Politics Magazine articles from February 2009

Politics Magazine archives from February 2009

Plan now. Losers wait.(From the Publisher ...)
February 1, 2009... Since the close of the 2008 campaign cycle, my role has been to plan. Planning to support our long-term print advertisers, planning to keep Campaigns & Elections strong while other media outlets collapse, and planning for the long-term growth...

Your turn ...(Letter to the editor)
February 1, 2009... Editor: I have worked in Upstate New York politics for over 30 years and have been a subscriber/reader of Campaigns & Elections since it was first published. The original Campaigns & Elections was careful to focus on the "how-to" for...

From our CEO ...(death of Mike Connell)(Obituary)(Brief article)
February 1, 2009... In late December, Campaigns & Elections' Politics magazine reported on the untimely death of high-ranking political consultant Mike Connell. While the political technology field is dominated by twenty-and thirty-somethings, Mike was the go-to...

Toppling Bill Jefferson: a strong turnout strategy and savvy messaging helped Joseph Cao pull off one of the cycle's biggest upsets.(CASE STUDY)(Anh Cao )
February 1, 2009... You could feel the momentum building all week. The campaign was deluged with volunteers asking for signs. Democratic officials who were known for their courageous stands for reform smelled victory. Their Republican counterparts could sense it,...

Winning the Louisiana Senate race: how Mary Landrieu used message discipline to overcome McCain's coattails.(CASE STUDY)
February 1, 2009... The 2008 U.S. Senate election in Louisiana was one of the banner races of the cycle. Incumbent Sen. Mary Landrieu, a centrist Democrat first elected to the post in 1996, was seeking a third term. Early on, the race became the No. 1 Senate...

Long-tail nanotargeting: Al Franken's online ad buys earned an unbelievable return on investment.(CASE STUDY)
February 1, 2009... Ever since Pat Caddell introduced message polling, the winning model for most down-ballot campaigns has been a one-size-fits-all message: Reduce your candidate to his/her best attributes, the opponent to his/her worst op-research line items,...

Reelection in the Dominican Republic: how Leonel Fernandez Reyna won a third presidential term.(CASE STUDY)
February 1, 2009... Leonel Fernandez became the most recent Latin American president to be reelected. Several factors account for his electoral success. Under Fernandez, the Dominican Republic experienced one of the most dramatic economic recoveries in the region...

How the west was won: a highly targeted mail campaign helped Democrat Bev Perdue win a key Republican district in North Carolina.(CASE STUDY)
February 1, 2009... For 16 years, Democrats in North Carolina seemed to have the key to electing governors even while the state was reliably Republican at the federal level. Democrats nominated business-friendly candidates from the eastern part of the state who...

Winning DeLay's former seat: how an unknown candidate built name recognition and drove the debate.(CASE STUDY)(Tom DeLay)
February 1, 2009... From the beginning, it was an uphill climb for Pete Olson, a former Naval aviator, member of the Joint Staff in the Pentagon, and Senate staffer who decided to leave his job, return to his childhood home of Texas and offer himself as a choice...

Si, Se Puede Votar: how an innovative field campaign turned out low-efficacy Latino voters.(CASE STUDY)
February 1, 2009... "After two years of inspiring more than 1.4 million new naturalization applications, registering more than 500,000 new immigrant votes and contacting more than 1 million immigrant Latino and immigrant voters, the We Are America Alliance is...

Passing Prop 8: smart timing and messaging convinced California voters to support traditional marriage.(CASE STUDY)(California Proposition 8)
February 1, 2009... When we signed our firm up to manage the Yes on Proposition 8 campaign to put the traditional definition of marriage--one man, one woman--into California's constitution, Frank Schubert's brother told him we had "no chance" to win the campaign....

South Dakota's Measure 11: unusual messaging and non-traditional coalition partners led a red state to reject an abortion ban.(CASE STUDY)
February 1, 2009... In 2006, South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds signed into law a near total ban on abortion--one that allowed the procedure only to save the life of a pregnant woman. The 2006 abortion ban did not include exceptions for a woman's health or for victims...

Keeping a red state red: a consistent message and a creative mail piece helped a Republican senator keep his seat.(CASE STUDY)
February 1, 2009... On Dec. 31, 2007, Republican Gov. Haley Barbour appointed U.S. Rep. Roger Wicker to fill out the term of retiring U.S. Sen. Trent Lott. In Washington, D.C., Democratic optimism surged at the prospects of regaining the White House and expanding...

Quips & Slips.
February 1, 2009... "Katie, you're not the center of everybody's universe." --Sarah Palin on Katie Couric "This is for real, folks. The bloggers are going to love this one." --New York Daily News reporter Ken Bazinet in his pool report of Obama...