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.

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.