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1. Demographically Speaking
The first step in devising the campaign message is to find out the
demographics of the district the candidate is running in. This can
usually be done by reviewing census data, voting records, and other
public documents. The demographic survey attempts to find out who
the voters are. During this step, the campaign should learn everything
it can about the makeup of the district, including age, gender, race,
occupation, home ownership, union membership, party registration,
voter turnout, and any other statistic which will be useful for
the campaign.
The campaign must also create an issues outline for the district.
This profile answers the questions, "What do the voters care about?
What issues are they interested in, and where do they stand on those
issues?" This profile is usually created through the use of a benchmark
poll, a large poll conducted before the campaign starts telling the
candidate where the voters already stand. This poll should be done
by a professional pollster, if possible, but can adequately be performed
by the campaign staff and well-trained volunteers.
2. Divide and Conquer
The next step for the campaign is to break the voters in the district
down into useful categories. This categorization should start with
large groupings (the district is 45% Republican, 30% Democratic,
and 25% Independent) and drill down through increasingly more defined
categories (the district contains 12% Republican women over 55.)
The campaign should use the benchmark poll to attach issues to these
groups. For instance, the poll may have shown that the large majority
of Republican women over 55 are most concerned with the quality of
education in the district. Armed with the demographic data showing
who the voters are, and the issues data showing what the voters care
about, the campaign can begin to draw a clear picture of the district.
3. Build your Coalition
After categorizing the voters, the campaign should look at its own
strengths and weaknesses to decide what coalition of voters it needs
to utilize to win the campaign. The campaign should be able to figure
out approximately how many votes it needs to win, and thus should
decide what percent of the voters in each of the categories it created
above it needs to win in order to be victorious.
The campaign should be realistic in looking at what percentages it
can reasonably capture. If the candidate is a Republican male who
is strongly pro-life, he cannot reasonably assume that he will win
80% of the Democratic women who are strongly pro-choice.
4. Craft Your Message
The campaign must then use the demographic and issues data it has
gathered to determine what its message should be. The candidate need
not change what he or she believes in order to come into line with
the general electorate, but should use the polling data to determine
which of their issues to accentuate, and which to play down. The
candidate needs to watch out for their weaknesses while strongly
emphasize those issues likely to garner the necessary percentage
of votes.
The campaign message must succinctly but compellingly answer the
question "Why should the voters vote for me?" This message should
be narrow enough that it is clear, yet broad enough that several
issues can be drawn from it and used throughout the course of the
campaign.
Thus, the campaign's message may center on the candidate's strong
record on education, and be verbalized as: "Marianne Williams should
be elected to the city council because of her strong record on education.
She has served on the local school board and has had three children
go through the local school system. The district is facing a teacher
shortage and declining test scores, and the voters are ready for
a change. By putting together a coalition of strong Republican voters,
Republicans worried about education, and Democratic women, Marianne
Williams will win election to the city council." (Note that the campaign
message is not the same as the campaign slogan, and is not intended
for the press or the voters to see, but for the campaign to use internally.
The slogan in this hypothetical race might be "Better Schools for
a Brighter Future")
After crafting the message, the campaign can then draw several issues
off of the message to use throughout the campaign (e.g. School choice,
teacher pay, standardized testing, etc.) These individual issues
can be communicated to the voters through direct mail, television
and radio advertising, speeches and campaign literature.
Conclusion
In order to succeed, the campaign must have a strong message that
targets the voters of the district. Through polling, categorization
of the voters, and coalition building, the campaign can craft the
message it needs to communicate in order to win on election day.
Joe Garecht is the editor of "Local Victory - Your Republican Guide
to Winning Local Elections." Local Victory provides free tools and
information to Republican activists to help them win more elections.
Check out the Local Victory site at LocalVictory.com
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