Kingmaker

Kingmaker

"Kingmaker" is a term originally applied to the activities of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick during the Wars of the Roses in England. The term has come to be applied more generally to a person or group that has great influence in a royal succession, without being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious, and/or military means to interfere in the succession. Examples include:

• Warwick, the Kingmaker
  

• Nogai Khan who influenced succession in the Golden Horde

In Game Theory

In game theory, a kingmaker is a player who lacks sufficient resources or position to win at a given game, but possesses enough remaining resources to decide which of the remaining viable players will eventually win.


Contemporary usage

By analogy, "Kingmaker" is also used in some countries to refer to those with the ability to influence the selection of political leaders.

Modern politicians known as "Kingmaker" include:

• James Farley who orchestrated the gubernatorial and presidential elections of Franklin D. Roosevelt 1928-1940.
  

• K. Kamaraj was instrumental in making Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi as Prime Ministers of India in the year 1964 and 1966 respectively.
  

• Sonia Gandhi who seems to many the de facto Prime Minister of India; named as a kingmaker on numerous occasions, TIME naming her as such while also calling her India's leader in all but title.
  

• Roy Vincent Harris in Georgia (U.S. state) politics.
  

• Dick Morris who orchestrated the gubernatorial and presidential elections of Bill Clinton.
  

• Kakuei Tanaka in Japanese politics.
  

• Graham Richardson in Australian politics

Political campaign staff

Political campaign staff

The staff of political campaigns are the people who formulate and implement the strategy needed to win an election. Many people have made careers out of working full-time for campaigns and groups that support them, in other campaigns much of the staff might be unpaid volunteers. Information on political consultants, people who do not work for the campaign full-time but still provide assistance in the form of advice and creative expertise, are discussed in the political consultants article.

This article provides a generic description of a campaign's staff and organization. Different campaigns have different structures.


Structure of a campaign

Campaigns are usually overseen by a campaign manager. The campaign manager coordinates the campaign making sure that the rest of the staff and the campaign's consultants are focused effectively on winning the election. In small local campaigns, the campaign manager will often be the only paid staff member and will be responsible for every aspect of the campaign that is not covered by the candidate or volunteers. In larger campaigns, such as an American presidential campaign, hundreds of staff members will cover the required tasks. While campaign managers are often the lead strategists in local campaigns, in the United States larger campaigns hire consultants to serve as strategists and the campaign manager focuses mostly on coordinating the campaign staff. Campaign managers will often have deputies who oversee various aspects of the campaign at a closer level.

Directly below the campaign manager on the organization chart is the deputy campaign manager and directly below them are department directors who coordinate specific aspects of the campaign. These staff members often have deputies as well.

Below the department level, campaigns vary widely in their structure. On larger campaigns, there will be various coordinators for certain functions within each department. For example, within the fundraising department, there might be a staff member who focuses only on direct mail fundraising.

At the bottom of the totem pole are the interns and volunteers who perform the least glamorous tasks of the campaign. These can include addressing envelopes, entering data into databases, and canvassing voters on behalf of the campaign.


Departments and their respective purposes

Field/Ground Department

The field department focuses on the "on-the-ground" organizing that is required in order to personally contact voters through canvassing, phone calls, and building local events. Voter contact helps construct and clean the campaign's voter file in order to help better target voter persuasion and identify which voters a campaign most wants to bring out on election day. Field is generally also tasked with running local "storefront" campaign offices as well as organizing phone banks and staging locations for canvasses and other campaign events.

On the state level, field departments are generally organized by geography with an overall state field director who oversees the efforts of several regional field directors who in turn manage several local offices. Other field workers below this level include:

• Organizer : generally responsible for the operations of a single office serving a county or several counties, the local organizer works to build a local organization, mostly of volunteers, that will be used to fill out campaign events, contact voters, and ultimately to provide ground troops for election day efforts.
  

• Volunteer coordinator : tasked full time with recruiting, retaining, and scheduling volunteers
  

• General Field Staff : the lowest level of field staff, these paid workers generally do direct voter contact full time as well as assisting the organizers
  

• GOTV coordinator : generally either brought in in the last few months of the campaign or a re-tasked staffer, GOTV coordinators plan the local "Get Out the Vote" efforts.

In addition to voter persuasion and voter identification, field staff will often provide information for the campaign headquarters as to what is going on in the communities they work in. Field staffers are the primary liaison between the campaign and local influentials such as interest group leaders and prominent community activists. Field departments are also often primarily responsible for the local distribution of "chum" i.e. lawn signs, bumper stickers, buttons, and other such materials.


Communications Department

The communications department oversees both the press relations and advertising involved in promoting the campaign in the media. They are responsible for the campaign's message and image among the electorate. Press releases, advertisements, phone scripts, and other forms of communication must be approved by this department before they can be released to the public. The staffers within this office vary widely from campaign to campaign. However they generally include:

• A press secretary who monitors the media and coordinates the campaign's relations with the press. Press secretaries set up interviews between the candidate and reporters, brief the press at press conferences, and perform other tasks involved in press relations.
  
