Now that we lost, I can rant.

The 594 marketing was very slick. Even though I binned everything they sent me, I was impressed with the creative marketing they used to get me to open their emails. They were well written, punchy and short. It made me sick to see how good they were.

In contrast, Gottlieb's effort on 591 (despite my generous donations) was pretty weak.

1. Unreadable, long emails. Gottlieb is using a direct marketing playbook from the 1980's which doesn't work today.

2. Terrible yard signs. 'Stop gun confiscation'? Really? At least the NRA went with "Protect your rights. Protect your family' for anti-594 signs which were much better.

Putting 'Stop gun confiscation' on an initiative sign all over my liberal neighborhood is about the most useless thing you could say. Obviously it appeals to me but it has zero relevance since 90% of my neighbors don't own guns, and those that do already voted for 591. Hell, half of my liberal neighbors probably think gun confiscation is a good idea! I appreciate the effort in getting the signs out, but just cannot understand the mentality of running that sign in Seattle. Maybe Spokane, but not in King County.

3. Claiming WACOPS endorsement and then being called on it. I'm sure the Times is spinning it, but Gottlieb shot himself in the foot on that one. (http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2024915490_591truthneedlexml.html)

SAF is great at legal battles and I know Gottlieb makes all his coin from direct marketing, but he got outplayed and outspent on this one. But even with all of the money, I think the 591 message could have been much more effective.

OK, rant over. It sucks that we lost despite all our hard work. On to the next battle.

I'm pretty sure we didn't lose because of the marketing campaign itself, but more via the lack of any marketing at all.

I'm just going to stack'em deep and hope for the best. This is a slippery slope and our state is fucked.

POGR/SAF shouldn't have run 591 at all.  I remember stating how awful of an idea it was way back when they were first gathering signatures, and being shot down for saying it by some people.

Hell, the 591 signature effort surely led to 594 gaining more signatures to begin with. Remember all the signature gatherers that were getting people to sign both at the same time?

POGR/SAF should've put all their weight into fighting 594. Instead they pushed their own initiative and acted like 594 didn't even exist.

SAF is very good at litigation. they are clearly out of their element with political campaigns and legislation. they should hire political consultants and campaign experts.

hopefully they have learned from their mistakes and are planning for the next round of battles.

what needs to happen now?

gottlieb needs to resolve the SAF's differences with the NRA and get them on board. a coordinated campaign is going to be far more effective than going it separately, again.

Agreed. 594 had the team that won the gay marriage initiative, and they outspent and outmarketed 591.

Unfortunately, because Gottlieb uses his own marketing team for 591, he is unlikely to swap them out, so it has to be an NRA effort in future.  

people should be calling the SAF and the NRA and telling them to work together.

also people should be telling the NRA to get a strategy to combat these initiatives. it's not just WA, it's the 23 other states with initiative processes in danger as well.

Read this.

Yep one more reason to never move back to WA. Fuck that place and especially all the drones living in king and pierce county.

Im going to guess that I594 will generally be ignored but W/E fuck that state forever.

Too bad because I grew up there and its where my family still resides but I wont.

You keep talking about the differance...





What are they?  Why do SAF's differences with the NRA need to change? Why shouldn't the NRA change their stance to be in line with SAF?



 

the SAF and the NRA had a major fallouts during the heller case. their relationship has been seriously damaged ever since. the divided 591 / 594 efforts is a perfect example of this. the SAF and the NRA did not cooperate. and it hurt us all. 591 was a tactical error, and should not have happened. a coordinated SAF+NRA campaign against 594 would have had a much better chance of success.

also the NRAILA generally does things independently. they are missing out on local resources who can be leveraged to make their campaigns far more effective.

bloomberg's overall plan is to have local anti groups established in every state, coordinated under a single national umbrella group.

pro-gun groups have nothing like this. everyone is fragmented and there is little to no coordination of efforts. our efforts are much weaker as long as we are divided. the NRA is the closest thing we have to a national umbrella group who could fit this role.

we are now facing a unified onslaught of antis. this isn't your daddy's old brady campaign. bloomberg and his deep pockets are a serious threat.