2011 was a momentous year for those in the spotlight. Some celebrities used finesse and talent to work their way into the public’s good graces, while others made disastrous PR moves and crashed and burned as a result.

Sam Chapman, CEO of Empower Public Relations and crisis communications expert, shares his list for the best and worst PR moves of 2011:

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The Best PR Moves

Mayor Rahm Emanuel: Emanuel served as President Obama’s Chief of Staff during the onset of the economic crisis, and offered a heartfelt resignation when he set his sights on Chicago’s mayoral campaign. Despite facing ballot setbacks, Emanuel’s team helped secure a successful election campaign.

Final numbers are in, and voters of San Francisco have shown overwhelming support for current interim Mayor Ed Lee, elected to his first official term.  The first Asian-American to be elected mayor in San Francisco history, he walked away with 61 percent of the vote in San Francisco’s “instant runoff” voting system, the closest competition being more than 25 points behind.

AKPD produced the media for San Franciscans for Jobs and Good Government, an Independent Expenditure campaign supporting Interim Mayor Ed Lee’s campaign for Mayor of San Francisco.

“We were proud to support Mayor Lee’s campaign for a full term, based on his strong record of job-creation, balanced budgets and pension reform,” said John Kupper, AKPD Senior Partner. He noted that this was the firm’s third IE campaign in California in the past year, including work in support of Governor Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris.

CHICAGO–AKPD Message and Media congratulates Mayor Anthony Foxx on his resounding victory in Charlotte, North Carolina, where last night he was elected to a second term.

In what was the largest margin of victory in a Charlotte mayoral race in over a decade, Mayor Foxx garnered 67 percent of the vote.  Charlotte voters rallied behind the Mayor’s record of creating jobs, reducing crime and expanding opportunity for young people, even in these difficult economic times.

AKPD Message and Media served as campaign strategists and ad-makers for Mayor Anthony Foxx. AKPD partner John Del Cecato said, “In 2009, Charlotte voters broke with the status quo and elected Anthony Foxx to lead their city. Because of the Mayor’s leadership in protecting education, improving after-school programs, enhancing public safety, and working to create jobs, they have re-elected him by a historic margin. We’re proud to be associated with the Mayor, and look forward to his continued leadership in Charlotte.”

Mayor Anthony Foxx and the city of Charlotte will play host to the 2012 Democratic National Convention, spotlighting the city and its leaders prior to the 2012 general election.

AKPD also produced the media for San Franciscans for Jobs and Good Government, an Independent Expenditure campaign supporting Interim Mayor Ed Lee’s campaign for Mayor of San Francisco. Lee received 31 percent of the vote in a 15-candidate field and holds a double-digit lead over his nearest opponent. The final outcome will likely be determined late-Wednesday, after second-place votes are counted under San Francisco’s “instant runoff” voting system.

Lee would become the first Asian-American elected mayor of San Francisco.

“We were proud to support Mayor Lee’s campaign for a full term, based on his strong record of job-creation, balanced budgets and pension reform,” said John Kupper, AKPD Senior Partner. He noted that this was the firm’s third IE campaign in California in the past year, including work in support of Governor Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris.

CHICAGO–AKPD Message and Media congratulated Rahm Emanuel tonight on his resounding victory in the Chicago mayor’s race.

Chicagoans gave Emanuel 55 percent of the vote in a 6-way race, providing him the majority needed to avoid a runoff and win outright. Voters rewarded Rahm’s focus on the issues, including his detailed plans to boost Chicago’s economy, improve schools and put 1,000 more police officers on the beat.

Most impressively, Emanuel unified the city by attracting a diverse coalition of supporters from every neighborhood and among all ethnic groups across Chicago.

AKPD client Illinois State Representative Will Burns also won a sweeping victory Tuesday night, capturing 65 percent of the vote to become Chicago’s 4^th Ward Alderman.

“Chicago has a bright future with Rahm Emanuel as mayor and Will Burns as alderman,” said AKPD partner John Kupper. “Their vision and leadership will be critical in making Chicago’s streets safer and its schools stronger.”

AKPD served as lead media strategists for the Emanuel and Burns campaigns, creating and producing their television and radio advertising.

The economy was sour, the unemployment rate was too high —and then came along Scott Brown, the Republican state senator who used his pick-up truck to out-work, out-hustle and, ultimately, out-campaign Martha Coakley to win the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Ted Kennedy.

The national GOP was just tickled — and boldly predicted that Brown’s victory was just the start of more frustrated Americans voting against democrats in general and President Barack Obama in particular. They were half-right — as the mid-term elections saw Republicans gaining an edge in the U.S. House of Representatives and cutting the Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate.

But that didn’t happen here in Massachusetts for one reason — Deval Patrick. Understandable, he was in a very good mood to discuss his historic re-election and his plans for his next four-year-term. “It’s been a good year,” Patrick said. “It hasn’t been without its challenges and we haven’t fully recovered. But we are recovering.”

That’s saying it mildly.

Patrick defeated Republican Charles Baker, a former health care executive, Tim Cahill, the state treasurer and independent candidate and Jill Stein, the Green-Rainbow Party candidate.

He also withstood The Republican Governors Association, which had hoped to knock off Patrick by spending millions on anti-Patrick and anti-Cahill ads. Patrick ran on his record, and given the national economy, he had a pretty good one to out — despite more than $4 billion in budget cuts.

Quiet as it’s kept, it was Patrick who led a grass-roots campaign during his first election in 2006 that broke a 16-year run of Republican governors that included William F. Weld, Paul Cellucci, Jane Swift and Mitt Romney.

Since his inauguration in January 2007, Patrick has constantly pushed education. He knows of its benefits. He rose from childhood poverty, attended Massachusetts’ prestigious Milton Academy, Harvard College and Harvard Law on scholarship, and then went on to serve in the Clinton administration Justice Department.

After a corporate law career, he made his first bid for elective office in 2006 with the help of Chicago political consultants David Axelrod and David Plouffe, who would go on to run Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Of particular pride is his education reform bill that became law last year. In a vote Patrick called “historic,” Massachusetts lawmakers gave a final approval to an education bill that is designed to close the achievement gap between schools in richer and poorer communities.

The bill made it easier for the state to help struggling schools. It also lifted the cap on charter schools in the lowest performing districts. “This will give our neediest students more options and holding charter operations accountable for reaching the students left behind,” Patrick said at the time.

The bill also strengthened the state’s application for $250 million in federal funding through the Obama administration’s Race to the Top initiative. Massachusetts had the highest score among the nine states and the District of Columbia that won grants totaling $3.4 billion in the second phase of the Race to the Top competition.

Patrick knows that he has more work to do. But for now, he said it best during his most recent campaign.

“I’m grateful, and all I’m trying to do is give back the same better chance that I got,” he said.