• A rapid response director who makes sure that the campaign responds quickly to the attacks of the other campaigns. They and their staff constantly monitor the media and the moves of their opponents, making sure that attacks are rebutted quickly.

Policy Department

Researching and developing a set of policies requires a large team to research and write each plank. Researchers also provide information to the campaign on issues and the backgrounds of candidates (including the candidate they work for) in order to be aware of skeletons in the various candidates' closets. The latter practice is known as opposition research. On smaller campaigns this is often folded into the communications department. Most campaigns for a seat in a legislature will not have a full policy department, as party platforms are worked out by the central campaign office. Other races, such as a presidential or mayoral race will require a wide array of policy positions to be developed in-house.


Fundraising Department

The finance department coordinates the campaign's fundraising operation and ensures that the campaign always has the money it needs to operate effectively. The techniques employed by this campaign vary based on the campaign's needs and size. Small campaigns often involve casual fundraising events and phone calls from the candidate to donors asking for money. Larger campaigns will include everything from high-priced sit-down dinners to e-mail messages to donors asking for money.


Compliance and Legal Departments

The compliance and legal departments makes sure that the campaign is consistent with the law and also makes sure that the campaign files the appropriate forms with government authorities. In Britain and other Commonwealth countries, such as Canada and India, each campaign must have an official agent, who is legally responsible for the campaign and is obligated to make sure the campaign follows all rules and regulations.

This department will also be responsible for all financial tracking, including bank reconciliations, loans and backup for in-kind donations. They are generally required to keep both paper and electronic files. Small campaigns will often have one person responsible for financial disclosure while larger campaigns will have dozens of lawyers and treasurers making sure that the campaign's activities are legal. After the election, the compliance and legal department must still respond to audit requests and, when required, debt retirement.


Technology Department

The technology department designs and maintains campaign technology such as Voter File and websites. While small campaigns might have a volunteer or two who know how to use computers, large campaigns will have armies of computer professionals spread across the state or country handling everything from websites to blogs to databases.


Scheduling and Advance Department

The scheduling and advance department makes sure that the candidate and campaign surrogates are effectively scheduled so as to maximize their impact on the voters. This department also oversees the advance people who arrive at events before the candidate to make sure everything is in order. Often, this department will be a part of the field department.

On small campaigns the scheduling coordinator may be responsible for developing and executing events. The scheduling coordinator typically:

a) manages the candidate's personal and campaign schedule b) manages the field and advance team schedules c) gathers important information about all events the campaign and candidate will attend

Candidates and other members of the campaign must bear in mind that only one person should oversee the details of scheduling. Fluid scheduling is one of the many keys to making a profound impact on voters.


See also

Political consultant

Election campaign

The Role of the Campaign Treasurer

Election promise

Election promise

An election promise is a promise made to the public by a politician who is trying to win an election. They have long been a central element of elections and remain so today. Election promises are also notable for often being broken once a politician is in office.

Elections promises are part of an election platform, but platforms also contain vague ideals and generalities as well as specific promises. They are an essential element in getting people to vote for a candidate. For example, a promise such as to cut taxes or to introduce new social programs may appeal to voters.


Broken promises

A great number of election promises are broken. Many regard this as a severe issue that disaffects people from the entire political process, increasing apathy and lowering voter turnout. Election promises have been broken for as long as elections have been held and this is likely to continue.

There are strong pressures on politicians to make promises which they cannot keep. A party that does not make exaggerated promises might appear bland, unambitious, and uninteresting to voters compared to the one that does. Sometimes this can give the exaggerating party an advantage over the truthful one. Government finances are extremely complex and promises are vague enough that the media and public can rarely say for certain that the numbers do not add up. Thus almost all parties continue to promise lower taxes, more social programs, and a balanced budget. For instance George W. Bush in the 2000 American presidential election promised all three and in the end abandoned balanced budgets. In the 2003 provincial election in Ontario, Canada, the Liberal Party also made all three promises and raised taxes once it found itself in government with an unbalanced budget.

Promises are usually based on the rosiest of possible futures, a strong economy and cooperative leaders of legislatures and sub-national entities. Actual government planning done by bureaucrats generally plans for the worst possible future, but any politician that would plan in this manner would have a platform that is far less attractive than that of their opponents.

Adding caveats to promises based on economic performance would hurt the politician, and is also difficult to do in ten second news sound bites or thirty second commercials.
There is some latitude for breaking promises. George W. Bush's pledge to not involve the U.S. military in nation building was discarded after the September 11th attacks, a change in policy widely viewed as justifiable among his supporters. Franklin Roosevelt's 1940 pledge to keep the United States out of World War II was similarly abandoned after the Pearl Harbor attack, prompting a voter backlash in the 1942 midterm elections.

It has been argued that governments in general should not be elected for what they promise, but rather for their ability to deal with the unexpected. Factors such as competence, honesty, ideology, and experience are in many ways a better method of judging a party or politician than their promises that may or may not be kept. This is reflected in actual elections where a politician's character, the party that they belong to, and factors like scandals have a far greater impact on how people vote than specific election promises.

