AD60 Watch: Saulo Londono To Manage Haggman Campaign

Chino Hills Councilman Curt Hagman has scored a real coup in quest for the 60th Assembly District nomination by snagging Saulo Lonodno to manage his campaign.

26-year old Saulo is a rising star in local GOP ranks. He ran the absentee ballot program for Lynn Daucher for Senate and managed the Trung Nguyen for Supervisor -- two campaigns whose chances were discounted by the conventional wisdom but wound up within a hair of victory. [Veteran consultant Jim Nygren, who ran the Daucher for Senate effort, is also general consultant/strategist for Hagman]

Since the end of the Trung campaign, Saulo has been a district staffer for Assemblyman Van Tran and ran the OC Republican Party's central OC voter registration program.

For the record, Assemblyman Van Tran has endorsed Larry Dick.

There's an interesting twist to this race: the campaign of the other AD60 contender, MWDOC Director Larry Dick, is being managed by another Van Tran alumnus - Barrett Tetlow. [Larry's general consultant/strategist is another GOP veteran, Joe Justin]
 

As aficionados of the OC blogosphere are aware, Van Tran has his admirers and detractors -- but what should be beyond dispute is he is a legislator who is effectively politically in terms of building an operation and training staff who are capable of running effective campaigns. This is rarer now (at least in Orange County) than it was during my wayward days as a legislative staffer in the early 1990s.

That the opposing AD60 campaigns are being run by two Van Tran alumni is symptomatic of that. Talented, effective political operatives are always in demand, and inevitably they work together sometimes, and at other times are on opposing sides. For example, during the November 2005 special election, former Senator John Lewis ran the "No on Measure D" campaign while the "Yes" campaign was run by Jeff Flint -- Lewis's district director in 1991-1992. A year later, they were working together on the "Renew Measure M" campaign.

In any case, congrats to Hagman for the smart hire and good luck to Saulo (even though I'm supporting Larry Dick!).

Comments

[Some Observer who is not Observer]

Barrett Tettlow was trained by Duane Dichiara. Saulo was trained by Bryan Lanza.

Van Tran may have an eye for talent but teacher he is not.

[Been Around]

Let's wait until Saulo works on at least one winning campaign before we anoint him as the next great manager.

[Been Around 2]

Barrett has never managed campaign and his Victory 06 job did not prove anything about his abilities. He needs this win to prove himself. If Larry Dick loses it is a huge blow to Barrett career as a political operative.

[One more nearly a victory for Saulito]

I'll take the guy/gal who wins over the one who "almost" wins every day of the week!

[Redshirt Freshman]

Can one really claim a win when they never took the field? Claiming Barrett wins is like claiming a redshirt freshman helped USC win another College Football National Championship. Get real, this is a big race for both Saulo and Barrett. They both have a ton to prove. In the end, Van is the big winner. His shop is taking the field and competing. Van has a solid shop and should be an example of what a legislator can do to push the ball forward for the GOP. Help nurture talent.

[cra republican]

Now Curt has more support in the OC field. Curt, win.

[Duane Dichiara]

I know this is counter-intuitive, but I don't think winning is necessarily the mark of a strong manager. Running a strong, accountable, ground campaign in a contested campaign is a better judge of quality. Being able to do it more than once, having the energy and the drive, is also important.

I’ve met any number of managers or consultants who ‘win them all’. All that tells me is they work for safe incumbents. More interesting, and usually more skilled, are those that take on the races that are not a given… people who can hold up under tremendous pressure and run the kind of programs that win and deliver votes.

All this being written, I’ve observed Barrett Tetlow and I’d hire him again for any race that I could get him for. Kudos to candidate Larry Dick for hiring him. This is not to argue, however, that Saulo Lonodno is any better or any worse. I haven’t seen him in action – but can’t imagine that Jim Nygren, who I consider a mentor and a friend, would keep someone working who was not of the highest caliber.

So I guess instead of judging one of the two by win or loss, much of which is actually out of their control, I’d go a level deeper and ask after this race whether either ran a real ground game? How many volunteers and how many paid workers were utilized? How many households were contacted door to door? Was information gathered and used to lock down votes? To the extent of their capability who got the endorsements that require organization rather than relationships? And so on…

Now of course, only one of these two gentlemen can actually win the race. But the Republican Party as a whole would be stronger if we recognized sometimes, in the case of managers, there are two losers, two winners, or one of each.

I'll close with this: I may have 'trained' some of these guys, but I'll be the first to admitt that at this stage of my life I'd be loath to compete on the ground against men like Puetz (Garrick 06, Horton 06) or many of his peers... and truth be told it's my opinion that neither I nor most of my peers probably could not have gone head to head with them in our prime.

[Tomahawk]

A very good analysis Duane. And thank you for producing people like Stephen Puetz, Sam Oh, Collin McGlashen, Paul Hegyi, etc...for the Republican Party.