U.S. Chamber Senior Political Strategist Scott Reed, a veteran of Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, recently teamed up with the Rob Engstrom, Chamber Senior Vice President of Political Affairs & Federation Relations, to lead the U.S. Chamber’s voter education program. FreeEnterprise.com sat down with Reed to talk about the 2012 elections.

FreeEnterprise.com: What brought you to the U.S. Chamber for the 2012 elections? 

Scott Reed:  I’ve been a fan, supporter, and advocate of the Chamber and Tom Donohue’s leadership for years. And I recognize that in this cycle, with so many folks working on the presidential campaign, that there’s a real niche to help the congressional elections for the small business community. This is a very high-stakes election, and one place I thought we could make a difference would be helping ensure that we maintain a pro-business House and make the Senate committee chairs more pro-growth.

Republican gains are not going to be inevitable. Congress has an approval rating of 9%. I’ve seen some polls where it’s 7%. And the voters are very concerned about the economy. It’s the No. 1 issue. It’s actually the No. 1, 2, and 3 issue in most people’s minds. Only 19% of the voters think the country is heading on the right track. Voters are angry with Washington. There’s a lot of intensity out there, and it’s rising. So we’re going to try to capitalize on that with our voter education program, run a thematic campaign that talks about jobs, and target independent voters.  They are the swing voters in this election. And we’re going to go into states and campaigns where we can really make a difference and have a visible impact.

FreeEnterprise.com: There is the perception that the Chamber is in the Republican camp. Is there any truth to that?

Reed: We’re going to make it clear that we don’t care about party affiliation. We’re going to let it be known right up front that what matters is how members of Congress vote on certain issues that are important to the business community. So we will be endorsing and supporting some Democrats this cycle who are good, pro-growth, pro-business Democrats. At the same time, we’re going to use the Chamber’s brand, which is very popular around the country, especially with independent and swing voters, to promote in a nonpartisan way our ideas about economic growth. We’re not going to get involved in presidential politics, but we are going to focus on the House and Senate races that will matter to the business community.

FreeEnterprise.com: Does the Chamber feel pressure from Republicans in Congress when it endorses Democrats?

Reed: I imagine we will get some grief, but at the end of the day, we are not an ideologically driven organization. We’re driven by pro-growth results, and we don’t have a problem explaining that to our friends on the Republican side or on the Democratic side.

FreeEnterprise.com: What are the defining issues of this election?

Reed: Everything is going to be viewed through the prism of jobs and job growth. The Chamber has been the leader on that front for a number of years, way before Washington politicians woke up. So we’re going to look at everything through the prism of jobs. We’re going to look at the election through Obamacare and the effects that it has had on the economy. We’re going to look at the election through the prism of energy taxes and energy policies and the effects they’ve had on job creation. And we’re going to look at this election through job-killing federal regulations that are stifling economic growth and activity and causing instability in the marketplace so that businessmen and businesswomen are not taking risks, investing, hiring people, and growing their business.

FreeEnterprise.com: Is it too early now to be talking about targeted states and targeted races?

Reed: No, we have a good sense on the races we will target this cycle. We’ve already made the first cut. There are seven open Democratic seats in the Senate this cycle. We’re going to be looking closely so that good candidates run and good candidates win—both in the primaries and in the general election. We’re going to focus on a number of incumbent senators who cast a deciding vote on Obamacare. That’s going to be a big pressure point this cycle. We’re also going to look at states like Ohio where incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown has a 9% approval rating from the U.S. Chamber in a state that’s lost hundreds of thousands of jobs over a number of years. He’s going to have to defend his record to the voters—he’ll have some splainin’ to do.

FreeEnterprise.com: What are the tactical components of the Chamber’s voter education program?

Reed: The sexy part of political campaigns are TV ads, but in our eyes that’s only a part of the program. There will be message-driven TV ads, which we’ll filter down to our member organizations and 7 million grassroots activists so that they not only promote the messages but push them out through all their social media avenues with local spin. We hope to give them a lot of information with which to promote the candidates that they care about. Watch for state chambers to engage in an unprecedented manner. The stakes in this election are huge.

FreeEnterprise.com: The Chamber went up with TV issue ads in Ohio and in a few other states a full year in advance of the election. What is the strategy for going up with ads so early in the cycle when voters might not yet be paying attention?

Reed: We wanted to put a marker down with our friends and take a shot across the bow of some of our foes to let them know that we’re going to be out there in a serious, aggressive manner.  We’re going to pick our places to engage, and we’ll go in when there is both a clear playing field and where we can make a difference. We’re not going to save our money for the last two weeks of October. We hope to have spent all our money by the last two weeks of October. As Tom Donohue says, ‘No peanut butter strategy of spreading resources around.’ We’re going to put some real lead on the targets.

FreeEnterprise.com: How is this election different from ones you’ve worked on in the past? 

Reed: The intensity out there is higher than I’ve ever seen even back to the 1994 sweep. I think you’re going to see that in the November turnout . It’s going to be a lot higher than the models have predicted because people are angry and upset, and they want solutions. The status quo will not do: This election will offer a choice between two starkly different views—economic growth versus more government and incentives for small business versus barriers to growth. The November elections will be both a referendum on the incumbents and a choice for a new direction.