Clients & Successes
Case Studies
The Voters Take Another Look
When the 3,000-acre Quonset Naval Base closed in 1974, there was a huge hole in Rhode Island’s economy – and a huge opportunity.
But 28 years later, the facility was still mostly potential and very little reality, so voters said "no" when asked to approve a $13-million investment at Quonset.
But Mike McMahon, Rhode Island’s new economic development chief, made creating new jobs at the old base a top priority, and decided to ask the voters to reconsider.
“We reached out to David Preston,” McMahon explains. “He put the campaign together, creating a statewide business coalition, raising $150,000, managing the media and grassroots efforts – and persuaded the voters to change their minds, a real rarity.”
On Election Day 2004, voters approved a $48-million ballot question – almost four times the amount they had turned down only two years earlier.