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Lessons from a 2011 NY-09 Congressional Election and today's TN-07 Special. The eyes of much of the political class — in D.C., among the media, and nationwide — are focused on Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District special election today, and as is often the case, everyone will try to spin and interpret the results of an off year special election toward next year’s midterms.   My home in Tennessee is in the 5 th  District next door, but I am close enough to see all the ads, a

Of the 34 ballot measures in the pipeline in California for 2026, here’s the real players. It’s late November in an off year, and for followers of ballot measure politics in the premier direct democracy state – California – that can mean only one thing. All eyes turn to the Attorney General  and Secretary of State  ballot measure tracking pages to see how the landscape is shaping up next year’s elections.   The pipeline of measures working through the process reveals some of

Both conservative and progressive states have worked to undermine direct democracy when it has suited their purposes. It breeds cynicism with the electorate who jealously protect their power. For more than a century, direct democracy has served as a pressure valve in American politics — a way for citizens to act when elected officials refuse to. From California’s Progressive Era reforms to modern-day citizen petitions in Arizona, Maine, and Ohio, the ballot measure process ha

There's been a lot of great analysis of the lessons learned from the 2025 off-year elections. With a week to digest them, here's our practical takes. As always, our commentary is not for punditry purposes, but real lessons from that can be applied to future public affairs and political campaigns. Voters across the country weighed in last week, and the signal is clearer than the noise . Democrats performed strongly in an off-year following a Republican presidential win — no bi

HexaCom Group Wins Another Tough Minimum Wage Issue on a Shoestring Budget by Efficiently Amplifying the Local Voices Opposed to the Proposal Olympia voters rejected Proposition 1 — the “Workers’ Bill of Rights” — in the November 4 election, by a fairly comfortable 45% Yes to 55% No margin . Our firm was proud to help to local coalition defeat this — on its face — well-meaning measure that would have had severe consequences for the community. The result tracks with what we’ve

Turn scattered advocacy into real results. A clear, data-smart playbook for policy influence — research, messaging, coalitions, and long-term leverage. Introduction In today’s fast-moving policy world, good intentions don’t move votes — disciplined strategy does. The difference between noise and impact is a plan that tells you what to do, when to do it, and who needs to hear it. This post lays out a practical approach to policy influence that turns challenges into opportuniti

It’s Election Day in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City, California, and several other states a localities across the nation. There’s lots of good content out there on what to watch for to draw conclusions from the results tonight and what they may foretell for the 2026 elections. Here’s my take:   California Prop 50 – Not much to see here. Prop 50 will likely get 60% or more, as we’ve reported for a few weeks. Might be interesting to see how the results track again Newsom’

Staying on top of the latest campaign tech also means staying on top of the latest laws governing that tech. A recent episode of Eric Wilson’s indispensable “Campaign Trends” podcast highlighted this reminder to us on a current ballot measure campaign. Case in point, we’re on the ballot tomorrow in a state that we haven’t worked in for almost a decade, and Eric’s discussion a few weeks back triggered a reminder that we have the burden for ourselves and on behalf of our clien

And the Implications for Political and Public Affairs Campaigns   When only 20% of Americans still believe in the American Dream – as a recent Wall Street Journal  poll reports  – we should treat that not as another interesting data point, but as an alarm bell for the republic. Because belief in the American Dream isn’t just about optimism, it’s the cultural operating system that has powered this country for more than two centuries. And when faith in it fades, nearly everythi

Control of the House of Representatives, Donald Trump’s Presidency, and Gavin Newsom’s Nascent White House Aspirations Are the Many...

“AOC” vs. “The Governator” in a Battle of Competing Strategies In the titanic Prop 50 campaign in California (Would suspend the Citizens...

Between a busy travel week last week, and events having my mind on other things, I have not been able to turn back to our blog series on...

Execution Is Not Easy – But It Should Feel Obvious   It’s not quite right to say that the Execution Phase  of a campaign is the easy...

How we helped stop a Steamboat Springs Vacancy Tax before it ever reached the ballot   “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy...

Six weeks. That’s all we had from first polling numbers to Election Day — and only 12 days from polling to the start of voting. In the...

Research to Strategy: How Campaigns are Won In our last post in this series , we explored how deep research gave us a great deal to test...

Universal Basic Income? AI use taxes? Some in Silicon Valley are bracing for mass human obsolescence. But NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang — and...

And Why They Matter in All Political and Public Affairs Campaigns Last night’s Democratic primary for New York City Mayor signal both...

This article on Axios today  is very consistent with what I have been saying and thinking about the impact of AI, especially in my case,...

Over the last several weeks, we’ve reviewed the six phases of a HexaCom Group campaign, our approach to each, and how they work together...