POLITICAL CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT, STRATEGY & TACTICS 1 Napolitan's Rules: 112 Lessons Learned From a Career in Politics by Joseph Napolitan The following is advice to candidates, campaign managers, campaign staff and political consultants from Joe Napolitan, one of the founders of the political consulting industry and longtime practitioner of the art of campaigning: 1. Strategy is the single most important factor in a political campaign. This is the most important lesson I have learned in 30 years. The right strategy can survive a mediocre campaign, but even a brilliant campaign is likely to fail if the strategy is wrong. The strategy must be adapted to fit the campaign; you cannot adapt the campaign to fit the strategy. Also, this small but essential point: If you cannot write it down, you do not have a strategy. 2. There is no such thing as a bandwagon effect. For years, in countries all over the world, including the United States, campaign workers have told me, "People here like to be with a winner; they will vote for the candidate they think will win." Thereupon they proceed to release to the press poll reports showing their candidate ahead in the misguided expectation that this information will cause voters to line up behind their candidate. If anything, I have found the reverse to be true: The supporters whose candidate is perceived as behind are motivated to work harder, while those of the candidate seen to be ahead tend to become overconfident and lazy. Perhaps the most glaring example of this occurred in Venezuela in. 1978 where the candidate of Accion Democratica, Luis Pinerua Ordaz, ran double-page newspaper ads for two weeks before the election with banner headlines reading: "The Election Is Over. Pinerua Has Won!" Well, for Pinerua the election was over: He lost. But the most interesting statistic was this: The turnout in that election was 5 percent lower than in the 1973 election, and the drop was greatest in areas of normal AD strength. Apparently Adecos believed their leader, so they stayed home. A costly lesson. 3. Polls are essential, but do not be fooled by them. The only practical reason to take a political poll is to obtain information that will help you win the election. If the poll will not do that, you are better off spending your money else- where. Perhaps the least important information in a political poll is who is ahead at any given moment. Polls are not infallible, especially in primaries, or when they are taken before the campaign actually begins. Twill not run a campaign without adequate polling - but neither will I place total dependence on the polls. Nor will I make my polls public unless there is an unusual and extremely good reason for doing so. 4. Never underestimate the importance of a divided party. I worked on the presidential election in the Dominican Republic for Jacobo Majluta, president of the Senate and candidate of the PRD, the same party as the president, who was not seeking re-election. The party was badly split by a primary struggle in which Majluta defeated Jose Francisco Pena Gomez, mayor of Santo Domingo, friend and confidant of President Salvador Jorge Blanco. After a shaky start, Majluta's campaign moved along nicely. I was confident we would win, and I was astonished when we lost to 78-year-old, legally blind Joaquin Balaguer. Our exit polls showed Majluta with 51 per cent of the vote; reportedly Balaguer's exit polls also showed Majluta with 51 per cent of the vote (this was a three-way race). In the end, we lost by a couple of points. Later we learned that the intraparty rift was so fierce that President Jorge Blanco himself voted against his own party's candidate for president, and many Pena Gomez supporters actively worked for Balaguer, the main opposition candidate. Our surveys did not detect this phenomenon. We underestimated the damage caused by divisions in the party. And it cost us dearly. 5. Timing is critical. Using an issue too early - or too late - can nullify its impact. For a candidate who is not well-known, an early media campaign might be essential. For a well-known candidate, early media might be wasteful. If your opponent makes an easily refutable charge, sometimes it is better to let him repeat it several times, so that he will look silly when you counterattack. But sometimes it is essential to answer the charge immediately. It is difficult to teach timing. Much of it is instinctive. And in this era of computerized campaigns, it is nice to know that human judgment still plays a critical role in the campaign. 6. If something works, keep using it until it stops working. I have been involved in several campaigns in which our opponents ran television spots we knew were hurting us, and then they inexplicably pulled them off the air. After one of these campaigns, I asked a consultant to the opponent why this was done. He said they felt the spot had served its purpose, and they wanted to come on the air with new material. New is not necessarily better. Or, as they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. 7. Make sure the message is clear and understandable. Part of an overall strategy involves defining the right message or messages to be communicated to specific target groups, or the electorate as a whole. Whatever the message is, it 26 27 WINNING ELECTIONS should be clear and easily understood by everyone. The classic example is Ronald Reagan's message in the 1980 presidential campaign: "I will make America strong and lower taxes." Nothing could be clearer - or more effective. If Jimmy Carter had a message in that campaign, no one has yet figured it out. 8. Never underestimate the intelligence of the voters, nor overestimate the amount of knowledge at their disposal. The electorate is not stupid. But often it does not have sufficient information at its disposal to make right (that is, favorable to your candidate) decisions. It is not their responsibility to go out and find this information; it is your responsibility to serve it up to them, on a silver platter if necessary. If, at the end of a campaign, the voters still do not understand what your candidate is trying to tell them, it is the candidate's fault - not the voters'. No longer am I surprised at the sophistication shown by the voters in response to survey research questions, but I occasionally still am astonished by the lack of sophistication on the part of the candidate, and often that of his staff. 