Gerry O'Brien Political Consulting

My favorite McCain story

On a snowy January day in 2000, we had a very successful event at the Russian Consulate, where McCain used Soviet imagery to attack New York's punitive ballot access laws.

After a short trip on the Straight Talk Express, I joined McCain, and Guy Molinari in the Senator's suite at the Grand Hyatt.

After we updated him on our ongoing ballot access battle, McCain headed downstairs for an interview with Peter Jennings, and Guy excused himself to make a phone call, leaving me alone in the Presidential Suite.

Several long minutes later, there was a knock at the door.

Opening it, there was John McCain. “Thank you for all that you're doing,” he said, shaking my hand.

Then he turned and walked back to the elevators, which were a considerable distance away, down the long corridor and around the corner. He had come all the way back to the room just to say thank you.

Originally created for the McCain campaign, my updated New York State Petition Instruction Manual is available here as a PDF.

When I was asked to run McCain's New York State campaign, I knew the State GOP would do everything they could to keep us off the ballot.

And that's what I was counting on.

My first morning at our HQ was the same day as a major news story that detailed the strongarm tactics of the State Republican Party.

Our phones were ringing nonstop.

I proposed a modern David & Goliath strategy, using our opponents main advantages against them like political ju-jitsu.

Within weeks, we were getting more and more news stories that detailed our uphill fight against the bullies in Albany, painting us as the ultimate underdogs, and helping McCain to raise a small fortune.

When it became clear that we might fall short of signatures in a few districts, my old friend and client Larry Rockefeller introduced us to the Brennan Center lawyers, who did a masterful job of getting the federal court to order McCain on the ballot in every N.Y. district.

And despite being outspent, we ran a helluva campaign.