DEMOCRATS’ DIGEST
A Monthly Newsletter of the Conference of Young Nigerian Democrats
Inside this Issue:
Political Campaign
I INTRODUCTION
Voting Volunteer
Volunteers in a get-out-the-vote campaign in Portland, Oregon, urge people to vote
during the 2004 presidential elections.
Greg Wahl-Stephens/AP/Wide World Photos
Political Campaign, organized effort by a political party or candidate for public
office to attract the support of voters in an election. Political campaigns play an
important role in the education and mobilization of citizens in most democracies.
In the United States, campaigns precede every election and often begin many
months or even years before the election. To launch and operate a successful
campaign, candidates first organize a network of committed campaign workers,
both volunteer and professional. They also establish a fund-raising apparatus to
finance organizational, travel, polling, and advertising expenses. Hired consultants
amass voting and polling data that enable candidates to assess in specific terms the
electorate’s needs, hopes, fears, and past behavior. Finally, campaigns develop
media and advertising strategies for communicating the image and message of the
candidate.
Presidential Debate
Presidential candidates Bill Clinton, left, and Ross Perot, foreground, and
incumbent President George Bush, right, face off in a debate held in St. Louis in
October 1992. Televised debates have featured prominently in U.S. presidential
campaigns since 1960.
REUTERS/THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE/Corbis
Until the mid-20th century, political campaigns depended heavily on armies of
campaign workers assembled by political parties. This style of campaigning fostered
intense levels of loyalty to party organizations. Voters typically supported entire
slates of candidates backed by a political party. During the second half of the 20th
century, the strength of political parties in the United States declined. As a result,
voter loyalty to parties diminished and campaigns began to center more upon the
candidates themselves. Organizational strategies changed as well. Campaigns now
rely more on communications technologies than the efforts of party foot soldiers.
II HOW CAMPAIGNS ARE CONDUCTED
Modern political campaigning includes five basic elements: (1) professional public
relations, (2) polling, (3) the broadcast media, (4) direct mail, and (5) the Internet.
These elements all make use of techniques drawn from the worlds of marketing and
advertising to mobilize voter support.
A Professional Public Relations
Hired campaign consultants typically direct modern political campaigns. These
individuals have taken the place of the political bosses and party chiefs who
masterminded campaigns during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Most campaign
consultants now specialize in politics, although some also come from the ranks of
corporate advertising and public relations. Campaign consultants conduct public
opinion polls, produce television commercials, organize direct-mail campaigns, and
develop the issues and advertising messages the candidate will use to mobilize
support. Some consultants have become powerful political figures in their own right.
For example, President George W. Bush’s political consultant, Karl Rove, became a
major force in the Bush administration, helping shape the president’s political
agenda as well as his campaign.
B Polling
Surveys of voter opinion provide the raw material of modern political campaigns.
Political consultants use this information to run campaigns that closely resemble the
efforts of businesses to market products. Polling data help candidates and their
staffs select issues, assess their own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of the
opposition, and measure the responsiveness of constituent groups to campaign
appeals. Bill Clinton made extensive use of polling in his presidential campaigns and
employed a number of pollsters to measure public responses to his policy initiatives
during his tenure as president.
C The Broadcast Media
Electronic Town Meeting
In modern political campaigns the electronic media, including talk radio and cable
and network television, have provided forums for candidates to reach large
segments of the electorate. During and in the months following the 1992 presidential
campaign, Bill Clinton made effective use of electronic town meetings to
communicate with American voters. In this photo he converses with citizens in a
televised town meeting in Southfield, Michigan.
Greg Gibson/AP/Wide World Photos
As in any well-formulated advertising campaign, political candidates use the media
to increase their exposure to the public. In the modern campaign, extensive use of
radio and television has supplanted direct appearances on the campaign trail. The
most commonly used broadcast technique is the television spot advertisement. Spot
ads, which may last from 15 to 60 seconds, emphasize issues and personal qualities
that appear important in the poll data. These ads attempt to establish candidate
name identification, create a favorable image of the candidate and a negative image
of the opponent, link the candidate with desirable groups in the community, and
communicate the candidate’s stands on selected issues. Spot ads often make use of
“sound bites,” short, punchy statements from the candidate designed for voters to
remember. Spot ads also may have a negative slant, seeking mainly to criticize the
opponent. Well-known examples of successful negative ads include the 1988 “Willie
Horton” ad of George H. W. Bush, accusing Bush’s opponent, Michael Dukakis, of
coddling criminals, and the 1964 ad of Lyndon Johnson that suggested his opponent,
Barry Goldwater, would lead the United States into nuclear war.
Presidential campaigns in the 1990s introduced four new media venues for
candidates: the talk show interview, the “electronic town hall meeting,” the
“infomercial,” and World Wide Web sites. Television and radio talk shows enable
candidates to address a vast audience without the presence of journalists or
commentators who might criticize or question their assertions. Maverick
presidential candidates Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan favored this setting in their
campaigns. In 1992, for example, Perot announced his candidacy for the presidency
to the nation on the cable television talk show “Larry King Live.” Similarly, the
televised town meeting format allows candidates to appear in a hall and interact
directly with ordinary citizens, thus underscoring their concern for the views and
needs of voters, while simultaneously reaching viewers across the nation. In the 1992
presidential campaign, the ability of Bill Clinton to connect empathetically with
citizens enabled him to make effective use of the nationally televised town meeting.