9. Negative attacks are better handled by third parties in paid media. This is not the place to discuss the merits or demerits, the morality or immorality, of negative attacks on an opponent. Personally, I follow a simple rule: The candidate's public record is fair game for attack, his private life is not. But negative attacks are a fact of political life, and if you are going to use them, you might as well use them as effectively as you can. I prefer never to have my candidate attack his opponent in paid television or radio spots; I prefer always to have my candidate emerge as the "nice guy" on television. When you feel an attack is justified, then let the negative message be carried by an announcer, or the copy in a print ad, or by someone other than the candidate. 10. Do not underestimate the power and penetration of radio. I have been singing this song for a long time, but some people do not want to tune in. Granted, television is the most emotional and persuasive of all the media - but radio is a close second and has several advantages over television: It is less expensive to produce; it can be produced quickly; it can be targeted more effectively than television; and it costs less to put on the air. To me, one of the worst - and laziest - things you can do in a campaign is run the sound track of a television spot as a radio spot. This is as bad as running the same copy in a television ad and a print ad. They are different mediums. I have seen candidates spend $150,000 or more on television production in a campaign and then scream bloody murder when asked to approve a $25,000 budget for radio production. Actually, there are more good television producers around than good radio producers, but just because someone can produce a decent television spot does not automatically mean he can produce effective radio. And they prove it all the time. POLITICAL CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT, STRATEGY & TACTICS 11. Do not underestimate the impact of an unpopular national administration. This is another one of those hidden obstacles, like trying to measure the impact of a divided party. I also believe this phenomenon is most important during presidential elections. Assuming the merits of the candidates are about equal, if you represent the party of an unpopular administration, you probably will lose. This is a condition to factor into your equation when you are trying to determine the attitudes of voters. 12. Perception is more important than reality. You do not have to be in this business very long before you learn this fact. If the voters think Candidate X is an honest man, he can steal the gold leaf off the statehouse dome and get away with it; if they think Candidate B is a crook, he can have four cardinals and 16 bishops attest to his honesty, and people will still think he is a crook. The best living example of this (and maybe the best in all of history) is Ronald Reagan: He has American voters (a majority of them anyway) convinced he is protecting their money with a tight fist, while in reality the deficits his government has incurred are staggering almost beyond imagination. And while Reagan is mortgaging the farm, he also is accusing Democrats of being the big spenders - and getting away with it. You take reality; I'll take perception any day. 13. Do not complicate the campaign. There are three simple steps to winning any campaign: (1) Decide what you are going to say. (2) Decide how you are going to say it. (3) Say it. I have been in campaigns with so many committees, subcommittees, liaison committees, special interest directors, colonels, captains, lieutenants and sublieutenants you have trouble finding directions to the men's room, never mind trying to receive a clear picture of what is going on. Being a campaign manager or consultant in a major campaign is like being a professional football coach: You might know 1,000 different plays, but you can only use about 25 of them in any given game. Campaign managers can waste money on many silly things - like expensive newsletters mailed mainly to supporters and campaign workers - only to wind up with insufficient funds to pay for an adequate media campaign. Everything should be as clear and uncomplicated as you can make it, from the table of organization to the graphics on the letterhead. 14. Protect home base first. If you have a strong base of support, protect that first, then go after other votes. It also is easier to increase the percentage of your vote in a favorable environment than to find an equal number of votes in a hostile environment. Do not take your base for granted. 