The WORST campaign execution we've ever seen....

"Pride goes before destruction,
And a haughty spirit before a fall."
Proverbs 16:18

We've been biting our tongue on this for three weeks, but here goes: Ridesharing Works for Austin ran the worst, most tone-deaf, campaign we've seen in 25 years of following politics.

Where to begin?!?

• Political mail has it's place, but people don't appreciate multiple daily mailers starting over a month before election day.

• Sending notifications related to the election through the App is fine, but to receive political text messages to which you haven't consented is creepy.

• Don't claim people who don't support your campaign do; this applies doubly when the police chief in question isn't popular in the first place.

• Speaking of unpopular, making a former mayor who was essentially ridden out of town on a rail when he left office less than two years ago your most prominent campaign spokesperson probably won't go well.

• Don't bring in a bunch of dimwitted D.C. based rent-a-campaign types to run your field operation when there are local people (with a record of winning) who can do a much better job for a fraction of the cost.

• Speaking of your field operation, when homeless people start showing up to work as canvassers in large numbers, you should be worried.

• It's ok to spend enough to win, but when the amount of money you're spending becomes a major campaign story and the money is going to fund the type of overkill described above, you have a problem.

It's also worth pointing out that RWA's messaging SUCKED.  The opposition had a simple message: "stand up to corporate bullies."  We didn't agree with it, but that message was concise and effective.  RWA could have built their campaign around the fact that council's regulations would lead to higher prices and longer wait times with no benefit to public safety.  Instead, they oversold a disjointed collection of secondary concerns without a unifying principle.  When the media started picking apart those claims, they were done.  C'est la vie....

We could go on, but long story short congratulations to Ridesharing Works for Austin for giving Jeb Bush a run for his money (pun intended) in running the most bumbling, expensive, and inept campaign of 2016.

We hope your consultants got paid as well as Jeb's....