A New Opportunity
I just couldn’t turn down Warren Tompkins and Terry Sullivan in 2005 when they asked me to help them grow their new political consulting firm, now called First Tuesday Strategies.
After a lot of prayer and consideration, I have decided that a new opportunity has arisen that I just can’t turn down. Senator Harvey Peeler has asked me to officially join the South Carolina Senate Republican Caucus. I will handle media relations, policy development, and I’ll implement a new level of Internet activity. I’m very excited because I’ll be allowed to experiment with new media in a way that no other legislative caucus in the nation is doing.
I’ve enjoyed every second, even the stressful ones, while working with Warren and Terry. They have served as my mentors and taught me more than I ever thought possible. However, it’s time to move on to new things. I’m one of those guys who always wants to be learning and building on my experiences. I enjoyed leading the Caucus’ political efforts this year. I know that officially joining the Caucus will give me the behind the scenes legislative experience I need to be the political operative I want to be.
So that’s that. I’ll keep you updated on how it’s going right here.
Being a self-promoting first class tool
Yesterday someone posted this comment on Adam Fogle’s blog:
I really like Andre, but Wes is a first class tool.
His reality TV style blog/website reads like a self-written gossip rag. His ego and self-promotion do his candidates more harm than good.
I wanted to start a personal blog for a good while, but always struggled with the question – will some people see me as a self-promoter?
I quickly came to the answer, which is No. SOME people won’t see me as a self-promoter. ALL people will see me as a self-promoter. I also came to the conclusion that I’m cool with that.
Self-promoting is no different than advertising and advertising is very often the key to success for entrepreneurs.
I’m not just a political operative. I’m also an entrepreneur who is working around the clock to make Under The Power Lines a successful web company. I’m having a blast helping candidates and legislators move toward their communications efforts online. I’m loving it and better yet…I’m really good at it.
At the same time, there are a lot of things I suck at. I can’t fix my car when it breaks down. I can’t build anything. I’m not the best looking dude at the bar. I’m also terrified of planes, snakes, and the dentist. My ego isn’t big. I just know what I’m good at and I know what I suck at.
I also realized that it’s really really stupid of me to push candidates to communicate on the web but fail to do it myself. Entrepreneurs and candidates should communicate online for the same exact reason – that’s where their audience is. Voters and consumers are the same people and they are starting to get the majority of their information online.
With all that said, I am a tool at times. I don’t consider myself a self-promoter. I consider myself an Under The Power Lines promoter. And if you would like to move online, give me a buzz.
A day in the life of a political operative during campaign season
When I launched this blog I told you that I would tell you about the life of a political operative. Well folks, here is the exciting truth.
Today I woke up at 5:30 AM to knock out Political Net News.
I got to the office around 7:30 AM, wrote 2 press releases and 3 mail pieces before anyone else in the building showed up.
I had my first of 4 conference calls at 9:15 and got cursed out by 10:30. That’s actually pretty surprising because I usually get cursed out way before then.
I returned phone calls and emails until eleven, ran to a quick meeting at Starbucks, and then ran home around noon (a mile and a half from the office) for a quick bowl of yogurt and granola. Unfortunately we were out of berries, but I did get a nice fresh peach. I like the hard ones.
Back to the office by 12:40 for another conference call on some polling information. I updated PNN again, reviewed two draft mailers, wrote one more mailer, and then wrote a blast email before heading out to my second meeting at Starbucks. Completely jacked up on caffeine from my second Starbucks coffee and fourth for the day, I went to the gym around 4:00. I ran three miles, pumped iron for 20 minutes, and got back to the office at 5:30.
I stayed at the office until 7:30 when I came home to find some awesome soft-shelled tacos Elizabeth cooked for me before she headed out to Jr. League. I ate my tacos, drank one vodka tonic, and returned about 15 emails until Elizabeth got home at 8:20. We watched last night’s episode of Heroes and then I returned some phone calls. It’s now 10:10 and I have about another hour of work to do before heading to bed so that I can get back up at 5:30 AM to updated PNN for you. I might even drink another vodka tonic. Who knows. It may get a little crazy around here.
All that and I still had time to update Twitter seven…make that eight times.
Seriously though, I love this time of the year. It’s what I live for. Bring on campaign season because it’s what I wait for the entire year. Some people wait for the fair and elephant ears. I wait for campaign season and getting pumped. That and football season. BRING IT!
Shameless Self Promotion
Hello. Welcome to wesleydonehue.com, a new site dedicated to absolute shameless self-promotion.
Afterall, if I’m not going to promote myself, who will?
- I’m a southern political operative who has run, worked on, or advised countless winning campaigns;
- I have an addiction to the Internet, Starbucks, and chips and salsa;
- I co-own a political internet strategy and marketing company;
- I like to have fun, think creatively, and win races;
- I love boiled peanuts, campaign strategy, the Internet, campaign strategy and the Internet, tacos, Folly Beach, fried southern food, my wife, and all sorts of other things you will learn about on this blog.
This new site will showcase a host of cool stuff. I’m addicted to Twitter, so you will pretty much always know what I’m up to, even if you don’t give a dang (you’ll also learn that I’m trying to watch my language). I’ll be publishing my thoughts on various campaign tactics and strategies as well as case studies from my own little political experiments. I’m a “how to” kind of guy, so I’ll be giving you lots of cool tricks of the trade like “how to run a Get Out The Vote operation” and “how to use social networking sites effectively in a local election.”
This site will not be a rumor, gossip, or political attack site. That’s all getting old and giving me a migraine. And I’m not promising to post original content every day, although I will keep the hot links fresh throughout everyday through my various feeds. You can get them all in one place together here or separated by palmetto links, national links, and geek links (a random collection of things that grabbed my attention).
Check in frequently and I’ll do my best to keep you intrigued.
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