Election promises differ in different government systems. In the Westminster System where almost all power resides in the office of the Prime Minister voters know where to ascribe blame for broken promises. In presidential systems such as that in the United States where power is more diffuse and ultimate responsibility harder to pin down, it is harder for an electorate to punish politicians for broken promises. For instance in the United States a presidential candidate can freely make promises of an impractically large tax cut in the firm confidence that the Senate will reduce it to a manageable level.

The constant stream of broken promises has annoyed many voters and politicians have responded with techniques to make their promises more believable. This includes making far more specific promises with numbers attached. The 1993 Canadian Liberal Red Book was an example of this. Also popular is setting a more specific time for when promises will be implemented, with politicians listing what they will do in their first week or first hundred days in office.

When promises are to be broken, all politicians know it is best to do so at the start of a term.

Thus the first budget is the one most likely to see unexpected tax hikes, or slashed spending.

The hope is that by the time the next election occurs in three or four years time the anger of the electorate will have faded.

Similarly politicians often save popular, but relatively unimportant promises for the end of their term to be implemented just before they are up for reelection.


Case study: Richard Nixon's Election promises

In the 1968 Presidential campaign, Richard Nixon stated that "new leadership will end the war" in Vietnam. He never used the phrase "secret plan", which originated with a reporter looking for a lead to a story summarizing the Republican candidate's (hazy) promise to end the war without losing. When pressed for details, Nixon retreated to the position that to tip his hand would interfere with the negotiations that had begun in Paris. Nixon never disavowed the term.[1] In his own memoirs, Nixon stated he never claimed to have such a plan. [2][3] Nevertheless,

Nixon's critics have continued to accuse him of campaigning on a "secret plan" to end the war.
According to one historian: "...it became obvious in 1969 that Nixon's "secret plan" to end the war was a campaign gimmick..."[4]

Another historian wrote: "Nixon never had a plan to end the war, but he did have a general strategy--to increase pressure on the communists [and] issue them a November 1, 1969 deadline to be conciliatory or else...The North Vietnamese did not respond to Nixon's ultimatum...and his aides began planning Operation Duck Hook." [5]

Nixon told Michigan Republican congressman Donald Riegle that the war would be over within six months of his assumption of office.

As this six month deadline approached, in May 1969, Henry Kissinger asked a group of Quakers to give the administration six more months. "Give us six months, and if we haven't ended the war by then, you can come back and tear down the White House fence."[6]

The election promises of the Nixon administration had positive results for the White House.

Many potential peace activists were not ready to march on the Pentagon...until Nixon was given a fair chance. After all, troops were being withdrawn, the bombing had stopped, and diplomats were talking in Paris.[7] In addition, as the White House gradually pulled troops from Vietnam, the media shifted from the destruction of Vietnam--even while the U.S. air war and coordinated ground assaults in Southeast Asia persisted at a very high rate of killing. [8]

The executive producer of the ABC evening news, Av Westin, wrote a memo in March 1969 that stated:

"I have asked our Vietnam staff to alter the focus of their coverage from combat
pieces to interpretive ones, pegged to the eventual pull-out of the American
forces. This point should be stressed for all hands."

And Westin telexed the ABC network's Saigon bureau:

"I think the time has come to shift some of our focus from the battlefield, or
more specifically American military involvement with the enemy, to themes and
stories under the general heading 'We Are on Our Way Out of Vietnam.'"[9]

American combat deaths for the first half of 1969 increased rather than decreased during the time in which the plan was allegedly being implemented.[10]

In 1972 Nixon also promised that "peace is at hand".[11] On January 27, 1973, at the beginning of Nixon's second term, representatives of the US, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the Viet Cong signed the Paris Peace Accords, which formally ended US involvement in the war.

The Nixon Administration six month's promise is similar to the Philippine-American War 1900 promise of Republicans who pledged that the fighting in the Philippines would end within sixty days of McKinley's re-election.[12]


Lists of broken promises

List of broken election promises (United States)

Canvassing

Canvassing

Canvassing is the systematic contacting of individuals in a target group, often in a particular geographic area. It is commonly used before or during elections by political campaigns. Similar techniques are used by non-governmental organizations, labor unions, churches, poll takers, and even commercial enterprises.

A "canvass" can be organized with different desired goals:

• Identifying supporters
  

• Distributing information
  

• Persuasion
  

• Fundraising
  

• Signing up new members
  

• Voter registration
  

• Encouraging people to vote (Get Out The Vote, GOTV)

In some cases a given canvass will attempt to achieve outcomes across some combination of these goals. For example a canvass focused on persuading people to vote for a particular candidate or ballot issue may also solitcit funds and sign up new members to an organization.

A key concept in canvassing is to target the population that is being contacted. For example if the goal of a canvass is to turn out voters on election day for a Democratic candidate then knocking on Republican doors may not be a great use of time and resources. Targeting can be quite complex and sophisticated and may employ voting history data, census data, and consumer habits. Part of an overall field strategy may be to do a canvass focussed on identifying likely supporters who will then be approached at a later date by another canvass for GOTV.

Even if sophisticated data is not available, most field operations professionals will spend energy trying to reduce randomness in their contacts in an attempt to optimize their use of time and resources.

