Case Study: Mike McGavick for U.S. Senate

Mike McGavick.

When first time candidate and former CEO of Safeco Insurance, Mike McGavick, made the decision to run for the U.S. Senate from Washington State, he immediately asked Fundraising Partners Northwest to join his team.  The principals of FPN had worked with Mike previously on the Safeco Scholarship Fund events and knew that this would be a challenging, but very worthwhile effort driven by Mike’s belief that honesty, civility and common sense should be prevalent in politics and government, not rare or unusual.  The FPN team went to work right away, assembling a finance committee of over 100 people, managing the candidate’s direct solicitations and coordinating events around Washington state and across the U.S.  VIP events in Washington state included visits from first lady Laura Bush, former New York city mayor Rudy Giuliani, U.S. Senator John McCain, Vice President Dick Cheney and former New Jersey governor and EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman.  In the end, over $8 million was raised and when added to a personal contribution from the candidate, it was a $10 million campaign.  In addition to funds raised directly for the campaign, the FPN team raised an additional $375,000 for get out the vote activities that benefited both the McGavick campaign and other republican candidates across the state.