Sessoms’ strategist debunks “flyergate”
Brenda Haegley, volunteer coordinator for the Will Sessoms’ for Mayor race, guest posts today about the flyer handed out on Election Day in which Mayor-elect Sessoms and President-elect Obama appear together:
Scheduling volunteers as poll workers to cover most of Virginia Beach is no easy task. I know because I was in charge of this job for the Sessoms campaign.
Exactly 164 friends and family worked the polls for Will Sessoms, many of these people worked all day. Great consideration went into scheduling & the experience the team brought to the table was invaluable. In my opinion it was the dedication of Will’s friends and family that influenced this race. Having a well known, well liked community leader asking voters to “vote for my friend Will,” “vote for my brother,” vote for my Dad” in a local race is relevant.
Here is what I know:
I saw & helped assemble the materials that went to the polling sites. The election day materials were placed in brown grocery bags w/ a sessoms sticker on the outside and the name & address of the polling site. Inside each bag: campaign authorized sample ballots w/ the Va Pilot endorsement, Sessoms stickers for the poll workers to wear, a list of election day “do’s and don’ts” rules from the SBE & my contact info if anyone needed anything.
I worked 15 hours election day driving all over, managing the volunteers, filling in for poll workers as needed. Never once did I see “the flyer,” I still have yet to see one in person.
The campaign felt strong about poll workers only representing Will & they were instructed on this. Many people asked us to pass out material for other candidates. Will has supporters on both sides of the aisle and these requests came from both R & D races. Our position stayed consistent and poll workers were asked to only pass out our material & only represent Sessoms.
Most importantly, I know Will. He would not have approved this flyer. Will stated repeatedly he would rather loose the race than go negative & the expectation was that everyone on the team was to run an honest, clean race.
One of Sessoms closest friends is Doug McCain. Sessoms repeatedly publicly endorsed McCain (even at the democratic breakfast when asked about it).
The flyers were rogue. I first learned of their existence on election day when a poll worker called to say that there was someone passing out material with a picture of Sessoms/Obama on it. Meyera supporters were upset, yelling at the person passing them out, as well as questioning my “official” Sessoms worker. This was creating tension. I was concerned feeling it was undermining our campaign efforts. The second call I received was from RPVB saying they wanted me to know about a flyer someone brought in linking Sessoms with Obama & complained about it.
At that point I called all the precinct captains to make them aware of the flyer and to remind/instruct all the volunteers that we were only to pass out our materials & they could verify this with the paid for by Will Sessoms clearly stated.
Using the very same precincts as Vivian Paige (in attempt to connect the flyers influencing the race) – I have compared the Glenn Davis / Reba McClannan race to the Sessoms/Oberndorf race. They have more in common than Wilson (incumbent) & Sessoms. Both Davis & Sessoms are white males, republicans, successful businessmen, and both were running for seats that were filled by women for decades.
| Precinct | Sessoms | Oberndorf | Moss | Taylor | Davis | McClannan |
| Seatack | 722 | 699 | 325 | 239 | 799 | 523 |
| Plaza | 734 | 674 | 332 | 294 | 854 | 801 |
| Old Donation | 722 | 699 | 325 | 239 | 859 | 742 |
| Oceana | 437 | 330 | 148 | 151 | 467 | 272 |
| Shell | 651 | 649 | 281 | 120 | 777 | 556 |
| Dahlia | 958 | 884 | 326 | 241 | 1,161 | 749 |
| Village | 561 | 507 | 236 | 163 | 680 | 461 |
| Pl. Hall | 583 | 547 | 227 | 143 | 725 | 485 |
| Lexington | 582 | 539 | 187 | 154 | 626 | 494 |
Glenn Davis won without a photoshop image of himself with Obama. And not only did Glenn Davis win these precincts as Will Sessoms did, Glenn Davis won every “democratic precinct” except for Cromwell. My analysis, the flyers had no impact. Sessoms would have done better in these precincts if there were not 2 other spoiler candidates running.
Besides Sessoms being highly qualified for the job – here are a few other
factors that impacted the race:
Sessoms worked harder for a longer period of time than anyone else in the mayoral race.
For over a year Will Sessoms was working on grassroots outreach. Meeting with community leaders and building a rapport within communities city wide. ie: Months prior to the election if you drove through the Lake Edward area you would have noticed Sessoms yard signs all over. Why? Because Sessoms built relationships within the community for the past year.
Although there was a huge Obama wave hitting the nation, Virginia Beach leans Republican.