While converting voters would ideally be a central goal, it is difficult, requiring knowledgeable and charismatic canvassers, and time-consuming. To reach every voter in a district a canvasser cannot spend more than one or two minutes per person, rarely enough time to have a significant discussion. Persuasion canvassing will often involve the dropping of literature and campaign marketing materials like lawn signs, window signs, and bumper stickers (given to supporters).

As canvassers work a population they will often make careful notes and use classification codes to record their interaction with the public.

There are two basic types of canvassing: field canvasses and phone canvasses.


Field canvasses

Field canvasses are done by going door to door to every home and apartment in a district, a ZIP code or some other unit of geographic measurement. They have the advantage that people are generally more open to talking to someone in person and literature can be delivered and lawn signs put up at the same time as the canvass. A field canvass can also guarantee completeness as each house can be accounted for. A field canvass is usually done by one or two individuals, either both at one door, or one on each side of the street.

For Contractors utilizing "Field Canvassing" it works best when working around a current or previous jobsite. Otherwise called Jobsite Radiation.

There are Consultants available for Contractors interested in learning more about this type of Canvassing. For more info, please check your search engine or call the Procanvasser for more information.


Candidate canvasses

A variation of the field canvass is a candidate canvass; these are done with the actual candidate in a district. These have great potential as people are far more likely to vote for a candidate they have seen in person. With only one candidate, however, time is a valuable commodity. The candidate is thus usually accompanied by a half dozen or more volunteers who knock on doors.

If they find no one home the candidate does not go to that home. If they find a person the volunteer finds out if they would like to meet the candidate. If they would the volunteer signals the candidate.

This technique optimizes the amount of time a candidate spends speaking to potential voters.


Phone canvasses

Phone canvasses can reach more people more quickly than a field canvass; messages can be left on answering machines and there is far less exertion on the part of volunteers. A phone bank environment also means knowledgeable coordinators can keep far closer track of what the volunteers are doing. In rural areas phone canvasses are the only method efficient enough to reach most voters. Apartment buildings are also often better reached by phone canvasses as residents there are unused to and discomfited by opening the door to strangers. There are a number of disadvantages, however. Many voters are put off by anything resembling telemarketing. Getting an accurate and up-to-date list of phone numbers for everyone in a district is very difficult with a considerable percent of numbers becoming out of date in only a few months.

Based on the experience of the Procanvasser, when done the right way, Phone Canvassing can be very effective. The Important thing to remember is to have the right script, and attitude when contacting prospects.


See also

List of democracy and elections-related topics

Political campaign staff

Progressive Action Network - trains and develops canvass leadership for progressive organizations in the US

Activism

Activism

Activism, in a general sense, can be described as intentional action or inaction to bring about social or political change. This action is in support of, or opposition to, one side of an often controversial argument.

The well known terms activism and activist used in a political manner first appeared in the Belgian press in 1916 in connection with the Flamingo movement. The word "activism" is often used synonymously with protest or dissent, but activism can stem from any number of political orientations and take a wide range of forms, from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism (such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing preferred businesses), rallies and street marches, strikes, or even guerrilla tactics. In the more confrontational cases, an activist may be called a freedom fighter by some, and a terrorist by others, depending on whether the commentator supports the activist's ends.

In some cases, activism has nothing to do with protest or confrontation: for instance, some religious, feminist or vegetarian/vegan activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than persuade governments to change laws. The cooperative movement seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest politically.


Transformational activism

Transformational activism is the idea that people need to transform on the inside as well on the outside in order to create any meaningful change in the world.

One example of transformational activism is peacekeeping which, as defined by the United Nations, is "a way to help countries torn by conflict create conditions for sustainable peace." Peacekeepers monitor and observe peace processes in post-conflict areas and assist ex-combatants in implementing the peace agreements they may have signed. Such assistance comes in many forms, including confidence-building measures, power-sharing arrangements, electoral support, strengthening the rule of law, and economic and social development. Accordingly UN peacekeepers (often referred to as Blue Helmets because of their light blue helmets) can include soldiers, civilian police officers, and other civilian personnel.


Types of activism

Civil disobedience
Community building
Activism industry
Cooperative movement
Craftivism
Voluntary simplicity
Economic activism
Boycott
Divestment (a.k.a. Disinvestment)
Franchise activism
Lobbying
Media activism
Culture jamming
Hacktivism
Internet activism
Propaganda
Guerrilla communication
Non-violent confrontation
Violent confrontation
Rioting
Terrorism
Protest
Demonstration
Direct action
Theater for Social Change
Protest songs
Strike action
Youth activism
Student activism
Youth-led media


See also

Category:Activists
Activism industry
Civics
Demagogy
Judicial activism
Lobbying
Political Campaign
Protest
Rebellion
Reform movement
Revolution
Social movement
Teaching for social justice

Political campaign

Political campaign

A political campaign is an organized effort which to influence the decision making process within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referenda are decided. Political campaigns also include organized efforts to alter policy within any institution.

Politics is as old as humankind and is not limited to democratic or governmental institutions. Some examples of political campaigns are: the effort to execute or banish Socrates from Athens in the 5th century BCE, the uprising of petty nobility against John of England in the 13th century, or the 2005 push to remove Michael Eisner from the helm of The Walt Disney Company.



