers and activists that ultimately collected over 1.3 million petition signatures.
• Supported the incredible team of political and union organizers that recruited and trained the volunteer army that knocked on over 850,000 doors and made over 2.6 million phone calls to voters to share We Are Ohio’s message and urge them to make their votes count.
• Advised the allied communities program on how to carry the campaign’s message during the persuasion, early vote and Get-Out-The-Vote phases of the statewide campaign.

In addition to these impressive volunteer efforts, grassroots solutions brought its hard-wired canvassing expertise to the campaign’s sprawling task of administering four large paid canvass operations throughout the state. And, as the icing on the cake, we partnered with the campaign on the development of a new, very cool web-based voter contact tool – one that even our most difficult-to-impress field warriors believe could significantly change the way the game is played (ssshhh … stay tuned here for more details in the new year).

grassroots solutions is proud to have been part of the We Are Ohio campaign and salutes the thousands of partners and volunteers who stood up for good jobs and strong communities. Despite a flood of outside money to stop a citizen’s veto, voters in the Buckeye state mobilized in historic numbers to help halt the assault on workers’ rights that began in Wisconsin.

Big Wins for Kentucky Democrats

Proving that Democrats can win big anywhere, even in Kentucky, Governor Beshear earned a second term last Tuesday with a resounding 56% to 35% victory. The Beshear / Abramson team ran an excellent campaign all year long, and their Republican opposition was unable to eat into their lead.

To take advantage of their lead and leverage it down the ballot on Election Day, the Beshear / Abramson campaign turned to grassroots solutions’ expert field strategists. Our team went to ground and worked with the campaign to build a field program that focused on persuading swing voters and driving turnout—not only for Governor Beshear and Lieutenant Governor Abramson, but also for the down-ballot statewide candidates for secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer, auditor, and agriculture commissioner.

In June, grassroots solutions launched the campaign’s swing voter strategy, first identifying the target universe of swing voters in the state, and then designing and running a persuasion campaign in the critical northern Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati. Aided by a predictive dialer phone bank, our canvass teams made 65,000 calls in three northern Kentucky counties to identify swing voters planning to vote for the Beshear ticket, and knocked on over 136,000 doors to motivate those supporters to get to the polls.

As Election Day neared, the campaign opened up a base motivation program in Louisville to help turn out a cache of voters to support the entire ticket. In the three weeks leading up to Election Day, the grassroots solutions team knocked on 51,000 voters’ doors that needed an extra touch to get them to the polls in an odd-year election.

The Governor’s commitment to the Democratic ticket paid off, with victories in five out of six of those down-ballot races and an impressive margin of victory in the Governor’s race—all the more notable in a state that John McCain won in 2008 with 58% of the vote. Congratulations on the turnaround, Kentucky. Onward!