Telecommunications DeRegulation - Designed and implemented a grass-tops campaign effort working with AT&T and the Coalition for a competitive Texas to advance their legislative agenda to access markets that were created by the Bell break-up.  Engaged community officials and stakeholders with communications through the grass-tops network to achieve success on behalf of the coalition in Texas and eleven other States.  Generated more than 7,900 unique contacts by key influential’s with targeted decision makers in eleven States.  The legislation was passed in all 11 States.

Electricity DeRegulation-  When developing strategy you must be very good at defining both allies and opponents and being able to visualize the strategic plan of the opposition, so that the clients strategy can anticipate the opposition plan and overcome it.  The electricity dereg fight initially included a great deal of time, talent and treasure on grass-tops (recruiting key secondary targets to influence primary targets) and messaging about the potential individual savings that competition in the marketplace would create; but after hitting several roadblocks with key legislators we transitioned some of the resources into a grass-roots effort that included letters and a petition.  Shifting the strategic plan to include more resources in grass roots and securing over 100,000 signatures on petitions in key legislative districts was instrumental in building momentum for the ultimate goal of passing the legislation.


Future-Gen – $4 Billion Coal Gasification Project - Hard Count served as the lead consultant to Frio County in pursuit of the FUTUREGEN award from the Federal Department of Energy, which planed on building a state of the art four billion dollar coal gasification/electric generation facility in Texas.  Although Frio County was one of the smaller counties participating against much larger counties and cities with much greater resources, they were chosen as one of the top 2 proposals out of more than 60 that were submitted nationwide – the department of energy then suspended the final decision because of a change in administrations in 2016.  The experience provided an even deeper perspective on securing private/governmental partnerships in leading edge and green technologies in the energy industry.

Boston Scientific Grass-Tops and Grass-Roots Branding Project: Developed and implemented an advocacy plan for Boston Scientific who wanted to introduce an innovative new approach to Asthma Therapy and Treatment directly to individuals in demographically targeted communities.  The effort resulted in securing symposiums that focused on Asthma treatment at 20 Health Expos that were sponsored by organizations in the targeted communities throughout Texas.  The project was considered an enormous success and provided an even deeper perspective on securing private/governmental partnerships in leading edge technologies and developing a marketing communications plan that utilized a place on the agenda in public / community organizational events to promote a clients brand, product and philosophy.


Donna – International Bridge – In 2008 Hard Count was retained to assist a committee in Donna Texas that was attempting to secure additional funding for the Donna Rio Bravo International Bridge that was under construction.  We developed a communication strategy that included both direct and grass-tops communication components that targeted key lawmakers and educated them as to why the additional funding was crucial to building additional commercial lanes.  The effort secured the additional 25 million in funding that was necessary to complete the project.