15. Do not be afraid to invade opposition territory. This might seem to contradict the previous point, but read carefully: First you protect home base, then 28 29 WINNING ELECTIONS POLITICAL CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT, STRATEGY & TACTICS you invade opposition territory. I often run into candidates who will not speak before certain audiences because "they're all Republicans." (I'm sure Republican consultants run into the same problem with Republican candidates.) I try to explain to my reluctant candidate why he should talk to those groups in very simple terms, something like this: "If you speak to 100 Democrats, and you have all their votes before you go in, all you can do, at best, is hold your own, and you might lose some. If you talk to 100 Republicans who start off being opposed to you, you can't lose any votes - and you just might gain some." White candidates should go into black neighborhoods, black candidates should go into white neighborhoods; rich candidates should go into poor neighborhoods; city slickers should go down to the farm. 16. What you say in Peoria can be heard in Pasadena. Candidates sometimes have a peculiarly anachronistic idea that once they are away from their home turf they can say things they would not say at home. My favorite example of this occurred way back in 1962, when I was doing Endicott Peabody's campaign for governor against the incumbent Republican governor of Massachusetts, John Volpe. Governor Volpe, a competent man who later went on to serve in the Nixon cabinet, made a speech in Portland, Ore., in which he said he was opposed to the Medicare program proposed by President Kennedy. Not surprisingly, we heard about it in Boston. This was only a few days before the election. I churned out an instant brochure with this message: "Gov. Volpe is opposed to President Kennedy's Medicare program. Endicott Peabody is in favor of it." 17. Try not to self-destruct. It is astonishing how often this simple rule is broken. Although I concede other factors were involved, I also am convinced that Walter Mondale lost whatever chance he might have had to win the U.S. presidency in 1984 in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention when he announced that if he were elected he would raise taxes. I cite Mondale only because the example is recent and glaring; candidates manage to shoot themselves in the foot with astonishing regularity. 18. Do not let your opponent have a free ride. Although I am not a great proponent of the negative campaign, neither can I be considered a "turn the other cheek" consultant. Too often I see, or work for, candidates who refuse to answer an opponent's charges, refuse to refute reckless accusations made against them, or do not want to "dignify" the opponent by replying to his remarks. If your candidate has a solid lead, and you are confident your campaign plan is so well-designed it can compensate for these charges, or if you frequently research the opponent's charges and find they are having no impact at all, then maybe, maybe, you can get away with letting your opponent have a free ride. But I'd advise against doing so. The candidate does not have to refute each and every charge personally, but the campaign should do so. Otherwise you run the risk that the unrefuted statement, often repeated, will be perceived as the truth, and then you can be in real trouble. Also, you never should underestimate the cumulative damage such unanswered charges can cause. 19. Endorsements are fine if you use them properly. Popularity is not easily transferable. If the most popular political figure in the district (or in the state or in the country) endorses your candidate, this does not necessarily mean all his voters are going to vote for your candidate. Used carefully and selectively, endorsements can be extremely helpful. Last year I was involved in a campaign where our opponent claimed my candidate was supported only by the political bosses. As a result, our first wave of television spots consisted of man-on-the-street interviews of average, ordinary people saying good things about my candidate. If a candidate is thought to be an intellectual lightweight, find some heavy thinkers to endorse his candidacy and talk about his intelligence; if he is perceived to lack minority support, find some blacks and Hispanics or whatever the minority groups are in the district to endorse him in commercials. I'm not much for the "celebrity endorsement," but sometimes testimonials can be given by nonpolitical people who might say, "I've never publicly endorsed a political candidate before, but let me tell you why in this election I'm supporting Joe Jones...." 20. Do not create exaggerated expectations - especially if you are likely to win. This is especially true in gubernatorial or presidential elections in which your candidate has a good chance of winning and hopes eventually to run for reelection. If you promise more than you can deliver, this will cost you at the next election. If the people forget what you have promised (and some of them are sure to remember), you can be certain your opponent next time around will remind them. Better to be more modest and to set goals you have a reasonable chance of achieving. Also, sometimes promises are so exaggerated they simply do not ring true and can damage a candidate's credibility. 21. Take nothing for granted. This is critical advice, even if it is almost impossible to follow, because at times you simply must rely on the information provided by others in the campaign. In a recent presidential election, we were burned badly in the rural areas of a county, even though I had been assured everything was fine in those areas. If you are suspicious that something might not be as it seems or as it should be, run an independent check. This might mean a flash poll using a different pollster in an area you have doubts about. If you are told money is no problem, be suspicious. 