Political Campaign

I

Introduction

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.

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.

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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.

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