Sessoms, as Obama, received very positive press. (As did Glenn Davis)
Besides a few calls on the flyers & calls regarding a few people showing up late to their polls, Election Day ran very smoothly. I had more phone calls from people saying they had additional time & “would you like me to go somewhere else?” People showed up and worked hard on behalf of their friend and someone they believe in. If credit is given for influencing an outcome due to Election Day activity it should be given to them, not some random rogue flyer.
Category: Campaigns and Elections
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I looked at the Glenn Davis numbers. Glenn Davis won almost everywhere in the whole city. That’s why I didn’t use his race as a control total. His opponent barely campaigned. Yes, both Davis and Sessoms are white male Republicans businessmen running against women. But the comparison ends there.
That’s right, Vivian. Only use the information you like. Ignore information that disproves your view. Good reporting!
I worked for Sessoms. Sessoms is a great guy. He had many hard-working dedicated volunteers. Therefore, he wasn’t behind these fliers.
Plus if you compare Sessoms’ race to that of another white Republican businessman, you’ll see the flier had no impact on the race outcome.
Wow! Brilliant argument there.
I also noticed that these precincts, like many others, perfectly matched the Virginian-Pilot’s endorsements for Mayor and City Council.
The Pilot endorsed Glenn Nye for Congress, Mark Warner for Senate, Sessoms for Mayor, Wilson for Council, Glenn Davis for Council.
Do Vivian and Eileen think the Pilot endorsements were due to the flier too?
No mention of the paid consultant saying someone gave him a box of the fliers…no mention of how those flier got into the hands of poll workers in black precincts, and comparing an election of two white males to two white females means absolutely nothing, except everything because apparently that is all that matters when forging a good comparison…
Sessoms got a huge chunk of money from special interests, this flier was apparently designed and distributed by paid campaign workers/consultants. I am not saying Sessoms knew about it or ordered it, but someone working on his behalf surely did. Guilt by association is more than applicable when it comes to an election and running a city.
Even if it did not sway peoples votes, which judging by your standards it should have (you compare two white guys and two white girls and said a correlation begets a fact…), it still is a crime because they were not stamped with a “paid for by” and they were clearly partisan and designed to influence peoples votes by less than intellectual means.
Sessoms would have won with or without those flyers, this is true, so why did someone in his campaign feel the need to create them and pass them out? If your volunteers were all so stoked on Sessoms you would think they would have refused to give the fliers out like one worker was reported to have done…I am referring to the ones who drove the fliers to campaign workers to hand them out, not so much the actual people who handed them out. There were clearly numerous people who had to have had these fliers in their possession in order to account for the pattern of distribution. Where were these people saying no this is wrong and illegal?
Max, the only thing illegal about the fliers was the missing disclaimer. I doubt most election day campaign workers or volunteers are so knowledgeable about campaign advertising law to say “Wow, this flier doesn’t have ‘paid for and authorized by” in tiny print.”
Well Mrs. Haegley said she instructed all of her volunteers to check for that and then after hearing about the flier reminded them again. I also think they were illegal because it brought partisanship into a non-partisan election.
“Inside each bag: campaign authorized sample ballots w/ the Va Pilot endorsement, Sessoms stickers for the poll workers to wear, a list of election day “do’s and don’ts” rules from the SBE & my contact info if anyone needed anything.”
“At that point I called all the precinct captains to make them aware of the flyer and to remind/instruct all the volunteers that we were only to pass out our materials & they could verify this with the paid for by Will Sessoms clearly stated.”
Max, where’s the law about partisanship? All “non-partisan election” means is that the parties don’t nominate candidates.
Brian,
And yeah, the Republicans then ended up with three candidates instead of only one. I guess the other two siphoned off some votes.
I was actually going to mention that in my 2nd post, I know the campaigns are supposed to be non-partisan, whether or not there is an actual city ordinance saying portraying a candidate with a partisan candidate is a crime is something I am not sure about. I remember reading about there being an actual law somewhere, but I cannot remember exactly where. I will look it up later.
Perhaps then you should be more careful about accusing people of illegality.
Hahahahaha, that really made me laugh. So there is a law saying the elections are supposed to be non-partisan and there is a flier portraying a candidate in a non-partisan election with a partisan candidate. The flier does not follow the law, the flier breaks the law, things against the law are illegal. Just because something is illegal does not necessarily mean there is a well defined punishment for the illegal action. This is a gray area that is huge when it comes to published regulations and not actual ordinances.
Max, there’s this little thing called “the first amendment.” You might read about it sometime.
Wrong again, Brian. If Sessoms and Davis are so much alike, how is it that Sessoms lost in about 75% of the precincts in the city while Davis won in about 90% of them?
Easily explained. I worked for Glenn Davis and not for Sessoms.