31 WINNING ELECTIONS POLITICAL CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT, STRATEGY & TACTICS 22. If you make a mistake, admit it and try something else. There are few perfect campaigns. Inevitably, mistakes occur. Usually, in a long campaign, a few mistakes won't hurt much - unless you compound them by repeating them. In one campaign I was involved in, a television producer made several spots that generated a howl of protest from supporters of the candidate, who claimed they would withdraw their support if the spots continued to run. Faced with this, the producer became stubborn, said it would take awhile for the message of the spots to sink in, and urged they be run for at least two weeks. The campaign manager wisely decided to withdraw them immediately; supporters quieted down, and the candidate eventually won. Earlier I suggested, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The opposite is true as well: "If it is broke, fix it." Everybody makes mistakes; the smart ones correct them. 23. The little things often are important. To reach people, you must relate to their level of understanding. For example, there was little complaint on the part of the American public about the country's bloated military budget, because few people understood what the numbers meant. But when it was revealed the Air Force was paying $640 for a toilet seat or $125 for a hammer you could buy in a hardware store for five bucks, then people became aroused, because they could understand and relate to the situation in their own terms. Sherman Adams, President Eisenhower's chief of staff, ran an effective White House and was one of the most powerful men in the government, but he was forced to resign, and the credibility of the presidency was damaged, because he accepted a vicuna coat from a Boston financier, a coat worth maybe $200 at the time. The lesson here is do not always jump on the big things; the little one could prove to be much more important in turning the campaign. 24. Be leery of primary polls. Great advances have been made in political polling in the past 20 years, but one area that remains difficult to predict is the party primary. This holds true on all levels, from presidential primaries to local elections. One reason for this is the usually low turnout in the primary. Poll respondents may favor one candidate or another, but when only one in three or four turns out to vote, the results can be seriously skewed. Even when several screening questions are asked to eliminate those less likely to vote, the actual voting returns often bear little resemblance to poll results. If your candidate is running ahead in the primary poll, do not assume you necessarily are going to win - and if you are running behind, do not be discouraged, because primaries produce strange results. 25. Recognize your own limitations. We are all better at some things than we are at others. No one I know in this business is equally talented in all phases of politics or campaigning. The best ones know what they do best and are not hesi- tant about bringing in experts in other fields. Sometimes, individuals who are truly talented in one area, such as television production, get themselves and their candidates in big trouble by attempting to expand this expertise into areas in which they are much less effective. Pollsters are another group who fall into this trap: They often believe they are expert in designing campaign strategy just because they have obtained some interesting numbers in their poll. What's worse, campaigns, even on a high level, often make the mistake of confusing producers and pollsters and other specialists with strategists who have the ability to put all component parts of a campaign into place. 26. Don't panic over mistakes. They will happen. I never have been in a perfect campaign, and I doubt anyone else has. Mistakes will happen. Usually they are not serious; occasionally they are. The important thing is not to spend a lot of time crying about the mistake or criticizing the person who made it, but to decide how to handle it. In many cases, the best thing is merely to ignore it and forget about it. Human feelings are important here, too. You do not want to ruin the morale of the campaign staff or unnecessarily embarrass or humiliate one of your good workers because of a mistake. If the same person keeps making the same kinds of mistakes, that's another matter, and you might have to fire him or her. 27. If you do not have to use negative campaigning, don't; if you do, make it sting. Like many consultants, I think there is too much negative campaigning these days, and the reasons are easy to understand: It is easier to move people to vote against someone than for someone. Nevertheless, although it might sound old-fashioned, I think every candidate has an obligation to tell the people what he would do if he were elected and what solutions he has to their problems. When you feel compelled to use negative campaigning, make it sting. If you are going to do it, do it right. Do not just rap someone on the knuckles, give him a good whack alongside the head. I prefer not to use negative campaigning if I do not have to, but I also prefer to win with negative campaigning rather than to lose without. I do not subscribe to the concept of never mentioning your opponent by name. If you are going to call someone a son-of-a-bitch, leave no doubts in voters' minds about whom you mean. I also believe negative attacks should be confined to a person's record and not to his personal habits - and never to his family. A candidate's record should be subjected to careful scrutiny and attack where warranted; the fact that his son has been arrested on drug charges or his wife is an alcoholic are, in my opinion, private family problems and not subjects for discussion in a campaign. 28. Dominate the dominant medium. Not long ago, I wandered into a bookstore, where I saw a book on how to run political campaigns. I looked in the 32 33 WINNING ELECTIONS appendix to see if my name was mentioned. When I checked the references to me, I found one that said, "Many campaign managers follow the advice of veteran political consultant Joe Napolitan to dominate the dominant medium." Now I don't ever remember saying that, and I don't know where the authors of the book dug it up, but I think it's a hell of an idea. If it actually was mine, I'm sorry to have forgotten, and if it were someone else's, I hope he or she gets the credit due. It makes such good sense. The dominant medium varies. In many campaigns, it is television. But in some it might be newspaper advertising or radio. In a contest for a primary nomination in an overwhelmingly Democratic congressional district in New York City, it would be direct mail. Whatever it is, concentrate your resources to make sure you achieve dominance, and chances are you will do well in the campaign. 