Cristina Garcia for State Assembly: Reformer and Underdog 

The situation: 

Cristina Garcia was a university math professor and a dedicated community activist. When the City of Bell corruption scandal hit, she was propelled into the spotlight by organizing and leading the community group, the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse (BASTA.) She became the organizer and main spokesperson for BASTA. As a result of her efforts, corrupt city officials were expelled and indicted and corrupt council members were recalled and indicted.

After the campaign to clean up Bell, community members pleaded Cristina Garcia to take the mantel of reform to Sacramento and run for State Assembly. She humbly passed and took a long needed vacation. When she returned the people still wanted her to take their Reform message to the State Capitol. This time she said," Yes."  But her challenge would not be easy. She would be facing the favorite son of a local political dynasty and a popular city council member from the district's largest city.

The strategy and tactics:

While Cristina Garcia was our spent 6-1 in her campaign, our campaign spent her money wisely and maximized her advantages. Firstly, we conducted a thorough poll of district voters. The poll revealed that Cristina's "Reform Message" was highly popular and her opponents, in spite of their name high recognition, were not well regarded. In other words, if the campaign could somehow just keep pace in reaching voters her "explosive message," as her pollster observed, would take the day. The strategy was not an easy one but it was a successful one.

Cristina continued to raise money, even as her opponents and their Special Interest friends (I.E.'s) were sending up to six pieces of direct mail a day and running cable T.V. ads for nearly six weeks. She never lost focus. While, Cristina's mail pieces, were not as frequent, they were of a higher quality and they never deviated from message. To the last minute of the campaign, Cristina and her team never lost focus. In the final week of the campaign, they sent hundreds of volunteers to the streets to distribute her campaign literature. She couldn't afford the postage but the message got our anyway. 

The results: 

Perhaps Cristina couldn't afford postage in the last weeks of the campaign but her opponents could never afford to take her lightly–but they did. Other than some last minute hits (that were of course contrived) her opponents spent most of their time rubbing elbows in Sacramento. That while Cristina was busy talking to voters and maximizing her resources. THE RESULTS? Cristina won nearly 42% of the votes among Primary Democrats and went on to a General Election landslide of nearly 75% of the vote. Cristina is in her third year of a twelve-year term.