The Campaign

1. The Campaign

2. The Structure of a Campaign • All campaigns have common characteristics. • Each election campaign consists of several smaller campaigns that balance one another. • Nomination Campaign • General Election Campaign • Personal Campaign • Organizational Campaign • Media Campaign

3. Nomination Campaign • That part of a political campaign aimed at winning a primary election • Candidates adjust to spotlight • Seek the support of party leaders and interest groups, test themes, and slogan • Critical time for gaining and maintaining support within the party and the broader electorate • Candidate must be careful not to move too far to his/her party’s extreme during the nomination campaign. Could be harmful during the general election.

4. General Election Campaign • Part of a political campaign aimed at winning the general election • Occurs after candidate has won party’s nomination • Focus on gaining support from groups and voters • Decide on issues to emphasize • Adopt a brief theme to serve as rallying cry • “A Stronger America” – 2004 Kerry/Edwards • “In Your Heart, You Know He’s Right” – 1964 Goldwater • Candidate must also define his or her stance on other topics of interest to voters.

5. Bush Campaign Organization

6. The Personal Campaign • That part of the political campaignconcerned with presenting the candidate’s public image • Candidates try to meet as many people as possible. • Exhausting schedule • Little time for family, reflection, or long-range planning

7. The Organizational Campaign • That part of the political campaign involved in fund-raising, literature distribution, and all other activities not directly involving the candidate • Organizational activity funds and supports the campaign • Volunteers • Voter canvas: process by which a campaign reaches individual voters, either by door-to-door solicitation or by telephone.

8. The Organizational Campaign • GOTV • a push at the end of a political campaign to encourage supporters to go to the polls • Campaign manager • the individual who travels with the candidate and coordinates the many different aspects of the campaign • Campaign consultant • the private sector professionals and firms who sell to a candidate the technologies, services, and strategies required to get the candidate elected • Finance chair • a professional who coordinates the fund-raising efforts for the campaign.

9. The Organizational Campaign • Finance chair • A professional who coordinates the fund-raising efforts for the campaign • Pollster • A professional who takes public opinion surveys that guide political campaigns • Direct Mailer • A professional who supervises a political campaign’s direct-mail fund-raising activities • Do consultants strip the campaign of substance? Reduce them to a clever bag of tricks for sale? • Can voters tell the difference between a good candidate versus a bad one?

10. The Media Campaign • That part of the political campaign in which the candidate reaches out to the voters, in person or via the media, to create a positive impression and gain votes • Communication director: develops the overall media strategy. • Press secretary: interacts and communicates with journalists. • Media consultant: produces candidate’s television, radio, and print ads.

11. The Media and Campaigns • What voters hear and see of the candidate is primarily determined by • Paid media • Free media • The amount, form, and content of paid media are dictated by the campaign. • Free media consists of independent press coverage.

12. Paid Media • Positive ad • Advertising on behalf of a candidate that stresses the candidate’s qualifications, family, and issue positions, without reference to the opponent • Negative ad • Advertising on behalf of a candidate that attacks the opponent’s platform or character

13. Paid Media • Contrast ad • Ad that compares the records and proposals of the candidates, with a bias toward the sponsor • Spot ad • Television advertising on behalf of a candidate that is broadcast in sixty-, thirty-, or ten-second duration • Inoculation ad • Advertising that attempts to counteract an anticipated attack from the opposition before the attack is launched

14. Free Media • Coverage of the campaign • Newsworthy • View candidates with suspicion • Obsessed with the “horserace” • Expectations and predictions

15. Campaign Media Strategies • Isolate candidate from the press • Campaign stages media events • Spin • Circumvent press with entertainment-oriented talk shows – a less critical forum • Take great care with debates

16. Technology and Campaign Strategy • Technological advances impacted political campaigns • Direct access to voters • Can gather and disseminate information better than ever • Rapid-response techniques • The formation of prompt and informed responses to changing events on the campaign battlefield • Internet • Recorded phone messages

17. Campaign Finance • Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) • Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act 2002 • McConnell versus FEC • Concluded that the government’s interest in preventing political-party corruption overrides the free speech rights to which the parties would otherwise be entitled

18. Sources of Political Contributions • Political money regulated by the federal government (FECA 1971). This money can come from • Individual Contributions • Political Action Committee Contributions • Political Party Contributions • Member-to-Candidate Contributions • Candidates’ Personal Contributions • Public Funds • Independent Expenditures

19. Growth in Total Contributions by PACs

20. Expenditures by PACs in 2004 Election Cycle

21. PACs

22. Internet • Has the potential to alter the way money is raised for campaigns. • McCain 2000 • Dean 2004 • Promises headaches for FEC • Business links with campaign link? Are these in-kind contributions? • Yes • Can internet funds be matched by public funds during the presidential nomination campaign? • No

23. Soft Money and Issue Advocacy Advertisements • Soft Money • The virtually unregulated money funneled by individuals and political committees through state and local parties • Now prohibited under BCRA • Result: Hard money fundraising increased and the emergence of 527s

24. How the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 Alters Money Flow

25. Are PACs Good or Bad for the Process? • The Bad • PACs are the embodiment of corrupt special interests that use their contributions to buy votes of legislators. • Evidence is mixed • Moreover, the less affluent and minority members of our society do not enjoy equal access to these political organizations.