29. Campaigns should be fun. Campaigning is an intense business, full of pressure and tension. But it also should be fun. If a campaign does not have its moments of joy and laughter or sheer insanity, then it can become boring and depressing. There's nothing more debilitating than a dull campaign or a humorless candidate. I have worked for a few, and I do not want to do so again. 30. Establish your candidate's own credibility before you launch a negative campaign. No one has ever done this more effectively than Ronald Reagan in his 1980 campaign against Jimmy Carter. Today, all people remember about that election is that it was a Reagan landslide; but it didn't start out that way. Going into the campaign, voters had serious doubts about Reagan's political philosophy, and his potential to push the U.S. into war. Wisely, Reagan spent the early months of his campaign easing those doubts and establishing his own credibility. Not until his campaign advisers were convinced that his own credibility was established did they launch a devastating negative campaign. There is no doubt in my mind that negative campaign would have been much less effective if they had begun it earlier. There is a tendency today for candidates whose own positions are not known, whose own credibility has not been established, to go on the attack. My strong advice is to concentrate on the positives and establish your candidate's own credibility before making attacks on your opponent. 31. Do not confuse education with intelligence. There is a lot to be said for gut instincts and street smarts in political campaigns; it is not always the best educated people who are the most politically intelligent. Almost everywhere I have worked, I have encountered people with weak education credits and high intelligence. The same is true of voters. Early in my career, I learned never to underestimate the intelligence of the voters nor overestimate the amount of information at their POLITICAL CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT, STRATEGY & TACTICS disposal. Providing them with the information is the campaign's responsibility; their intelligence will take over from there. 32. An election is like a one-day sale. This is what makes timing so crucial in a political campaign. If you are selling Fords or Toyotas, the customer can buy his car today, tomorrow, next week or next year. But the product (candidate) in a campaign (sale) is available for only a few hours on one day. You must gear your campaign to peak as close to Election Day as possible. Too often we have seen campaigns peak on Labor Day when the election is in November. From then on, it is downhill. It might be better to have a late peak than an early one; at least that way the campaign will be moving in the right direction on Election Day. You have certain controls in the peaking process, such as media time buys and when to make major announcements, and although you might not be able to fine-tune the campaign to peak precisely when you wish, how effectively you manipulate the controls will determine how close you come to your ideal peak. 33. Differentiate between the essential and the nonessential. The wise candidate or leader learns early to distinguish between them, to make the essential decisions and take the essential actions himself and to leave the nonessentials to staff and others in his government. The same guideline applies to consultants: Do not make a big thing of something that is not really important or essential, but if it is essential, utilize all your resources to achieve the objective. 34. They won't let you run in the general election unless you win the primary. It's just like baseball, where they won't let you play in the World Series unless you win the pennant. Yet how many times have we seen campaigns where the candidate thinks and talks of nothing but how he is going to beat his opponent in the general election, paying scant attention to his opponent in the primary? In a classic case in Massachusetts, the incumbent governor, a Democrat, prepared television commercials and a whole panoply of other campaign materials to use against an incumbent Republican senator. His primary opponent was a mayor of a medium-sized city, and the decision was made to ignore the mayor in the primary, not to respond to any charge or attack. AH the governor's television commercials, signs and bumper stickers went into the trash the morning after the primary, because the unheralded mayor had scored a smashing upset. Advice for Candidates 35. The size of crowds bears little relationship to the vote. Another example from Venezuela: During one campaign, Accion Democratica held a rally in downtown Caracas. It was mobbed; more than 50,000 people turned out. Two 34 35 WINNING ELECTIONS POLITICAL CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT, STRATEGY & TACTICS days later, the Socialist Party, which never receives more than 5 percent of the vote, staged a rally on the same site with the same turnout. In 1968, I was director of media for Vice President Hubert Humphrey in his campaign against Richard Nixon. One day Nixon toured Philadelphia; the crowds were enormous. Humphrey went through a few days later, the crowds were.small. Humphrey won Philadelphia by 100,000 votes. The Republicans obviously did a better job in turning out the crowd, but at least in this case, not the vote. 36. Do not be hung up on slogans and logos. Too often a candidate or his advertising manager will be so hung up on a slogan or a logo that they will insist it be used in every television spot, every radio spot, every brochure, every print ad, and so forth. Use them where they work, and if they seem out of place, use something else or nothing at all. 37. Start early. You can never start planning your campaign