Chapter 14: The Campaign Process



Chapter 14: The Campaign ProcessI Roots of Modern Political CampaignsNo political campaigns are the same; the players change, the political landscape evolves, and even the rules change from time to time.Most electoral contests are similar in structure, consisting of some form of nomination campaign, and a general election.A The Nomination CampaignNomination campaign—the part of a political campaign aimed at winning a primary election.The nomination campaign begins as soon as the candidate has decided to run—sometimes years prior to the official announcement—and it ends at the party convention.During the nomination campaign the candidate targets the leaders and activists who choose nominees in primaries or conventions.Party leaders are concerned with electability, while party activists are often ideologically and issue oriented, a candidate must appeal to both bases.The nomination campaign is a critical time for gaining and maintaining an aura of support, both within the party and with the larger electorate.A danger in the early nomination campaign is to try and appeal too much to the party and move to far to the right or the left and appear too extreme to the electorate.B The General Election CampaignGeneral election campaign—the part of a political campaign aimed at winning a general election.Candidates must seek the support of interest groups and a majority of voters and decide on the issues they will emphasize.When courting interest groups a candidate seeks both money and endorsements.Candidates try to avoid controversy in their selection of slogans and some openly eschew ideology.The clever candidate tries to find a slogan that cannot be lampooned easily.A variety of issues influence candidates’ positions and core issues, including personal conviction, party platform, and experience in a certain area.Candidate also use public opinion polling to gauge whether the issues that they care about are issues that the voters care about.II The Key Players: The Candidate and the Campaign StaffMost observers agree that the most important aspect of any campaign is the quality of the candidate and the attributes of the campaign team.A The CandidateCandidates run for office for any number of reasons, including personal ambition, the desire to promote ideological objectives or pursue specific public policies, or simply because they think that they can do a better job than their opponents.B The Campaign StaffPaid staff, political consultants and dedicated volunteers work behind the scenes to support the candidate. Collectively they plan general strategy, conduct polls, write speeches, craft the campaign’s message, and design the strategy for communicating that message in the form of television advertisements, radio spots, Web sites, and direct mail pieces.Volunteer Campaign StaffVolunteers are the lifeblood of every national, state, and local campaign.Voter canvass—the process by which a campaign reaches the individual voters, either by door-to-door solicitation or by telephone.Get out the vote (GOTV)—a push at the end of a political campaign to encourage supporters to go to the polls.The Candidate’s Professional StaffCampaign manager—the individual who travels with the candidate and coordinates the many different aspects of the campaign.Key paid positions in addition to the campaign manager:Finance chair—a professional who coordinates the fund-raising efforts of 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 munications director—the person who develops the overall media strategy for the candidate, blending free press coverage with paid TV, radio, and mail media.Press secretary—the individual charged with interacting and communicating with journalists on a daily basis.Internet Team—the campaign staff that makes use of Web-based resources to communicate with voters, raise funds, organize volunteers, and plan campaign events.Fund raising remains the most valuable use of the Internet by political campaigns.Candidate’s Hired GunsCampaign consultants—a private sector professional who sells to a candidate the technologies, services, and strategies required to get the candidate elected.Media consultants—a professional who produces candidates’ television, radio, and print advertisements.III Coverage of the Game: The Media’s Role in Defining the Playing FieldWhat voters actually see and hear of the candidate is primarily determined by the paid media, free media, and the new media.Paid media—political advertisements purchased for a candidate’s campaign.Fee media—coverage of a candidate’s campaign by the news media.New media—New technologies, such as the Internet, that blur the line between paid and free media sources.A Paid MediaPositive ad—advertising on behalf of a candidate that stresses the candidate’s qualification, family, and issue positions, without reference to the opponentNegative ad—advertising on behalf of a candidate that attacks the opponent’s platform or character.Contrast ads—ad that compares the records and proposals of the candidates with a bias towards 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.B Free MediaCandidates have little control over what advertisements are run (paid media), they have little control over how journalists will cover their campaign and convey it to voters.C The New MediaCandidate are more able to reach voters more quickly than at any other time in history.One plus of the new media is a candidate’s ability to employ a rapid response.The first use of the internet in national campaigning came in 1992.The newest internet tools are social networking sites like facebook and myspace.D Campaign Strategies to Control Media CoverageIn an effort to obtain favorable coverage, candidates and their media consultants use various strategies to attempt to influence the press.The campaign staff members often seek to isolate the candidate from the press, thus reducing the chances that reporters will bait a candidate into saying something that might damage his or her cause.The campaign stages media events: activities designed to include brief, clever quotes called sound bites and staged with appealing backdrops so that they will be covered on the television news and in the newspaper.Campaign staff and consultants have cultivated a technique termed spin—they put forward the most favorable possible interpretation for their candidate ( and the most negative for their opponent) on any circumstance occurring in the campaign, and they work the press to sell