Campaign elements

Any political campaign is made up of three elements. The modern mnemonic is message, money, and machine.


Message

The message is a concise statement saying why voters should pick a candidate. Simple examples might include:

• "John Doe is a business man, not a politician. His background in finance means he can bring fiscal discipline to state government."
  

• "As our society faces a rapid upswing in violent crime and an ever worsening education system, we need leaders who will keep our streets safe and restore accountability to our schools. John Doe is that leader."
  

• "Over the past four years, John Doe has missed over fifty City Council meetings. How can you lead if you don't show up? Jane Doe won't turn a blind eye to the government."

The message is one of the most important aspects of any political campaign. The habit of modern Western media outlets (especially radio and television) of taking short excerpts from speeches has resulted in the creation of the term "soundbite".

In a modern political campaign, the message must be carefully crafted before it is spread. Major campaigns will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on opinion polls and focus groups in order to figure out what message is needed to reach a majority on Election Day.


Money

Fundraising techniques include having the candidate call or meet with large donors, sending direct mail pleas to small donors, and courting interest groups who could end up spending millions on the race if it is significant to their interests.


Machine

Finally, 'machine' represents human capital, the foot soldiers loyal to the cause, the true believers who will carry the run by volunteer activists. Successful campaigns usually require a campaign manager and some staff members who make strategic and tactical decisions while volunteers and interns canvass door-to-door and make phone calls.

Large modern campaigns use all three of the above components to create a successful strategy for victory.



Techniques

A campaign team (which may be as small as one inspired individual, or a heavily-resourced group of professionals) must consider how to communicate the message of the campaign, recruit volunteers, and raise money. Campaign advertising draws on techniques from commercial advertising and propaganda. The avenues available to political campaigns when distributing their messages is limited by the law, available resources, and the imagination of the campaigns' participants. These avenues include:

The public media (in US parlance 'free media' or 'earned media') may run the story that someone is trying to get elected or to do something about such and such
The paid media which consists of paid advertisements on TV, the radio, in newspapers, on billboards and, increasingly, the Internet
Holding protests, rallies and other similar public events (if enough people can be persuaded to come)
Holding mass meetings with speakers
Writing directly to members of the public (either via a professional marketing firm or, particularly on a small scale, by volunteers)

• Canvassing face-to-face with members of the public, either at events, in the street ("mainstreeting"), or on the doorstep
  

• By cold-calling members of the public over the phone
  

• By distributing leaflets or selling newspapers
  

• Through websites, online communities, and solicited or unsolicited bulk email eg. [1]
  

• Through a new technique known as Microtargeting that helps identify and target small demographic slices of voters
  

• Through a whistlestop tour - a series of brief appearances in several small towns
  

• Hampering the ability of political competitors to campaign, by such techniques as counter-rallies, picketing of rival parties’ meetings, or overwhelming rival candidates’ offices with mischievous phone calls (most political parties in representative democracies publicly distance themselves from such disruptive and morale-affecting tactics, with the exception of those parties self-identifying as activist [2])
  

• Organizing political house parties
  

• Using endorsements of other celebrated party members to boost support (see coattail effect).

These methods are often combined into a formal strategy known as the campaign plan. The plan takes account of a campaign's goal, message, target audience, and resources in order to lay out a blueprint for victory.

The campaign will typically seek to identify supporters at the same time as getting its message across. These identified supporters are then sent additional information requesting their active support. They are asked to "join" the campaign by donating money, doing volunteer work, writing letters to the media, voting in a particular way, and generally assisting the cause.

Ongoing campaigns can become entrenched as institutions, charities, or political parties. Conversely, existing organizations may use campaigns to remain active, or to advance interests.


Modern election campaigns in the US

Types of elections

The United States is unusual in that there are dozens of different types of elections and political offices available, including everything from the sewer commission to the President of the United States.[citation needed] Elections happen every year on many different dates in many different areas of the country.

At the local level, some offices (e.g., school board, town council, etc.) may be officially non-partisan, with candidates of the same political party challenging each other and in many cases without any campaign references to political parties. Other offices (e.g., county treasurer, county district attorney, county sheriff) may be filled in partisan manners with parties endorsing like-minded candidates and then working on their behalf.
All state and national elections are partisan (except judicial elections in some states).


Process of campaigning

Major campaigns in the United States are often much longer than those in other democracies.

Campaigns start anywhere from several months to several years before election day. The first part of any campaign for a candidate is deciding to run. Prospective candidates will often speak with family, friends, professional associates, elected officials, community leaders, and the leaders of political parties before deciding to run. Candidates are often recruited by political parties and interest groups interested in electing like-minded politicians. During this period, people considering running for office will consider their ability to put together the money, organization, and public image needed to get elected. Many campaigns for major office do not progress past this point as people often do not feel confident in their ability to win.

Once a person decides to run, they will make a public announcement. This announcement could consist of anything from a simple press release to concerned media outlets to a major media event followed by a speaking tour. It is often well-known to many people that a candidate will run prior to an announcement being made. Campaigns will often be announced and then only officially "kicked off" months after active campaigning has begun. Being coy about whether a candidacy is planned is often a deliberate strategy by a prospective candidate, either to "test the waters" or to keep the media's attention.

