Washington Post "The Fix" - May 14, 2008

WINNERS

John Anzalone: The Alabama-based pollster is the hottest commodity in the consultant business these days. Anzalone handled polling for Childers as well as Rep. Don Cazayoux, who won the Louisiana 6th District special election earlier this month. Among the other candidates in Anzalone's stable: State Sen. Kay Hagan, who is challenging Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) this fall; and state Sen. Debbie Halvorson, the odds-on favorite in the open-seat race in Illinois's 11th District.

Sweet (Now) Home Alabama

Sweet (Now) Home Alabama. Democratic pollster John Anzalone has had a good May.

Rep.-elect Travis Childers (D-Miss.) and newly elected Rep. Don Cazayoux (D-La.) are both clients of his, and each won a special election in what had been strong Republican districts in a part of the Deep South that had long been off-limits to Democrats running for federal office.

Childers, the Prentiss County Chancery Clerk, defeated Southaven Mayor Greg Davis (R) on Tuesday in Mississippi’s 1st district, which delivered 62 percent of its vote to President Bush in 2004. Cazayoux, then a state Representative, beat former state Rep. Woody Jenkins (R) on May 3 in Louisiana’s 6th district, a 59-percent Bush district.

Anzalone, the founding partner of the Montgomery, Ala., firm Anzalone Liszt Research, credited his success mostly to his clients, including Reps. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) and Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), who both represent districts that voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004. But he said it doesn’t hurt that he and his partner, Jeff Liszt, live and work and play among the very voters a majority of their candidates are courting.

“I’m a better pollster because I’m not in D.C.,” Anzalone said Wednesday during a telephone interview. “I understand these voters because I live with them every day.”

Over the past few years, Anzalone has become the go-to pollster for Democratic candidates running in Republican-leaning Southern House districts. He helped Shuler oust incumbent Rep. Charles Taylor (R) in North Carolina’s 11th district in 2006, and in 2004 helped Melancon win Louisiana’s 3rd district, which at the time was a Republican-held open seat.

But ironically, Anzalone is not a native Southerner.

Anzalone, 44, grew up in St. Joseph, Mich., a town of about 8,500 in the southwestern part of the state, across Lake Michigan from Chicago. He attended Kalamazoo College and ended up in politics, including an eight-year period where he alternated between Washington, D.C., and living out of his suitcase on the campaign trail.

One of Anzalone’s early bosses was Democratic consultant James Carville. He also served as the political director for Sen. Frank Lautenberg’s (D-N.J.) 1988 re-election bid.

In 1994, the same year Republicans were swept into power on Capitol Hill and won control of the House for the first time in 40 years, Anzalone moved to Montgomery.

To hear him describe it, it wasn’t some shrewd business move, but rather a purely personal decision. He wanted to live near his two sons, who were living with his ex-wife, an Alabama native (Anzalone has since remarried).

Anzalone said living in the South and running his business there have been keys to his success, helping him understand what it would take for Democrats to be successful there and how to best guide his candidates in their races against Republicans.

Anzalone said losing races during those years when Democrats couldn’t buy a victory in the South was a valuable experience.

“Getting your ass kicked for a decade, you learn a lot of things,” he said.

There is no “magic equation” behind his success, Anzalone said. For Democrats to win in the South in what has been solid Republican territory, they need to be a good fit for the voters. That often means holding pro-Second Amendment, anti-abortion rights and anti-same-sex-marriage positions.

Cazayoux and Childers both ran as conservative Democrats, and Anzalone said most of the positive press he’s getting really belongs to them, in addition to the other victorious Democrats he’s worked for in recent years.

In Mississippi, Childers highlighted what he stood for, as opposed to what he was against, Anzalone said, adding that he ran a local race that focused on issues voters were concerned about. The Republicans, by contrast, tried to run a national race tying Childers to national liberal Democrats.

“It’s a credit to the candidate,” Anzalone said of Childers in particular. “We had the strategic upper hand.”

Brian Wolff, the executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Anzalone deserves a lot of the credit — for the success of Cazayoux, Childers and many of his other clients.

Wolff described Anzalone as a pollster who is available “24/7,” whether to work with a candidate or do anything else to further the success of a campaign. He said Anzalone has a talent for helping candidates find their voice and channeling that voice into a message that works with the voters.

“Our candidates stayed on message, and that’s John’s work,” Wolff said.

Last cycle, Anzalone helped shepherd now-Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) across the finish line in first place, and did the same for Democratic Reps. Jason Altmire (Pa.), Paul Hodes (N.H.) and Ron Klein (Fla.), all of whom ousted Republican incumbents.

With this month’s special election victories of Cazayoux and Childers under his belt, Anzalone now turns his attention to clients running in targeted November races.

State Sen. Kay Hagan, challenging Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R) in North Carolina, is among his stable of 2008 Democratic candidates, as is Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright, who is running for Alabama’s open 2nd district seat; state Assemblywoman Linda Stender, who is running for New Jersey’s open 7th district seat; state Senate Majority Leader Debbie Halvorson, who is running for Illinois’ open 11th district seat; and 2006 nominee Larry Kissell, who is again challenging Rep. Robin Hayes (R) in North Carolina’s 8th.

Anzalone also continues to advise incumbent Democratic Reps. Leonard Boswell (Iowa) and John Salazar (Colo.).