their point of view or at least to ensure that it is included in the reporters’ stories.Candidates have found ways to circumvent the news media by appearing on talk shows such as Oprah and Larry King live, where they have an opportunity to present their views and answer questions in a less critical forum.Candidate debates—forum in which political candidates face each other to discuss their platforms, records, and character.The face to face presidential debate did not occur until 1960 and did not become a regular part of presidential campaigns until 1980sIn most cases debates do not alter the course of a presidential election but rather increase knowledge about the candidates and their respective personalities and issue positions, especially among voters who had not previously paid attention to the campaign.IV Rules of the Game: Campaign FinanceSuccessful campaigns require a great deal of money.Between the Democrats and Republicans nearly 2 billion dollars was raised in the 2008 elections.A The Road to Reform1907 the Tillman Act prohibited corporations from making direct contributions to candidates for public office.The Corrupt Practice Acts (1910, 1911, 1925), Hatch Act (1939), and the Taft-Hartley Act (1947) all attempted to regulate the manner in which federal candidates finance their campaigns and to some extent limit the corrupting influence of campaign spending.1970’s Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) and its later amendments established disclosure requirements, established the Presidential Public Funding Program, which provides partial public funding for presidential candidates who meet certain criteria, and created the Federal Election Commission (FEC), an independent federal agency tasked with enforcing the nation’s election laws.March 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA)The Supreme Court’s ruling in McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003) means that federal government is now regulated by the federal government under the terms of the BCRA which supplanted most of the provisions of the Federal Election Campaign Act.The BCRA outlaws unlimited and unregulated contributions to parties, known as soft money, and limits the amounts that individuals, interest groups, and political parties can give to candidates for president, US senator, and US representative.The goal of all limits is the same: to prevent any single group or individual from gaining too much influence over elected officials, who naturally feel indebted to campaign contributors.Soft money—virtually unregulated money funneled by individuals and political committees through state and local parties.Individual ContributionsThe maximum allowable contribution under federal law for congressional and presidential elections was 2,300 per election to each candidate in 2007-2008, with primary and general elections considered separately.Individuals in 2007-2008 were also limited to a total of $108,200 in gifts to all candidates, political action committees, and parties combined per two year election cycle.These limits will rise at the rate of inflation in subsequent cycles.Political Action Committee (PAC) ContributionsWhen interest groups such as labor unions, corporations, trade unions, and ideological issue groups seek to make donations to campaigns, they must do so by establishing political action committees.Political action committees—federally mandated, officially registered fund raising committee that represents interest groups in the political process.Under the current rules a PAC can give no more that $5,000 per candidate per election and $15,000 each year to each of the units of the national parties.PACS have influence disproportionate to that of individuals because donations from a small number of PACs make up such a large proportion of campaign war chests.Read pg 512-513.Political Party ContributionsIn competitive races, the parties may provide 15-17 percent of their candidates’ total war chests.Member to Candidate ContributionsIn congress and in state legislatures, well-funded, electorally secure incumbents often contribute campaign money to their party’s needy incumbent and non-incumbent legislative candidates.Candidates’ Personal ContributionsBuckley v. Valeo (1976) the Supreme Court ruled that no limit could be placed on the amount of money candidates can spend from their own families’ resources since such spending is considered a First Amendment right of Free Speech.Public FundsPublic funds—donations from the general tax revenues to the campaigns of qualifying presidential candidates.Only presidential candidates (and a handful of state and local contenders) receive public funds.Matching funds—donations to presidential campaigns from the federal government that are determined by the amount of private funds a qualifying candidate raises.V The Main Event: The 2008 Presidential CampaignA The Party Nomination BattlesB The Democratic and Republican ConventionsC The Debates and the General Election CampaignD Election Results and AnalysisVI Toward Reform: Campaign Finance and the 527 LoopholeHard money—legally specified and limited contributions that are clearly regulated by the Federal Election Campaign Act and by the Federal Election CommissionThe most significant unintended result of the BCRA in 2004 was the emergence of political entities known as 527 political committees—the numbers come fomr the provisions of the Internal Revenue tax code that establish their legal status.527 political committees—nonprofit and unregulated interest groups that focus on specific causes or policy positions and attempt to influence voters.According to the tax code 527s may not directly engage in advocacy for or against a candidate, but they can advocate on behalf of political issues.501(c) (3) committees—nonprofit and tax-exempt groups that can educate voters about issues and are not required to release the names of their contributors.Key Terms:Campaign consultant, campaign manager, candidate debate, communications director, contrast ad, direct mailer, finance chair, 501(c) (3) committees, 527 political committees, free media, general election campaign, get out the vote (GOTV), hard money, inoculation ad, Internet team, matching funds, media consultant, negative ad, new media, nomination campaign, paid media, political action committee (PAC), pollster, positive ad, press secretary public funds, soft money spot ad, voter canvass. ................
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