One of the most important aspects of the major American political campaign is the ability to raise large sums of money, especially early on in the race. Political insiders and donors often judge candidates based on their ability to raise money. Not raising enough money early on can lead to problems later as donors are not willing to give funds to candidates they perceive to be losing, a perception based on their poor fundraising performance.

Also during this period, candidates travel around the area they are running in and meet with voters; speaking to them in large crowds, small groups, or even one-on-one. This allows voters to get a better picture of who a candidate is than that which they read about in the paper or see on television. Campaigns sometimes launch expensive media campaigns during this time to introduce the candidate to voters, although most wait until closer to election day.

Campaigns often dispatch volunteers into local communities to meet with voters and persuade people to support the candidate. The volunteers are also responsible for identifying supporters, recruiting them as volunteers or registering them to vote if they are not already registered. The identification of supporters will be useful later as campaigns remind voters to cast their votes.

Late in the campaign, campaigns will launch expensive television, radio, and direct mail campaigns aimed at persuading voters to support the candidate. Campaigns will also intensify their grassroots campaigns, coordinating their volunteers in a full court effort to win votes.

Voting in the United States often starts weeks before election day as mail-in ballots are a commonly used voting method. Campaigns will often run two persuasion programs, one aimed at mail-in voters and one aimed at the more traditional poll voters.

Campaigns for minor office may be relatively simple and inexpensive - talking to local newspapers, giving out campaign signs, and greeting people in the local square.


Political consultants

Political campaigns in the United States are not merely a civic ritual and occasion for political debate, but a multi-billion dollar industry, dominated by professional political consultants using sophisticated campaign management tools, to an extent far greater than elsewhere in the world. Though the quadrennial presidential election attracts the most attention, the United States has a huge number of elected offices and there is wide variation between different states, counties, and municipalities on which offices are elected and under what procedures. Moreover, unlike democratic politics in much of the rest of the world, the US has relatively weak parties. While parties play a significant role in fundraising and occasionally in drafting people to run, campaigns are ultimately controlled by the individual candidates themselves.


Other issues and criticisms

Cost of campaign advertising

American political campaigns have become heavily reliant on broadcast media and direct mail advertising (typically designed and purchased through specialized consultants). Though virtually all campaign media are sometimes used at all levels (even candidates for local office have been known to purchase cable TV ads), smaller, lower-budget campaigns are typically more focused on direct mail, low-cost advertising (such as lawn signs), and direct voter contact. This reliance on expensive advertising is a leading factor behind the rise in the cost of running for office in the United States. This rising cost is considered by some to discourage those without well-monied connections, or money themselves, from running for office.

Independent expenditures

Money is raised and spent not only by candidate's campaign, but also by party committees, political action committees, and other groups (in the 2004 election cycle, much controversy has focused on a new category of organization, 527 groups). This is sometimes done through independent expenditures made in support or opposition of specific candidates but without any candidate's cooperation or approval. The lack of an overt connection between a candidate and third party groups allows one side of a campaign to attack the other side while avoiding criticism for going negative. A memorable example are the Swift Boat Veterans who criticized John Kerry in the United States presidential election, 2004, and who were condemned by Republican Senator John McCain.[1]


Future developments

Many political players and commentators agree that American political campaigns are currently undergoing a period of change, due to changing campaign-finance laws, increased use of the internet (which has become a valuable fundraising tool), and the apparently declining effectiveness of television advertising.


History

Political campaigns have existed as long as there have been informed citizens to campaign amongst. Often mass campaigns are started by the less privileged or anti-establishment viewpoints (as against more powerful interests whose first resort is lobbying). The phenomenon of political campaigns are tightly tied to special interest groups and political parties. The first 'modern' campaign is thought to be William Gladstone's Midlothian campaign in the 1880s, although there may be earlier recognisably modern examples from the 19th century.

Democratic societies have regular election campaigns, but political campaigning can occur on particular issues even in non-democracies so long as freedom of expression is allowed.

American election campaigns in the 19th century created the first mass-base political parties and invented many of the techniques of mass campaigning.[citation needed] In the 1790-1820s, the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party battled it out in the so-called "First Party System".


Alternatives to campaigning

Not all democratic elections involve political campaigning. Indeed, some democratic elections specifically rule out campaigning on the grounds that campaigning may compromise the democratic character of the elections (Abizadeh 2005), perhaps because of campaigns' susceptibility to the influence of money, or to the influence of special interest groups.


See also

Techniques and traditions

Canvassing

Election promise

Husting

Lawn sign

Microtargeting

Political campaign staff

Votebank

Election litter


General topics

Activism

Civics

Lobbying

Portal:Politics


Examples

American election campaigns in the 19th century



External links

United States Federal Election Commission

Campaign - Non Partisan Voter Education Site

The American Association of Political Consultants

CampaignGuide

PoliticsOnline

Clint Reilly on Political Campaigns

IRS: Taxes for Political Organizations

An in-depth look at the campaign of Lewis Lehrman for NY Governor in 1982

The National Institute on Money in State Politics

Center for American Women and Politics Ready to Run Campaign Training for Women

Australian Electoral Commission

AXJ-Grass Roots Independent Electoral Watchdog Commission

Political history of Chicago

Political history of Chicago

The Politics of Chicago have been dominated by controversy, corruption, turn-of-the-19th century businessmen, Irish Catholics, and Richard J. Daley and the Daley family.