Washington Post - April 6, 2008

PLAYERS 

The best pollster you've never heard of is expanding his operation to the nation's capital. John Anzalone, of Anzalone Liszt Research, is opening a Washington office to be run by Marc Silverman, a senior associate in the firm. The Democratic survey research firm became among the hottest in the nation after the 2006 cycle in which it conducted polling for Reps. Heath Shuler (N.C.), Ron Klein (Fla.), Paul W. Hodes (N.H.) and Jason Altmire (Pa.) -- all of whom defeated Republican incumbents. "As our Washington-based client list has grown and we have developed a national reputation, opening a D.C. office is a natural next step for our firm," Anzalone said.

Partner John Anzalone was interviewed for the National Journal Hotline's Consultant Candids on Thursday June 21, 2007.

      John Anzalone is a partner at Anzalone Liszt Research, a Dem polling and public opinion research firm located in Montgomery, AL. Prior to starting the firm in '94, Anzalone worked with Frederick Schneiders Research. His campaign operative experiences include working for Dem strategists James Carville and Paul Begala in Sen. Frank Lautenberg's (D-NJ) '88 campaign. Anzalone began his political career as a research assistant at Citizens for Tax Justice, and then went on to manage campaigns in five different states, before concentrating his energies on polling for campaigns. And today, Anzalone is our "Consultant Candid."

      What was your first job? 
      I was lucky enough to work for David Wilhelm years before he became the Chairman of the DNC. At the time he was the head of a small, non-profit public interest group called Citizens for Tax Justice. We were out there changing the world putting out reports about the top U.S. corporations that paid no federal taxes. It was those reports that helped spur the 1986 tax reform bill that finally made corporations pay a minimum tax. Wilhelm and I then went to work for Biden for President in Iowa in 1987 and I followed that with managing Wilhelm's race for Congress after Biden dropped out. Wilhelm's loss was the best thing that happened to both of us.

      What is your proudest moment professionally? 
      Helping take back Congress in 2006 was really a great thing to be part of. We helped beat one incumbent U.S. Senator and four incumbent congressmen and the years toiling in the desert really paid off. But I would also say that some of my closest relationships with candidates that I have to this day are with people that ran really good races but came up short.

      What one event in a candidate's past would pose the biggest problem in a campaign? 
      Campaigns lose when there are surprises. I have had campaigns that should have won, and could have won, but there was something the candidate did not reveal and when the opposition hit us with it we were playing complete defense when we could have tried to inoculate on it from the beginning. Full information is what is needed to put together a winning strategy.

      If you could be in any other line of work, what would it be? 
      I think I would either be a stay at home mom or a church administrator. I spend a lot of time with my kids and always thought I was a better mother than father. I think it is the organizational skills that come with being a campaign person. Also, I am a big churchgoer and have always thought it would be great to be able to go to work in the splendor of a church and help people at the same time.

      Negative campaigning -- good or bad? 
      It is all relative. Voters deserve to know the differences between candidates and even though voters say they hate negative campaigning, they sure do appreciate the information when they are provided it in focus groups. It all has to do with the presentation. If contrast or negative ads are done right and are not over the top they are completely appropriate. In 2006, I think voters wanted to know if their congressman voted with Bush 98% of the time or they voted for tax breaks for oil companies. And shouldn't the public know who is for and against things like a troop withdrawal from Iraq?

      Where is your happy place? 
      I get up early in the morning and head to my backyard to get some quite time and reading before my four kids pounce. I also really enjoy going to early church a couple times a week and that just really sets me on the right track for the day. Strangely, I love going to get my hair cut each month because it is thirty minutes where no one can get to me.

      What is your favorite restaurant to meet clients? 
      Living outside of DC means that I don't have to do the "lunch" thing very often. Instead I go to the gym at noon. But if you are in Montgomery, Alabama, you will get no better fresh gulf fish than at Jubilee Seafood, a hole in the wall that was written up in USA Today.

      What campaign (past, present or future) would you most like to be a part of? 
      If any of my kids run for office I hope I am around and hope they want the old man involved.

      What is the ideal number of clients to have at one time? 
      The key is not to be greedy. There is enough quality work out there for everyone and if you do good work and pay attention to your clients, more work will come and you will get your share.

      What firm/individual who does your kind of work for the other party do you respect the most, and why? 
      As a pollster, I have a lot of respect for Jimmy McLaughlin and Whit Ayres. I have seen their work and it appears to be top notch.

      What is the first section of the newspaper you read? 
      I tend to read locally before I move to the New York Times and the Washington Post. I am part of a community here and you want to know what is making things tick, whose kids are being honored, who has died, what new store or restaurant is opening, and what washed up 80s band will be playing down at the riverfront. I live outside the vacuum of DC and when I go home my neighbors are real voters.

      If you could only watch one news show, what would it be? 
      The Daily Show. Jon Stewart has something important to say. I would recommend that every campaign, especially the presidential campaigns, make their candidates occasionally watch the Daily Show, not for the humor, but for the reality check of how you should and should not communicate. We think of Stewart as a comedian, but there are important lessons that campaigns can take away from watching his show. Balance Jon Stewart on Sundays with Tim Russert.

      We're ending this feature with a question posed by the last interviewee. This is from Strategic Perception Inc.'s Fred Davis: Tell the truth: do you REALLY know what media buyers do with all that money? 

      Since polling is used for targeting media, I can tell the good media buyers from the mediocre, because the good ones ask for cross tabs and ask serious questions of the pollsters.

      Pose a question for the next interviewee. 
      Where do you like to vacation after a tough election cycle?