Edward Schwartzman - Political Campaign Craftsmanship: A Professionals Guide to Campaigning for Public Office

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POLITICAL CAMPAIGN CRAFTSMANSHIP

POLITICAL CAMPAIGN CRAFTSMANSHIP

A Professionals Guide to Campaigning for Public Office

EDWARD SCHWARTZMAN

With a new introduction by the author

Originally published in 1984 by Van Nostrand Reinhold Company Inc.

Published 1989 by Transaction Publishers

Published 2017 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright 1989 by Taylor & Francis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 88-15998

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Schwartzman, Edward.
Political campaign craftsmanship.
Reprint. Originally published: New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, cl984.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. ElectioneeringUnited StatesHandbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Campaign managementUnited StatesHandbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.

JK2283.S38 1988 134.70973
88-15998

ISBN 13: 978-0-88738-742-5 (pbk)

In memory of my sister Martha and my friend Walter Diamond

This is the third edition of Political Campaign Craftsmanship. The last edition was published in November 1984. This introduction, then, gives me the opportunity to describe some of the significant changes in political campaigning that have taken place in the last four years.

In a purely technical sense there really havent been any significant innovations in campaigning. While the mix of ingredients has remained pretty much the same, it is extraordinary that the dominant media form-television-has become even more dominant and by itself accounts for the greatest proportion of the massive and somewhat frightening increase in campaign costs. The strategy of television commercials now almost completely controls campaigning for U.S. senate races, congressional, and big city mayorals.

Costs have skyrocketed in the last four years and are continuing to grow like a childs monstrous and bizarre toy that expands almost obscenely when water is added. A parent watches in disbelief as the toys expansion grows without its end in sight. In campaigning, it is the cash requirements for which there seems no end. The toy gives the child pleasure; television costs give pleasure to no one except perhaps media consultants and television stations-they add nothing to the democratic process and in fact may be detracting very considerably from it. The essence of the matter is that consultants are charging more and more for media emphasis which causes candidates to have to raise more and more from contributors, the majority of whom are not dominated by altruistic purposes. As a result special interest groups directly develop a significant measure of control in some legislative areas and an effective veto power in others. Consequently, public policy formulation and the ability of the Federal government to respond rapidly and appropriately to major problems is severely limited. Often the real questions cant even be addressed at the time they need to be addressed. The reasons for die exponential escalation of costs are several.

In the first place, television time costs have increased a great deal in cities nationwide. Secondly, many candidates think television is campaign turned around a losing effort in the last two weeks from 35 points down. Thirdly, production costs, with union minima increasing for actors, technicians (I always liked occupational titles such as best boy, chief gaffer, master property man) and the extraordinary array of talents and specialists required for even the simplest shoot (take a meeting, do lunch, power breakfasts, revenue enhancements [taxes]-our rhetoric in campaigns and in life have become cryptic indeed) have also sharply increased.

Another important reason for increasing costs is that television, of all the media used in political campaigning, provides the biggest markup for media consultants for the time and talent invested; media people from all accounts obtain the biggest profit per man-hour worked from television commercials. Candidates seem to enjoy watching themselves and their campaigns on television; they can sit at home and watch where their money is going and satisfy their egos at the same time; for many candidates campaigning is the biggest ego trip they will ever experience. One seasoned consultant commented to me that campaigning seemed to provide some type of fix for many of the people he had worked for-a transcendent high. Henry Kissinger said that power is an aphrodisiacs-it is also a semipermanent high for some candidates.

The prevailing television emphasis and the concomitant increase in costs for campaigning have resulted in constant and severe pressures on candidates to concentrate on fund raising, almost to the exclusion of governing for periods of time. This in turn exacerbates the increasing power of PACs and special interest groups who are well funded (perhaps too well funded for the good of the nation). The public interest, so difficult to define and almost impossible to sensibly measure statistically (warranting a Nobel Prize in economics for anyone who even partially solves this puzzle) fades further and further from the mindset and preoccupations of even the most idealistic and caring of politicians.

Karen Diegmueller, writing in Insight, commented that,

The downside, of course, is that the full-time legislators livelihood is tied up in winning reelection. The people who are committed to political careers cant afford to lose, says Rosenthal. Consequently, resources are channeled into campaigning, and legislative votes are calculated on the basis of constituent votes. The nature of the campaign has changed the nature of the legislator more than anything else. The ones that win [when an incumbent vacates] are usually the ones that did nothing but campaign for the seat for six to ten months before the election, says Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Loftus.

Congressmen, for example, often complain that almost as soon as they are elected they already have to concentrate on raising money for the next campaign. Many claim resentment of this process but unfortunately the many congressional initiatives in the past four years to provide public financing of elections have not been successful primarily because most successful politicians do not want to be placed in the position of funding potential opponents-generally people dont like to pay for their own hit men.

In recent years some congressmen have left politics finding the fund raising game demeaning, distasteful, and in complete conflict with what they had wanted to accomplish in governance in the first place. For example, some congressmen resent the power of PACs and lobbyists. There are 5,000 registered lobbyists in Washington, many with staff, many with considerable PAC financing. They dont sit on the sidelines observing; they are not elected by anyone but they tend to be a major subset in developing the programs and policies that together are government. They can accomplish often what congressmen cant; they find it easy to kill threatening legislation. Major PAC groups seem to have something like a presidential veto in certain policy areas.

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