Political strategist Chris Sinclair whines in the New York Times about why his candidate lost the election for mayor of Raleigh. Apparently, it was the secret army of zombie Obama supporters that made the difference in Nancy McFarlane being elected mayor, not that Ms. McFarlane was the better candidate.
Having worked a bit with McFarlane’s campaign, I can say that if there were thousands of Obama supporters helping to get her elected, I sure never saw ’em. All I saw was the typical municipal campaign’s half-dozen volunteers out canvassing on any given Saturday. Even so, if Republicans want to believe that a ragtag group of campaign volunteers performed like an army, … well, who am I to dissuade them?
I’m surprised the Gray Lady would reprint Wake GOP Chair Susan Bryant’s crazy ramblings without checking the facts.
“It was very scary,” said Chris Sinclair, a strategist for Billie Redmond, the Republican candidate for mayor in Raleigh. “You don’t know what’s going on until you wake up after Election Day and go, ‘Oh my gosh, what happened?’ ”
What happened was that candidates supported by Democrats trounced Republicans in the Raleigh and Charlotte mayoral races this fall, and even wrested control of the Wake County school board from Republicans associated with the Tea Party.
It was only after the damage was done that local party leaders learned of the hidden hand of thousands of Obama for America volunteers and staff members. Never publicizing their work, they went door-to-door across the state, successfully getting their voters out to the polls in a highly effective dry run for 2012.