too early. You can begin the campaign too soon; that's something else again. In my own experience, the best example I know of long planning period/short campaign was Mike Gravel's upset victory over Alaska Sen. Ernest Gruening in the 1968 Democratic primary. We planned Gravel's campaign in December 1966; the execution of the campaign, pretty much according to what we had decided to do 18 months later, occurred during two weeks in August 1968. By starting early, you have plenty of time to take and analyze polls, study your opponent and his likely moves in depth, design and discuss various possible strategies, select the best specialists to work on the campaign, and mentally prepare your candidate. When you start late, it does not mean you have fewer things to do, but merely less time to do them. 38. Beware of easy solutions to complex problems. There are none. If the problem is complex, the solution also must be complex. There are ways of providing simple explanations of proposed solutions, but anyone who comes up with a "simple" solution to crime, drugs, unemployment, inflation, housing or a myriad of other complex problems clearly doesn't even understand the problem, never mind the solution. 39. Exude confidence - but never overconfidence. Personally, I prefer a low-key approach in this area: Express confidence that you will win, but say you expect a hard, tough campaign. This is especially true in a campaign where you are expected to win, start out strong in the polls and then are lulled into a sense of false security and fail to do everything needed to ensure victory. If anything, it is better to be less confident than too confident; it also will keep your staff working harder. 40. You need not oppose every position or statement by your opposition. Even the opposition is right sometimes, just as a stopped clock is right twice a day. 36 By criticizing everything, you dilute the strength of your own criticism. I prefer to reduce the frequency of attacks, or counterattacks, but to make them really sting when you do use them. 41. A power base helps. It might not be absolutely essential to have a power base in a political campaign, but it sure helps. The base can be geographic (the candidate's home state, city or county) or demographic (blacks, Hispanics, elderly, liberals, conservatives, whatever). If you start with a power base, you have something to build on. If you do not, your first step is to create one, and that detracts from other things you can do. Any candidate who starts with a built-in power base has an advantage. 42. You are never going to please everyone. Candidates sometimes try to run campaigns by consensus; they think they can appeal to everyone, please everyone, without getting anyone angry. This just does not happen. Campaigns are a series of decisions, many of them easy, some of them difficult. Every time you make a difficult decision, some group of voters is not going to like it. But if you do not make any decisions, or if you attempt to water down your positions so they become meaningless, no one is going to like it. Advice for Consultants 43. Television spots showing large crowds are of little real value; they just make the candidate feel good. In one Latin American campaign, the advertising agency proudly showed me 22 spots they had produced for their candidate. At least 18 of them showed nothing but cheering crowds; not one of them showed the candidate talking to the people about what he would do for them if he were elected. We made the necessary adjustments in that campaign, but this phenomenon exists, and it sometimes is difficult to persuade inexperienced campaign workers that such spots really do not help very much. 44. Every campaign is different; every campaign is the same. The object of any political campaign is to persuade voters to mark their "X" after one name instead of another. In every campaign, certain basics are similar if not identical. Every campaign contains the same essential ingredients: polls, strategy, message, advertising, organization, fundraising. But each campaign has its points of dissimilarity, and the approach and strategy must be defined and adapted to conform with existing elements. Just as generals often are accused of fighting the last war, we never should allow ourselves to "fight the last campaign." We must adjust our tactics to meet current needs. 45. You might be able to polish a candidate but you cannot really change him. I have seen candidates who have improved (and some who have gotten worse) in the course of campaigning, but I have never been involved with a 37 WINNING ELECTIONS POLITICAL CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT, STRATEGY & TACTICS candidate who really changed very much. Sure, you can do some cosmetic things: Convince him to wear dark suits, cut his hair differently, change the color of his socks, buy more attractive eyeglasses, maybe even get him to be more prompt. But almost all the time, you really just work with what you have, so you might as well adjust to this at the beginning of the campaign and adapt your campaign plan to fit your candidate. 46. Instill some sense of priority in your candidate. Rationally and logically, every candidate knows that just about every appearance he makes on television, especially in paid commercials purchased in prime time, will be seen by more voters than will see him in person during the entire course of the campaign. But virtually every candidate resists spending the time necessary to permit the best possible television production. This is why it is so important to have the campaign scheduler be someone who understands the importance of various activities, such as media production, and who will cancel a breakfast with 50 supporters so the candidate can have more time to prepare for television, or rehearse an important speech, or take a day's rest, or discuss critical strategy decisions. 