History

In 1855, Chicago Mayor Levi Boone threw Chicago politics into the national spotlight with some interesting proposals that would lead to the Lager Beer Riot.
During much of the last half of the 19th Century, Chicago's politics were dominated by a growing Democratic Party organization dominated by ethnic ward-heelers. During the 1880s and 1890s, Chicago also had a powerful radical tradition with large and highly organized socialist, anarchist and labor organizations.[1]

The politics of Chicago came into play after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. For political reasons, a rumor was spread that a cow knocked over a lantern, thereby causing the fire. The election that year turned the fire into a "political football", with controversy erupting over who was culpable for the fire's rapid and insufficiently controlled spread. The winning party used allegations of mismanagement to spread fear, causing some voters to vote more than once. This would give rise to the famous saying "vote early and often."


20th century

The political environment in Chicago in the 1910s and 1920s let organized crime flourish to the point that many Chicago policemen earned more money from pay-offs than from the city. This same culture led directly to the Chicago Black Sox scandal of game fixing by the Chicago White Sox in 1919.

The modern era of politics is still dominated by machine politics in many ways, and the Chicago Democratic Machine became a style honed and perfected by Richard J. Daley after his election in 1955. Further evidence of this is the fact that his son, Richard M. Daley, is the current mayor.
Richard J. Daley's mastery of machine politics preserved the Chicago Democratic Machine long after the demise of similar machines in other large American cities.[2] During much of that time, the city administration found opposition mainly from a liberal "independent" faction of the Democratic Party. The independents finally won control of city government in 1983 with the election of Harold Washington. Since Washington's death, Chicago has returned to the leadership of the Democratic organization led by Richard M. Daley, although it may differ from the previous ward-based organization, as it relies on other groups, such as the Hispanic Democratic Organization.[3]

A point of interest is the party leanings of the city. For much of the last century, Chicago has been considered one of the largest Democratic strongholds in the United States. For example, the citizens of Chicago have not elected a Republican mayor since 1927, when William Thompson was voted into office. Today only one city council member is Republican.

The police corruption that came to the light from the Summerdale Scandal of 1960, where police officers kept stolen property or sold it and kept the cash, was another black eye on the local political scene of Chicago.

The Daley faction, with financial help from Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., helped elect John F. Kennedy to the office of President of the United States in the 1960 presidential election. The electoral votes from the state of Illinois, with nearly half its population located in Chicago-dominated Cook County, were a deciding factor in the win for Kennedy over Richard Nixon.

Chicago politics have also hosted some very publicized campaigns and conventions. The Democratic Party decided on Harry S. Truman as the vice-presidential candidate at the 1944 Democratic National Convention. The 1968 Democratic National Convention was the scene of mass political rallies and discontent, leading to the famous trial of the Chicago Seven.



External links

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/989.html

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/774.html

Patronage

Patronage

Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege and often financial aid given by a person or an organization. It can also refer to the right of bestowing offices or church benefices, the business given by a regular customer, and the guardianship of saints.

In some countries the term is often used to describe the corrupt use of state resources to advance the interests of groups, families, ethnicities or races in exchange for electoral support. These patronage systems have different characteristics depending on the area in which they are practiced.


The arts

From the ancient world onward patronage of the arts was important in art history. It is known in greatest detail in reference to pre-modern medieval and Renaissance Europe, though patronage can also be traced in feudal Japan, the traditional Southeast Asian kingdoms, and elsewhere—art patronage tended to arise wherever a royal or imperial system and an aristocracy dominated a society and controlled a significant share of resources. Rulers, nobles, and very wealthy people used patronage of the arts to endorse their political ambitions, social positions, and prestige. That is, patrons operated as sponsors. Some languages still use the term mecenate, derived from the name of Gaius Maecenas, generous friend and adviser to the Roman Emperor Augustus. Some patrons, such as the Medici of Florence, used artistic patronage to "cleanse" wealth that was perceived as ill-gotten through usury. Art patronage was especially important in the creation of religious art. The Roman Catholic Church and later Protestant groups sponsored art and architecture, as seen in churchs, cathedrals, painting, sculpture, and handicrafts.

While sponsorship of artists and the commissioning of artwork is the best-known aspect of the patronage system, other disciplines also benefitted from patronage including those who studied natural philosophy (pre-modern science), musicians, writers, philosophers, alchemists, astrologers, and other scholars. Artists as diverse and important as Chrétien de Troyes, Leonardo de Vinci and Michelangelo, William Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson all sought and enjoyed the support of noble or ecclesiastical patrons.[1][2] Figures as late as Mozart and Beethoven also participated in the system to some degree; it was only with the rise of bourgeois and capitalist social forms in the 19th century that European culture moved away from its patronage system to the more publicly-supported system of museums, theatres, mass audiences and mass consumption that is familiar in the contemporary world.

