The Ellis County Press: Ellis County Press staffers launch consulting gig Ellis County Press staffers launch consulting gig ================================================================================ Editor on 06/24/2008 16:32:00 WAXAHACHIE - Members of _The Ellis County Press_ news department launched Republic Political Marketing, a consulting firm that specializes in the organizational and marketing aspects of local political campaigns. RPMCampaigns.com was launched earlier this week with a mission to train candidates and "basically become their campaign management," said Joey Dauben, the paper's news editor. "I've personally been involved in campaigns, either by running myself or consulting with others, and the more practice we obtain, the better our services," said Dauben, 27. "I think this newspaper has done more for the education of running campaigns than anything. We can interview the consultants, the printing shops, the elections office and candidates to glean whatever valuable information we can get. "It's going to be a fun project, but an educational one as well." Megan Gray, a reporter at the paper, also is a part of the project's team, with her duties consisting of research and data mining. She's also an experienced petition-gatherer, having worked in 2006 on the Kinky Friedman gubernatorial campaign. Candidates and organizations can also hire RPM to create professional radio spots and custom ringtones, as well as provide extensive logo-creation and candidate marketing. An aggressive effort will be geared towards New Media, with features such as social networking and blogs. "Because politics is won mainly on name recognition, the onslaught of our campaigns will leave no question as to where your candidate or cause stands," the RPM Web site states. Jessica Lee, who got involved with the Ron Paul campaign and who consults with RPM in the marketing area, will focus on the visible candidacies. "My role would be to focus on animation for Web sites, banners, icons and all of the marketing potential for candidates," said Lee, a native of Minnesota. For more information on RPM, visit RPMCampaigns.com or e-mail info@RPMcampaigns.com.