Charlie Wheelan is a lecturer in public policy at the University of Chicago and a first-time candidate, running to replace Rahm Emanuel in Illinois' 5th Congressional District.  He's an economics expert and the author of Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science and the former Midwest correspondent for The Economist magazine. North Woods' creative and attention-getting work for Wheelan has catapulted him to among the frontrunners in the race.

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Chicago Tribune: "Candidate takes campaign underwater"

Alan Grayson was able to defeat the DCCC-endorsed candidate in the primary and go on to win as a Democrat in this Republican district because of work like this and strong support in the progressive blogosphere.

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Huffington Post: "Obama Needs To Hire Grayson's Ad Agency"

Badly underfunded, and running in a state that hadn't elected a Democratic Senator since the 1930s, Jim Slattery nevertheless managed to get a lot of attention with humorous ads that got a low-profile candidate a lot of attention and that became some of the most viral non-presidential election ads of the 2008 cycle.

For more information: - National Journal: Ad Spotlight

In an election year that featured very few notable independent expenditure ads, the National Nurses Organizing Committee was unable to simply sit back and watch when John McCain named his running mate.  This parody of music videos ran in swing states and received hundreds of thousands of views on the web.

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USA Today: "Independent groups fire barrages through ads"

National Journal: Ad Spotight