My friend Doug Forand emails over a release touting his firm's recent success in liberating the state Senate.

Red Horse Strategies Delivers Historic Win for Senate Democrats

Tonight's historic win for the Senate Democrats, elevating the Democrats to the majority for the first time in over 40 years, represents another in a string of underdog victories for Red Horse Strategies. RHS developed the statewide campaign strategy for the Senate Democrats and oversaw its implementation in the DSCC's targeted offensive and defensive races.

"We're honored to have played a role in helping the Senate Democrats finally achieve a majority, with Leader Malcolm Smith poised to become the new Majority Leader," said Marc Lapidus, Senior Partner for RHS. "Our team has shown time and time again that smart strategy and well-executed campaigns can easily overcome spending and enrollment disadvantages to win tough elections."

The partners of RHS have been working with the DSCC since the 2006 election cycle, when they won two targeted races; and through Craig Johnson and Darrel Aubertine's successful special elections in 2007 and 2008.

In yesterday’s elections, the DSCC and RHS successfully protected all incumbent Democrats while defeating two long-term incumbent Republicans in Queens and Long Island.

Red Horse Strategies provides campaigns and candidates with strategic guidance, tactical analysis, message development and operational oversight. It is led by Nathan Smith, Marc Lapidus and Doug Forand, who collectively bring decades of government and political experience to each campaign they work on.

Full disclosure: myself and Phil Anderson have been working with Red Horse for the last six months. And it's been great; in politics, often enough, you waste time massaging egos, doing stuff you have to do because some idiot high up in the hierarchy wants it done, whatever. You don't have that with Doug. If Barack Obama is drama-free, Doug is in a category of his own.

For anyone seeking public office in the 2009 elections, having a contract with Forand and Company is probably the best money you can spend. Added bonus: we bloggers consider Doug our friend, in part because that's just what the relationship looks like, in part because we trust him.

So, all you candidates: go out there and hire Doug Forand. Well, only if you want to win, that is.