One of the first elections for Trey Ourso’s political consulting firm was also one of their biggest upsets: a narrow victory by current Monroe mayor Jamie Mayo over a better-known incumbent.
“He was outspent, and nobody gave him a shot,” Ourso says. “He just wasn’t supposed to win.”
When the opponent has more money, it becomes even more important to target your message to likely, and persuadable, voters, and repeating that message until you’re sure it sinks in.
“Yard signs and billboards just don’t win elections anymore,” he says. “We’ve always thought our clients can get more return on their money.”
Ourso Beychok Johnson specializes in direct mail, and it generally likes to send five or more pieces to a given target group. Whether those pieces extol the virtues of your candidate, slam the other guy or mix both approaches varies depending on the race.
“More often than not, when you’re a challenger and you’re running against an incumbent, the race hinges on the incumbent,” Ourso says. “You’re asking the voters to fire somebody, so you have to give them just cause.”
There can be a fine line between tough and nasty in politics, but there are no hard and fast rules as to where that line is.
“Unfortunately, in our business there’s really not a textbook or a manual to say, ‘This is going to work’ or, ‘This is not going to work,’” he says. “I think most of it just comes from experience and feel, the tenor of the campaign, and the community in which you’ve sent it. Some communities are a little more tolerant of rough-and-tumble politics than others.”
Ourso says negative campaigning is virtually nonexistent in Maine, while Louisiana and Georgia [for example] are more tolerant. He says his firm tries to stay away from personal attacks and focus on the candidate’s public record, and says a little humor helps the attack go down.
“It’s probably more fun, and it’s easier to be creative on the negative pieces,” he says. “If it didn’t work, we wouldn’t use it.”
Age: 38
If you could have any job other than your own, what would it be?
“I always joked that if I ever took a job in government, it would be warden of Angola, because they have 18,000 acres of some of the best hunting and fishing in Louisiana, but I really just can’t imagine doing anything else. I thoroughly enjoy what I do.”
Click here for the complete list of 2008's Forty Under 40 winners.
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