Grassroots voting efforts pay off for Nowakowski
How did Michael Nowakowski manage to upset Laura Pastor in Phoenix City Council District 7?
Pastor, the daughter of Congressman Ed Pastor, was considered the frontrunner because she was endorsed by state and city Democratic leadership that included Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, state Attorney General Terry Goddard, and in October received the 11th hour blessings of Gov. Janet Napolitano.
So many were amazed when the tally board on election night showed Nowakowski http://www.michael2007.com/ surging out in front of Pastor. Pastor never broke out of second place. Nowakowski won with 56 percent of the vote to Pastor’s 44 percent. There was a vote spread of more than 1,000 for the surprise victor.
Ruben Gallego, Nowakowski’s campaign manager and a political consultant with Riester-Robb’s public affairs division, had boldly predicted a win for Nowakowski.
While Pastor was getting press from her political endorsements, Gallego says Nowakowski’s grassroots organizers were working hard, knocking on doors, working phone banks to get out the vote, and driving cars and vans to give their supporters rides to the polls to vote.
“We never took a break, we never stopped from the primary on,” Gallego says.
