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One very effective way to give your campaign momentum is to invent
something “new”: a word or phrase, an image, a concept or idea.
This tactic is extremely effective because it makes your message
worth talking about, makes your candidate instantly identifiable,
and makes sure that your activists can not only convey your message
quickly, but are motivated to do it well. Regrettably, this tactic
is also one of the hardest to pull off.
Newt Did It, So Can You
In 1994, Newt Gingrich and his Republican congressional team came
up with two new ideas that propelled the GOP to majority status in
the Congress for the first time in fifty years. First, Gingrich
nationalized the election. Rather than presenting the Republican
candidates as individuals running in individual districts as had
been done previously, Gingrich unified the Republican team and presented
it to the American people as a whole, similar to British parliamentary
elections. For the first time in modern American history, the message
to the voters wasn’t simply “Vote for Victoria Smith, Republican
for Congress” it was “Vote Republican, whoever that maybe.”
In order to get the American voters to quickly understand and adapt
to this concept, the Republican came up with their second new idea,
“The Contract With America.” The voters were presented with a choice:
vote for the Democrats who made you promises, or vote for the Republicans
who gave you a signed contract.” The Republican candidates signed
the contract, which listed the steps the Republicans would take if
they were elected. The idea was novel, easily spread, exciting to
talk about, and it worked.
Inventing On the Local Scale
This tactic can and should be applied on the local scale. For instance,
a local school board candidate may be searching for a way to get
out his message that schools need to be more accountable for the
results they produce. He could invent a new “school report card,” and promise the voters that if elected, he would make sure that
each time parents receive a report card for their children in the
mail, they would also receive a blank report for the school that
the parents could use to rate the school, and mail it back directly
to the school board. This “new idea” would be useful in generating
buzz and momentum for the local school board candidate.
The campaign needs to be careful in planning its new idea to ensure
that it is packaged in a way that is acceptable to the voters. Focus
groups and polling will tell the campaign if it needs to rethink
the way it is presenting the idea, if the image it creates fails
or if the idea is simply not exciting enough to generate momentum.
They key is to be bold, think outside the box and not be afraid
to present an exciting alternative to the voters who are used to
hearing the same political messages over and over again.
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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