Intellectual Property Law

The Brain behind Obama's surge in Texas

By Siva Vaidhyanathan

Ok. So Clinton barely held on to a lead in Texas despite having nearly a double-digit lead just a month ago. Those are the breaks.

But how did Obama catch up so fast and come close to clinching on Tuesday? Joe Cutbirth explains:

Obama's Texas Strategy: and the Generational Hispanic Campaign

Buzz up!

Listen up friends. If you're interested in the future of Democratic campaigns in this country, there's a name you need to know. It's James Aldrete of Austin, Texas.

Write it down. Stamp it. Earmark it, and commit it to memory.

If tracking polls hold, Barack Obama should clench the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday by carrying the popular vote in Texas. And if that happens, it's going to be largely due to the media campaign and placement strategy crafted for him by Aldrete, 41, the most talented political ad man of his generation in Texas.

I've spoke to Aldrete last week for the first time in more than a decade. I met him in 1996, when I was communications director for the Texas Democratic Party and was handling media for the Clinton-Gore/Texas Democratic Party coordinated campaign. He's a gentleman and a class act. He's also young enough -- at least at heart -- to be professionally hungry and ready to move to the really, really big leagues.

"It has taken everything that has happened to this point for him to be in this place," said Aldrete, characteristically humble when I suggested that his work could seal the nomination for Obama.

Aldrete offered the usual line about going after every vote, but there clearly was something prescient in the way he talked about a special block that could be the key to Obama's success and the rebirth of the Texas Democratic Party: young urban minority (black and Hispanic) voters.

"There's a lot of chicken bone analysis right now trying to figure out what group will be what percent of the vote," Aldrete said, acknowledging that Clinton has an "institutional advantage" with Hispanic voters who live in the border region that stretches from El Paso through Laredo into South Texas and the Rio Grade Valley. ...

Disclosure: James Aldrete and I are old and dear friends from college days at THE University of Texas. You go, James!

Full post as published by SIVACRACY .NET on March 05, 2008 (boomark / email).