Questions

Political campaigns

What are elections for? 1. To determine who will hold governmental positions

2. To maintain public control over the government

3. To re-legitimize the system and the regime

What are campaigns for? 1. To inform the public of what the government has been doing and to

critique the performance of officials

2. To stir up excitement for the system, and for politics in general

3. To inform officials of the preferences of the electorate and to set priorities for action

Does the outcome of elections reflect public opinion?

◦ Candidates are elected that appear to oppose majority opinion on a wide range of topics

◦ Decisions based on emotion and/or peripheral issues rather than rationalself-interest, which is supposed to rule

◦ Why is that the case?

Problems with campaigns •Voters rarely know very much about most of the candidates on the ballot –Name recognition may determine winners –Few can actually identify candidate background,issue

positions, etc. –Partisanship and other forms of identities matter more –Personal issues matter more

• Perceptions of personalities and character • Physical attractiveness, speaking tone, height

Are campaigns useful in any way?

•Voters learn some of the basics about the candidates from ads and debates

•Character matters in politics, personal issues should be discussed

•Voters often get cues from candidates about the issues they care most about

•Campaign helps voters understand whether a person is a good leader, a good manager and overall a person fit to be President/Senator/Congressman

•How you run your campaign matters A LOT in close elections

Politics asBranding •The candidate is the ‘product’ and the "brand”

• What are the ‘attributes’ of the candidate?

•A one-day ‘sale’ • Date is predetermined

•Very competitive and antagonistic environments

Marketing strategy •Image/positioning

– Limited by prior performance of candidate – How do you position yourself in relationship to the competition?

•Market research – Polling – Focus groups

•Targeting – “Two campaigns” (primary and general) – Likely voters – Persuadable groups

•Communication channels – Interpersonal – Mediated – New media/social media

Rolling out the campaign 1. Fundraising 2. Find your target market 3. Develop Message

◦ Candidate attributes ◦ Critique of opposition/Negative advertising

4. Communication ◦ Paid media (advertising) ◦ Media relations (earned media) ◦ Interpersonal

5. Development of organization ◦ Pre-existing organization in traditional marketing campaigns

6. GOTV (Go to vote initiatives)

Fundraising •Big Donors model

– PACs – Large donors, dinners, etc. – Large portion of candidate’s time personally soliciting donations

• Concern over undue influence

•Grassroots Campaigns – Obama./Sanders

• Vast numbers of small donors/Internet

•Public funding (McCain/Feingold) – Limits on spending – Most presidential candidates are opting for not receiving publicfunding

Targeting •Primaries v. general election

•Voters v. non-voters – Talking to those who don’t usually vote – Convincing those who are supportive to go to the polls

•Demographics

•Who is persuadable? •Popular vote v. electoral college in general election

– Gore and H. Clinton won popular vote but lost the election

Unifying message •For your campaign, you need a big IDEA, something that defines your campaign

•Campaigns are about contrast, whether positive ornegative •What sort of candidate image are you trying to develop?

How to develop aunifying message

•Different types of messages that can be integrated in your campaign: • Issue based messages • “Character” focused messages • Positive v. negative tone

•All messages should be connected to your unifying message • Just from one ad you should understand what the unifying

message/big message is

The Obama campaign 08 •Strong unifying message: “Hope and change”

• Focus on economy and health care • Character: Building Obama as the embodiment of the American dream • Positive (Obama’s personality) v. negative tone (attacks on McCain as unfit)

•Targeting and micro-targeting of different groups

•First campaigns to use social media effectively

•Massive fundraising operation (big donors and small donations)

Races to watch in 2020 • President • Colorado Senate: Gardner (R) is the incumbent • Maine Senate: Collins (R) is incumbent • Arizona senate: McSally (R) is the incumbent • Alabama senate: Jones (D) is the incumbent

• Resources for following elections and campaign dynamics: • 538.com • Politico.com • In Colorado:

• Coloradosun • Colorado Politics