Under The Power Lines

Under The Power Lines is a creative team of politicos, designers, coders, and other web geeks working hard to convince legislators, candidates, and political groups that they should be communicating with voters on the web.  People don’t like change, but they’re slowly learning that it’s time to let go of inefficient and slow methods of communication.

We are really sore losers. We like to win.

• We want to help you communicate with voters on the web.
• We know how to help you raise money.
• We can help you recruit, organize, and activate your volunteers.

The Team

WESLEY DONEHUE

Wesley’s personal blog.

Tim says “Wesley is the most intense person I have ever met.”

Maybe its because he drinks way too much Starbucks, wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about winning, refuses to go on vacation anywhere without high speed wireless internet access, reads polls for fun, or works 15 hours a day, everyday. Take your pick…the guy’s intense, but it produces results.

He’s only 28 years old, but Wesley has worked on, managed, and advised countless campaigns. Fresh out of Goose Creek, SC, Wesley started working for State Senator Bill Mescher at the SC Statehouse as a Freshman at the University of South Carolina. That was it. He was bit by the political bug and there was no cure to the virus that took over his life.

He became the USC and State College Republican Chairman for three years, started working on a few campaigns, and then met political consultant Rod Shealy who taught Wes one simple lesson – the fun isn’t on the government side. It’s on the campaign side.

After working with Rod for awhile, Wes jumped from campaign to campaign until meeting Terry Sullivan who was managing Jim DeMint’s US Senate campaign. Wes joined the DeMint team early during the primary, but peeled off to run a State Senate campaign, eventually making his way to Chip Campsen’s State Senate campaign where he helped defeat a sitting incumbent in the primary.

Wes soon rejoined the DeMint campaign where he helped beat Inez Tenenbaum. DeMint went to the US Senate and Wes went to the Campbell for Lt. Governor campaign as Campaign Manager. He left in January 2006 before the primary when Warren Tompkins, Terry Sullivan, and Heath Thompson joined forces and asked him to run their new firm TTS.

At TTS (now known as First Tuesday Strategies), Wes went 5-0 as chief strategist to five State House campaigns, including Keith Kelly’s outright win in a three way primary and Bill Cotty’s fierce reelection campaign. Wes also ran Mick Mulavaney’s campaign, the only pick up for the Republican House Caucus. Speaking of pick-ups, Wes helped the Senate Republican Caucus pick up a seat when he ran Shane Massey’s State Senate campaign in 2007.

So, is his name Wes or Wesley? He says Wes, but his wife would prefer that you call him Wesley. Whatever his name is, he’s married to successful SC political fundraiser Elizabeth Donehue. She’s cool. They have a yorkie named Gucci. Wesley wants you to know that it was Elizabeth’s before they met.

When Wesley’s not at work, you can find him on his couch…working.

TERRY SULLIVAN

“Young aide an old hand at battle” is how the Dallas Morning News described Terry Sullivan. Terry is known as a hardball strategist in heated campaigns.

Campaigns don’t get much more heated than Jim DeMint’s 2004 United States Senate campaign in which Terry served as the campaign manager.

DeMint, a little known Congressman from South Carolina’s UpState, was a long shot for the United States Senate against a former Governor, a self financing multimillionaire, and a former attorney general. He squeaked into the run-off as the underdog, but then routed his opponent by 19%. DeMint then moved to the general election to face the state’s most beloved Democrat. Over the course of the general election the campaign was tested and had to overcome many hurdles, receiving much national attention. Terry led the campaign to a double digit victory.

Following DeMint’s victory, Terry was recruited by United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a powerful Texas Republican, to manage her campaign as she weighed running for Governor of Texas. Although Hutchison decided to run for re-election to the U.S. Senate, her exploratory campaign drew significant national media attention as she regularly spared with the incumbent Governor. This gained Terry the reputation in Texas media outlets as a gunslinger in “all out brawls.”

Terry’s first political job was as youth coordinator for U.S. Senator Jesse Helms. In the late 90’s he moved to South Carolina, working on many legislative, congressional, and statewide races, including serving as state director of Steve Forbes’ presidential campaign.

Soon thereafter he became partners with Heath Thompson in the consulting firm Crescent Creative. During their tenure, the firm had a better than 95% win rate.

In 2006 Terry served as the regional political director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, covering 14 United States Senate races from North Dakota to Florida. He most recently served as the SC State Director for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.

Terry is also a partner in the political consulting firm First Tuesday Strategies and the direct mail firm On The Mark.

LAUREN PARSONS

Lauren Parsons was raised in Irmo, South Carolina. Growing up, she embraced a broad selection of hobbies including lemonade stand construction, archery and study of the British colonization of India.

Overriding these interests was a fascination with graphic design and web production. Even though the internet was just beginning its infant years, Lauren embraced the exciting world of HTML coding and development of frame-based websites. Every time she typed “a href=”, she felt a tingle in her heart.  Design was her calling and she had no choice but to answer it

Since those childhood days, Lauren has pursued her interest in design and has developed her abilities. Proudly turning out websites, print design, and photography, Lauren has made it her goal in life to create effective presentations. Lauren likes to make things look pretty. Let her do it for you.