Taking back America one race at a time
Knowing that the Republican Party would launch an enormous attack campaign in the two weeks before the election, Condon and her campaign team designed an ambitious field plan that would build a strong foundation of support in May and June in order to withstand the onslaught. The team also developed a volunteer-powered absentee ballot program to make up for the fact that many voters would be vacationing on Election Day.
On July 5th, the barrage began. Because Colleen's opponent had no legs to run on, the Republicans brought in party heavyweights state Senator Pro Tem Glenn McConnell (who not only lives in Colleen's district, but her home precinct), and former Governor James Edwards to serve as Douan's campaign co-chairmen.
Senator McConnell led the charge by sending out two blistering mail pieces, one in which he personally attacked the "Democrats and the liberal interest groups, like Howard Dean's radical Democracy for America, who want to control Charleston County Government."
For the next 14 days the Republican Party jammed voters' mail boxes and flooded their phone lines with negative messages about Colleen, trying to scare citizens into believing that "Howard Dean was trying to pick your next County Council member". The attacks reached a new low when the Charleston County Republican Party sent out a mailing claiming "Colleen Condon & Howard Dean are Too Extreme for Charleston County". The mailing not only attacked Colleen and Governor Dean, but it even targeted Condon's campaign manager Kevin Puleo—abeling him as a "national DFA spin doctor", despite the fact that he had never managed a political campaign before.
Colleen stood her ground, and when the Post & Courier asked about her DFA-List endorsement, she made it clear that she was "proud to receive DFA's endorsement, because they support grassroots campaigns and candidates that are fiscally responsible." During the last week, the South Carolina GOP sent out several e-mails to their supporters throughout the state encouraging them to travel to Charleston to counter the "radical liberal Deaniacs who would be screaming their way to Charleston" the weekend before the election. Clearly, the Republicans were concerned.
On Election Day, Colleen's campaign orchestrated one of the largest volunteer efforts ever seen in a South Carolina County Council election. They staffed every polling place with a lawyer and a checker, and had over thirty people making calls to voters in addition to 22 people out knocking on doors to deliver reminders. Sensing the looming defeat, the desperate Republicans attempted to challenge every voter who lived at Plantation Apartments, the same people who were disenfranchised in the January 11 special election. Tempers flared at the polling place as the Republican lawyers filed their baseless challenges in an attempt to intimidate voters. Refusing to be bullied, Condon's team of poll watchers fiercely protested the challenges and when the dust settled, a Republican lawyer was thrown out of the polling place for disrupting the democratic process. ...more
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