The infomercial is a lengthy televised broadcast, often lasting 30 minutes. Although
designed to have the appearance of a news program, it is actually a presentation of
the candidate’s views. Ross Perot and Steve Forbes, both wealthy businessmen,
purchased airtime for infomercials in their election campaigns.
Perhaps the most dramatic use of the broadcast media in contemporary politics
remains the televised debate. Televised presidential debates began with the 1960
clash between Democratic Senator John F. Kennedy and Republican Vice President
Richard M. Nixon. Kennedy’s strong performance in the debate contributed
directly to his victory over Nixon, who had been a clear favorite to win the election.
In a similar vein, critical comments by pundits, coupled with a widespread public
perception that Democratic Vice President Al Gore was rude to his opponent during
the 2000 presidential debates, contributed to Gore’s defeat by Republican
presidential candidate, George W. Bush. Today, presidential and vice-presidential
candidates hold debates, as do candidates for statewide and even local office.
Televised debates, which sometimes command the attention of millions of viewers,
can increase the visibility of lesser-known candidates and allow candidates to reach
voters who have not fully made up their minds about the election.
D Direct Mail
Candidates also make extensive use of direct-mail campaigns as a way both to raise
funds and to communicate with voters. Campaigns use advanced database
technologies to target mailings at voters who seem likely to support a candidate
because of their party ties, interests, or ideology. Candidates purchase or rent
computerized mailing lists of voters and send pamphlets, letters, and brochures to
people on the list, describing their views and appealing for funds. National, state,
and local candidates raise tens of millions of dollars each year through direct-mail
solicitations. Individual donations in these campaigns typically average from $25 to
$50. Republican Party candidates have been especially effective in their use of direct
mail both to mobilize support and to raise funds from voters.
E The Internet
Since the late 1990s, parties and candidates have begun to make extensive use of the
Internet as a campaign medium. Most major candidates maintain Web sites that
provide biographical data, the candidates’ positions on major issues, endorsements
from prominent supporters, and other campaign materials. Citizens visiting a
candidate’s Web site can also learn how to become involved with the campaign and
make financial contributions. Often, candidates’ supporters also sponsor Weblogs,
or Blogs, touting the candidate’s virtues, and they participate in Internet “chats” on
behalf of their candidate. In 2000 U.S. Senator John McCain used his Web site to
mobilize volunteers and raise funds for his unsuccessful bid for the Republican
presidential nomination. In the 2004 presidential race, former Vermont governor
Howard Dean made the Internet a major campaign vehicle, raising about $40
million in campaign funds through online appeals in 2003.
Many observers believed that passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of
2002 would increase the use of the Internet for fundraising. The law restricted
contributions that could be made to political parties, making it necessary to raise
money from individuals who could donate no more than $2,000 to each candidate
per election. The Internet platform enabled candidates to reach large numbers of
people and to solicit funds at relatively low cost. Some observers estimated that
candidates could recover 98 percent of a donation made through Web sites because
of low overhead. See also Electoral Reform.
III THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY
Historically, political parties representing the aspirations of working-class
constituencies gained an edge in campaigns through their ability to mobilize and
organize large masses of people. For this reason, the weakening of party
organizations and the move toward capital- and technology-intensive modes of
campaigning have shifted the balance of power from working-class voters to those
with more money.
Small, professional staffs employing expensive and sophisticated communications
techniques now perform the tasks of raising funds and mobilizing voters, activities
once performed by thousands of party workers. In a national race, candidates often
spend millions of dollars on media time, polls, and consultants. In the 2000
presidential campaign, costs totaled more than $2 billion.
Capital- and technology-intensive campaigns emphasize the impact of money in
politics and help those politicians who speak for wealthier, generally more
conservative constituents. The Republican Party has consistently raised more money
to finance its campaigns than the Democratic Party. Conservative activists in the
Republican Party, most notably Richard Viguerie, also pioneered many of the
political techniques now employed by candidates of both parties, especially the use
of direct mail.
One exception to this rule is the Internet, which provides candidates with an
inexpensive way to raise large amounts of money in small contributions. In 2003 and
2004, for example, Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean used the Internet
to raise millions of dollars in small contributions from supporters across the nation.
Dean, however, went down in defeat in the Democratic primaries. Thus far, at least,
the Internet has not offset the conservative bias inherent in the other elements of
technological politics.
Many European politicians who represent conservative constituencies have copied
the capital- and technology-intensive methods of American campaigns. A number of
American political consultants have shown European conservative politicians how
to make use of polling, direct mail, and the broadcast media. In Europe, this
phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the “Americanization” of politics.
Contributed By:
Benjamin Ginsberg
For more information about the Association Contact:
Wole Adedoyin
National Coordinator
08142693764, 08072673852