This kind of system continues across many fields of the arts. Though the nature of the sponsors has changed—from churches to charitable foundations, and from aristocrats to plutocrats—the term patronage has a more neutral connotation than in politics. It may simply refer to direct support (often financial) of an artist, for example by grants.

In the later part of the 20th century the academic sub-discipline of patronage studies began to evolve, in recognition of the important and often neglected role that the phenomenon of patronage had played in the cultural life of previous centuries.



Politics

Political leaders often have at their disposal a great deal of patronage, in the sense that they make decisions on the appointment of officials inside and outside government (for example on quangos). Patronage is therefore a recognized power of the executive branch. In most countries the executive has the right to make many appointments, some of which may be lucrative (see also sinecures). In some democracies, high-level appointments are reviewed or approved by the legislature (as in the advice and consent of the United States Senate); in other countries, such as those using the Westminster system, this is not the case.

In politics, patronage more narrowly defined is the practice by holders of political office of appointing their followers or fellow party members to positions. For example, those could be high-level posts such as ambassadorships, or lower-level civil service posts. Even blue-collar jobs on the government payroll may be sought after. Such overt political patronage is seen as a tool for rewarding and enforcing loyalty; loyalty is the criterion for selecting a person rather than more merit. The selection process may be seen as questionable.

Patronage can consequently be seen as one of the possible major deficiencies of a system of excess bureaucracy, defined as a system with a weak bureaucratic structure, the availability of large public resources to the patron, and that these public resources be easily divisible in order to target specific groups and individuals. Nepotism and cronyism are more specific types of patronage.



Patronage in the United States

In the United States during the Gilded Age, patronage became a central issue.

Republican Senator Roscoe Conkling of New York became a powerful political figure by determining who in the party would be given certain lucrative positions. Conkling and his supporters were known as Stalwarts. The Republican reformers who opposed patronage and advocated a civil service system were known as Mugwumps—their lack of party loyalty seen as having their "mug" on one side of the fence, their "wump" on the other. Between the two were the Halfbreeds, who were less patronage-oriented than the Stalwarts, but not as reform-minded as the Mugwumps.[3]

When James Garfield became president, he appointed Halfbreeds to most offices (despite the appointment of Stalwart Chester A. Arthur to the role of Vice President, which represented a compromise within the Republican Party). This provoked the ire of the Stalwarts. Charles J. Guiteau, a Stalwart, assassinated Garfield in 1881, six months after he became President.
To prevent further political violence and to assuage public outrage, Congress passed the Pendleton Act in 1883, which set up the Civil Service Commission. Henceforth, applicants for most federal government jobs would have to pass an examination. Federal politicians' influence over bureaucratic appointments waned, and patronage declined as a national political issue.

Patronage reached its pinnacle under the guidance of Postmaster General James Farley during the "New Deal" administration of Franklin Roosevelt, and was considered the driving force behind the administrations social welfare and infrastructure policies, including the expansion of the Postal Department and WPA programs.



Charity

Charitable and other non-profit making organisations often seek an influential figurehead to act as patron. The relationship often does not involve money. As well as conferring credibility, these people can instead use their contacts and charisma to assist the organisation to raise funds or to affect government policy. The British Royal Family are especially prolific in this respect, devoting a large proportion of their time to a wide range of causes.



Commercial

Sometimes consumers support smaller or local businesses or corporations out of loyalty even if other cheaper options exist. Their regular custom is referred to as 'patronage'.


Sports

In the same manner as commercial patronage, those who attend a sporting event may be referred to as patrons, though the usage in much of the world is now considered archaic — with one notable exception. Those who attend The Masters Tournament, one of the four major championship of professional golf, are still traditionally referred to as "patrons," largely at the insistence of the Augusta National Golf Club. This insistence is occasionally made fun of by sportswriters and other media. [4] More famously, CBS, which broadcasts the tournament, ran afoul of Augusta National management when Jack Whitaker referred to the patrons as a "mob" during a playoff between Billy Casper and Gene Littler. Augusta co-founder Clifford Roberts had Whitaker banned from commentary duties in following years, though he was restored to work years later to replace another commentator who had fallen ill. [5]

In polo, a "patron" is a person who puts together a team by hiring one or more professionals. The rest of the team may be amateurs, often including the patron himself (or, increasingly, herself). Some patrons are extremely skillful and serious players; others are more lighthearted and in it just for the fun.

Wards of the United States

Wards of the United States

In the United States, wards are political divisions which usually have leaders elected by the party committee members within their boundaries. Ward leaders are often major forces within the political and civic life of their neighborhoods, influencing zoning, the provision of governmental services, patronage, and the selection of candidates for office. Winning the leadership of a ward helped launch the Kennedy and Daley families, among many others, into elective office. Other cities in the US, such as Minneapolis, use the term ward to refer to an elective district of their city councils, and is not used in party leadership elections, as is the case with the wards of New Orleans. In smaller boroughs and townships wards typically allow a closer, more direct representation of the local voters.