Janet Napolitano for Governor
Automated and Live Persuasion Calls
The Problem
As Janet Napolitano contended with Republican Matt Salmon for the open Governorship of Arizona in 2002, polling showed that in this very tight race one demographic remained uncommitted: single women. Regardless of age or party affiliation, they were largely moveable. It was clear that whoever could capture the support of Arizona's single women would be its next Governor; however, this group was far too large to reach reliably and affordably with conventional campaign tactics.
The Stones' Phones Solution
In order to win Arizona's single women over for Janet Napolitano, Stone's Phones designed a multi-phased phone program that would quickly identify and target moveable single women. We used a preliminary round of live ID calls to all the single women in the state to identify who they supported for Governor. Those who supported Janet were put on the list for the GOTV phase of the program and those who supported Salmon were dropped from the program. Those who indicated they were undecided were then targeted with rounds of persuasion calls and direct mail. Both the undecideds and those already in support of Janet received GOTV calls on and before Election Day.
The Result
With this targeted phone program, Janet Napolitano garnered the votes of 57% of Arizona women. The tightly contested race went into days of recounts before Janet was declared the winner. It was clear her strong support from single women helped her carry the day.