Alton Native Announces Run For State Representative

Alton native Donald D. McDonough has announced an upcoming campaign for state representative.

He has been involved in political campaigns on behalf of candidates, organizations and issues at every level of government from local, state, national, and international. He has worked for progressive organizations and causes including environmental issues, taxes, land use, healthcare, labor, trial lawyers, medical and dental associations; education, transportation and transit; law enforcement, police and firefighters; the arts; aviation and public ports.

After volunteering for a presidential campaign while in high school, he went on to work on three presidential campaigns as national staff. He also managed three congressional campaigns and worked as chief pollster and strategy consultant for scores of other campaigns, Initiatives, and referenda. His areas of experience and expertise include campaign planning, budgeting and fundraising, targeting and field organizing, media and advertising development; press and earned media; social media and Internet advertising, polling and voter segmentation, direct mail, and message development.

Don started Evans McDonough along with his business partner in 1989. With offices in Seattle, WA and Berkley, CA, the business grew from the two principals to 14 employees and gross revenue of $8 million. The company served a variety of public sector, private sector and political clients.

1980 Staff for The Carter Mondale Presidential Campaign Committee, worked in the Primary campaign in the contested renomination of President Jimmy Carter and Vice President Walter Mondale. He worked as district Field Director in Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri in both Caucuses and Primaries.

At the Democratic National Convention in NYC, and prior to that in the National Office in Washington DC, he worked as a delegate tracker, one of 12 individuals who worked in the critical role that year of defeating a rule-change effort by the campaign of Senator Edward Kennedy. That rule would have “unbound” the Delegates committed to their candidates and opened the Convention to allow delegates to vote for the presidential candidate of their choosing at the time of the Convention rather than the candidate they were committed to by caucus and primary results. In this role he reported directly to White House Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan. The rule was defeated; locking in President Carter's renomination. In the General Election Campaign, Don was Field Director for Ohio.

After finishing his degree at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, he worked as Deputy Campaign Director for the congressional campaign of Douglas Stephens in Peoria Illinois against House Minority Leader Robert Michel. That campaign gave Congressman Michel the closest race of his career in the House of Representatives, with Mr. Stephens losing by two points, in a political battle that garnered national and international attention in Reagan’s first mid-term during the 1982 recession when unemployment in Peoria reached 14%.

After working for Senator John Glenn in Washington for most of 1984, Don went on to manage the successful 1984 campaign for US Congress of State Senator Terry Bruce in an Illinois Congressional District that stretched from Champaign-Urbana, in the north, to Olney, Illinois in the south. That campaign was noted for defeating an incumbent conservative Republican, who had been Censored by the House of Representatives. The Republican incumbent, Dan Crane, was defeated in the year of Ronald Reagan’s landslide reelection as President. Don also managed the 1986 successful reelection campaign of Congressman Bruce.

Don worked for a St Louis Public Relations firm, Tretter-Gorman. Don moved to Seattle Washington after having visited there while working for CBS News Affiliate Services at the 1984, Final Four basketball tournament. It was played that year at the now demolished Kingdom, where the Seattle Mariners and Seahawks had played.

In April of 1988 Don was assigned to work in the presidential campaign of Eduardo Fernandez in Venezuela through the national media firm Doak & Shrum and the marketing and polling firm Cambridge Survey Research, founded by Jimmy Carter’s pollster Patrick Caddell. Fernandez was the candidate of the Christian Democrats and lost to the socialist candidate Carlos Andreas. Andreas’ victory in December of 1988, led to the successful Coup d'état of General Chavez and the dictatorship of the current regime.

In 1989, after the effort in Venezuela, Don, along with Alex Evans, then Vice-President of Cambridge Survey Research, founded Evans/McDonough Co., Inc. EMC opened offices in Seattle, WA and Berkeley, California. EMC worked for an array of candidates and issues through 2016.

McDonough supervised the accounts of several winning Congressional campaigns including Congressman Maria Cantwell, Jay Inslee, Adam Smith and Rick Larsen. In addition, he managed the 1992 campaign for Congress for candidate Maria Cantwell as well as her re-election campaign in 1994. Maria Cantwell is now a United States Senator for Washington State and Jay Inslee is in his third term as Governor. Don also managed polling and strategy for the Washington State House Democratic Caucus in several cycles and for the Illinois House Democratic Caucus in one cycle.

He conducted polling and developed strategy for two separate ballot issues to build new sports stadiums in Seattle: An Initiative for a retractable roof baseball stadium for the American League Mariners; and, the following year a regional Referendum to build a new Football Stadium for the Seahawks. In that campaign he worked for Seahawks owner Paul Allen, co-Founder of Microsoft. Both of those campaigns had competitive opposition and both won at the ballot box. In those Stadium campaigns Don was the chief pollster and general strategist, through the Polling and Strategic Services firm Evans/McDonough.

During the 1992 contest for the Democratic nomination for President, Evans McDonough conducted the polling for former California Governor Jerry Brown. Brown won nine Primaries and the second biggest cache of Delegates in that nomination ballot. Don traveled with Governor Brown in many Primaries through the New York Primary. Brown’s campaign was notable for innovating in fundraising being the first to raise the lion’s share of funds via an 800 number in the days immediately preceding online money raising.

In issues and Initiatives; property tax bonds and levies; and referenda, Don managed several successful efforts to raise funds for many public projects in central Puget Sound, including the successful, several multi-billion-dollar efforts to start a multimodal Light and Commuter transit rail system. Today, Sound Transit is up and moving passengers under phase two of its funding mechanism.

Several regressive and draconian measures to reduce funding for critical services were defeated using opposition campaigns designed by Don and Evans/McDonough.

Funding for scores of School Districts throughout Washington and California was won using the polling and strategic counsel of McDonough. An Opera House, a new Art Museum, a new downtown Library, and funding for Zoos in Seattle and Tacoma were also acquired.

McDonough also helped elect two Seattle mayors and worked for Jerry Brown’s successful return as Governor of California, following his two terms as Mayor of Oakland.

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