47. Proceed cautiously in foreign elections. First, because you are a foreigner, there will be natural skepticism about your ability or understanding of the problems. If you are an American, these problems usually are compounded. A good friend of mine used to drive me to distraction in early discussions with presidential candidates in foreign countries. After one two-hour meeting, he was prepared to design the whole campaign, tell the locals what they were doing wrong and give some very simple solutions to extremely complicated problems. Some of his analysis was right on the mark, but its effectiveness was dissipated by the speed with which he made his recommendations. The first objective in dealing with candidates and their staffs in foreign countries is to win their confidence. Ideas they might reject if offered in the first meeting might well be accepted, or at least seriously considered, after they have developed some confidence in you. Proceed slowly and cautiously, even if you know right from the beginning what needs to be done. 48. Always let the campaign staff know you are not looking for their job. In my first meeting with the candidate's staff I give a little speech about my role in the campaign. I explain that I have no interest in being the governor's chief of staff or press secretary or head of the state lottery; all I want to do is help win the election and go home. I want them to look on me as a resource, a support system, not a threat. Usually this works, but not always; I know that in some campaigns some staff members, invariably those least secure about their own abilities, try to undercut my recommendations. Not much you can do about this; it's an occupational hazard. 38 But if you make the effort at the beginning to win the cooperation of the candidate's staff, and assure them your role ends on Election Day, then it's usually an easier campaign. 49. If your advice is not being accepted, quit. If your advice constantly is being overruled or ignored, you have two choices: Give in or get out. I always prefer to get out - not that it happens all that often, maybe three or four times in 30 years. Once I was retained as media consultant in a New York gubernatorial primary. One afternoon I had a cup of coffee with the representative of the advertising agency hired by the campaign that turned into a mutual complaint session. By the time we finished our second cup of coffee, we both agreed to quit. In a situation like this, I usually tell the candidate and/or his campaign manager, "Look, you are telling people I am the media director in this campaign, but I really am not, because 3'ou are not accepting my recommendations. You are paying me money for advice you are not using, and I am spending my time working in a campaign where my advice obviously is not needed or wanted. Why don't we part company and stay friends?" 50. Settle your financial arrangements at the beginning. Better not to do a campaign than to do it and not be paid for it. You learn as you grow older. Early in my career, after meeting with the candidate and his team, I often would design what amounted to a whole campaign plan and submit it with my proposal to work for the candidate. Until I became smarter, they often would reject the proposal for whatever reason, and then use the campaign plan pretty much as I had written it. Now I will not write a plan until we have agreed on a contract. There are certain expenses built into my fees. For example, first-class air fare. When you make 40 trips out of the country in a single year, as I do, it is not just a question of comfort, it is a question of survival. Unless I know the candidate well or have worked for him before, I now insist on quarterly payments in advance. This is especially important overseas, where you essentially have no recourse if a candidate or party refuses to pay for your services. I am perfectly willing to do campaigns for nothing or for a token fee, if the candidate is a good friend, or if it is a cause or candidate I really believe in and want to work for. But if we are talking about a business arrangement, it should be conducted on a businesslike basis - and that means being paid on schedule. The surest way to avoid problems is to receive a chunk of money up front; at least that way you are not hurt too badly if the second payment never comes. This is even more important for television producers, who need to invest substantial amounts of money in production costs. I must say that more than 90 percent of the political candidates I have worked for have paid me in full. A few did not, and their names are etched in my memory. 39 WINNING ELECTIONS POLITICAL CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT, STRATEGY & TACTICS 51. Research your candidate as thoroughly as you do your opponent. In almost every campaign, an individual or team is assigned to research the opponent's record, in the hope of uncovering things that can be used against him. In my campaigns, I insist we make the same effort researching our own candidate. If there is anything in the candidate's background or record we will need to defend in a campaign, I want to know it, sooner rather than later. Maybe the opponent's researchers never will find out about it; more likely they will. Better to be prepared. I always meet privately with a new candidate to ask him if there is anything in his record that could prove embarrassing later in the campaign. Sometimes candidates tell you the truth; sometimes they do not. My favorite story here concerns a Southern candidate for governor, a freewheeling bachelor. When I asked the question, this conversation ensued: "Joe, do you know what they say about me down here?" "No. What do they say?" "They say I drink whiskey and chase women." "Do you?" "Of course I do." How can you hate a guy like that? 52. Marginal improvements are important and often decisive. A fascinating book I strongly recommend is Thinking in Time, by Rich Neustadt and Ernest May. One