After coming from behind to win that November--Ayers has a framed copy of the Atlanta Journal Constitution front-page victory story hanging in his office--Ayers ran a campaign for a Republican running for county commission chairman, in which his candidate won nearly 60 percent of the vote, scooping up cross-party votes in Democratic communities.By 2004, at age 22, Ayers was running Perdue's reelection race against Democrat Mark Taylor, which quickly turned personal and nasty. From the start, Ayers ran a campaign that was largely centered on the candidate's goals and accomplishments, and also kept Perdue from responding to Taylor's attacks. And if the team thought the attacks needed a response, it was Ayers or another staffer to give a comment--further putting the wunderkind in the spotlight.
Ayers soon became as much a celebrity as his boss, with critics tarring him as an inexperienced kid riding Perdue's coattails. One post on the Georgia political blog Peach Pundit griped that so many people were "so focused on hoping Nick Ayers screws up the Governor's race and gets egg on his face that they've forgotten they should be focused on getting the Governor re-elected and worry about Nick later." (Not surprisingly, Ayers made a rule that the campaign staff ignore blogs.) Then in October of 2006, just weeks before the election, Ayers was arrested for driving under the influence. While mainstream media handled the issue gently, the vitriol on the blogs grew. Commenters called him a "drunken fool" and "a drunk little brat," with one blogger mockingly referring to him as a "Colossus among mere mortals." Some bloggers called for him to be fired. Ayers just ignored them--and Perdue won by nearly 20 points.
Many observers attribute the victory to Ayers's campaign style. Shortly after the election, The Augusta Chronicle ran a piece questioning the effectiveness of negative ads and used Perdue's campaign to show that people were tired of the negative politics. "Any kid that is 25 can read campaign and election magazines and figure out the standard way to do things," a strategist who worked on the campaign told me. "When you stand apart and you make a decision because of your instincts … that's the measure that puts you apart. I did question whether or not it was right not to punch him back. I'm glad the Governor and Nick were right and I'm glad I was wrong."
After his reelection, Perdue was also elected chairman of the RGA.He told Ayers that he could not move on to this new venture without Ayers at his side. Ayers, who had been considering various lucrative offers in the aftermath of a big victory, stuck with Perdue.
While he commuted weekly from Atlanta to RGA's offices just a few blocks from the White House, Ayers never thought of it as more than a year-long gig. (Neither did his new bride, a second cousin of Perdue's.) But the RGA was essentially in shambles. The staff was bloated and the bank was essentially empty. With each governor and executive director serving just one year's time, there was little institutional knowledge about the races.
The solution, he and Perdue agreed, was a four-year plan. While the governors would continue to serve year-long terms as chairman, the executive director would stay. The focus shifted to long-term planning for 2009 and for the large volume of races in 2010. About six months after Ayers presented the plan to all the Republican governors, Texas Governor Rick Perry (who was slated to be the next chairman) pulled Ayers aside and told him he'd like him to stay as executive director in order to win back the majority of governorships. The RGA also launched a new emphasis on long-term recruitment, widespread involvement from all governors, large-scale fundraising, and smart and targeted spending.
By all measures, Ayers' effort to revamp the RGA has been a success. In a mid-year report, the RGA had $20.4 million cash on hand and no debt. (Among national political committees, this was only second to the RNC.) And last year, there was active participation from all of the Republican governors, which is no small feat. "The RGA used to be essentially a group that would get together a few times a year and give away money," former Speaker of the House and Georgia congressman Newt Gingrich told me. But Ayers has put the RGA on the national political map. (Gingrich was particularly impressed by Ayers' around-the-clock efforts at last summer's Republican National Convention.)
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