of the points they make is that "marginal improvements are important." Although the authors are not referring to political campaigns, their advice is on target. When you start a campaign with your candidate 30 or 40 points behind, there is no way you are going to make up this deficit in one gulp. You must chip away, make "marginal improvements," over a period of time. But even more important, most elections are decided by close margins, and if you make small improvements with every group of voters, these will add up. 53. Know when to use bold strokes and when not to. There are times when a bold stroke is necessary to put some zip in your campaign. Usually, you can use a bold stroke if (1) your campaign is drifting and needs a spark; (2) you are in with the pack in a multicandidate race and need to pull out of the pack; or (3) you are behind and conventional tactics are not moving the campaign. By definition, a bold stroke can be dangerous and has the potential to backfire or be counterproductive. As a general rule, I recommend a bold stroke only when it appears nothing else will pull you out of a rut. Knowing when to use a bold stroke is as important as knowing how to use one. 54. Do not let your candidate think that just because he has said something once everyone has heard it. In the first place, to be a candidate, you must 40 have a sizable ego. Part of that ego is the belief that because you make a statement or a speech, the whole state (county, world, universe) knows what you said and what your position is. I once had the president of a Third World country tell me that his people could recite his speeches by heart, that they all listened to his talks on television and that they all were familiar with his programs. "Fine," I said, "let's take a poll." The poll showed not many people watched the television programs; those who did usually had little idea of what the president was talking about, and they had no idea at all about what he was doing. We made some changes. It is not only in the Third World that candidates or heads of state have these attitudes; they are prevalent wherever I have worked. If your candidate says something good or important, repeat it and repeat it until the message sinks in. Do not depend on a speech or news to carry important campaign messages; reinforce them with paid advertising. 55. Be prepared to produce media right to the end. In years gone by, it was common practice for a campaign to contract with a television producer to make a package of spots or longer programs. Often the finished package was delivered four or five weeks before the election. Not any more. Today, you must be prepared to use television, radio and newspapers right up to election eve. You need the flexibility to capitalize on last-minute events and developments. Arrangements should be made with your TV producer to be available at all times. If this is not possible, then an hour of studio time should be reserved for each day in the final week of the campaign. 56. Establish and maintain an immediate communications system. There are occasions in almost every campaign when you simply must reach the candidate, the campaign manager, the media director, the television producer, or the pollster in the campaign immediately. Unfortunately, these occasions usually occur at night, early Sunday morning or in the middle of a holiday weekend. One of the first projects in any campaign should be to prepare a small directory of all the key people, with telephone numbers where they can be reached after hours, on weekends or other inconvenient times. Naturally, distribution of this directory should be limited to those with a decision-making position in the campaign. During the campaign, someone in the headquarters should know where everyone in the campaign can be reached. If a candidate is traveling, someone in the entourage should call "communications central" several times a day to report what is happening with the candidate and to find out what is going on at headquarters. 57. You do not have to love your candidate, but at least you should respect him or her. I have found it is possible to continue to work for a candidate you do not really like as long as you maintain some respect for him or her. If 41 WINNING ELECTIONS POLITICAL CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT, STRATEGY & TACTICS you neither like nor respect a candidate, then it is difficult to do your job proper- |j ly If you realize this at the beginning, it is not much of a problem: Just don't take f| the campaign. The difficulty comes when you start out having a decent relation- ft ship with the candidate, only to see it deteriorate during the course of the campaign. Then you have a tough decision to make: remain with the campaign and do || the best you can, or quit. ,| 58. Make sure your candidate knows why he or she is running and can answer the question: "Why should I vote for you instead of your oppo- ft nent?" The classic example of this is Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's fumbling the ff question, "Why do you want to be president?" put to him by Roger Mudd of CBS f News in 1980. Kennedy might have lost the election right then and there. Actually, it is astonishing how much difficulty many candidates have with this ii question. You would think that by the time they have decided to run, they would | know the answer. Do not take this for granted. If the candidate does not answer | the question to your satisfaction, work with him until he has a crisp, polished, sen- | sible answer. 59. If your candidate has a difficult name, try to turn it to your advan- « tage. Sure, it's nice to have candidates with names like Kennedy, Carter, Clinton Reagan or Bush, but how about Ed Mezvinsky, Jim Scheuer and Frank Licht? I These were candidates I worked with, and all of them were elected - but not : before we made special efforts to make sure voters knew how to pronounce their | names.