In his 15 years of reporting political campaigns, Bike witnessed mistakes that cost candidates not only their elections, but their credibility as well. He now explains how candidates can use creativity and hard work to avoid the mistakes. He offers specific, practical advice on such topics as advertising, alliances, campaign literature, comportment, debates, events, fieldwork, fundraising, the headquarters, legal issues, the media kit, organization, polling, research, and speeches. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Modern Political Campaigns brings together academic, practical, and interviews to help understand how professionalism, technology, and speed have revolutionized elections, creating more voter-centric races for public office. Dr. Michael D. Cohen, a 20+ year veteran of working on, teaching, and writing about political campaigns take readers through how campaigns are organized, state-of-the-art tools of the trade, and how some of the most interesting people in politics got their big breaks. The book takes readers through clear-eyed chapters on parties and elections, campaign planning and management, fundraising, independent groups, vulnerability and opposition research, data and analytics, focus groups and polling, earned, paid and social media, and field operations. Finally, the book revisits the Permanent Campaign in terms of modern approaches to winning elections raising questions about today’s uniform preference for turnout over persuasion and what that means for our American democracy. Modern Political Campaigns will appeal to students and political activists interested in working in political campaigns. It is also a great read for anyone who wants to better understand the nuts and bolts of campaigns in practical terms from professionals, and the opportunities they provide all of us to be more engaged citizens and hold our leaders more accountable each Election Day.
UPDATED FOR THE 2016 ELECTION The book Politico calls “Moneyball for politics” shows how cutting-edge social science and analytics are reshaping the modern political campaign. Renegade thinkers are crashing the gates of a venerable American institution, shoving aside its so-called wise men and replacing them with a radical new data-driven order. We’ve seen it in sports, and now in The Victory Lab, journalist Sasha Issenberg tells the hidden story of the analytical revolution upending the way political campaigns are run in the 21st century. The Victory Lab follows the academics and maverick operatives rocking the war room and re-engineering a high-stakes industry previously run on little more than gut instinct and outdated assumptions. Armed with research from behavioural psychology and randomized experiments that treat voters as unwitting guinea pigs, the smartest campaigns now believe they know who you will vote for even before you do. Issenberg tracks these fascinating techniques—which include cutting edge persuasion experiments, innovative ways to mobilize voters, heavily researched electioneering methods—and shows how our most important figures, such as Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, are putting them to use with surprising skill and alacrity. Provocative, clear-eyed and energetically reported, The Victory Lab offers iconoclastic insights into political marketing, human decision-making, and the increasing power of analytics.
The book discussed how contemporary political campaigns are increasingly sensitive to candidate-centered appeals, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of their own candidate to determine how their personalities, backgrounds, and likability and background fit into a campaign narrative, theme, and issue agenda.
“I wasn’t lucky. I deserved it.” - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher The Political Campaign “How-to” Guide is a book that offers step-by-step guidelines on how to win an election as well as providing answers to questions a candidate may have about campaign planning. Whether running for Chief, mayor, reeve, councillor, MLA, MP or trustee in an indigenous, provincial, federal, municipal or school board election, this detailed book will provide candidates with the knowledge they need to run a successful campaign. Nolan Crouse, MBA, CCMP(TM) served as councillor and mayor in Canada for 13 years. In this book, he shares the secrets to his success in winning four consecutive election campaigns. From making the initial decision to run for office, to putting together an effective campaign team and brand, to fundraising, door knocking, message delivery and advertising – all the way to election day and beyond – this book offers valuable tips, insights, knowledge and tactics that have been proven to be useful and effective. Complete with checklists, great stories, images and examples, The Political Campaign “How-to” Guide is a must-read for anyone with an interest in running for public office for the first time or running for re-election in Canada. Most of the key principles also apply to all orders of elected office in the United States and many other democracies around the world.
Running for public office at the local and state level requires a commitment to grassroots campaigning and team building that is essential for success. Veteran campaign manager Dan Theno lays out an easy-to-follow guide for organizing and executing a successful campaign regardless of your level of political experience. "Winning Local Elections" provides the tools and guidance you need to: a) Create an effective campaign structure, b) Meet legal requirements, c) Run effective advertising, d) Raise funds, e) Market campaign ideas, and f) Engage voters. Dan Theno is a veteran campaign consultant who has advised and managed dozens of successful campaigns for local and state candidates throughout the Midwest. Theno was the second-youngest person ever elected to the Wisconsin State Senate at the age of 25, earning re-election three times by wide margins in a district that heavily favored the opposing political party. He also twice won election as mayor of his hometown.
From city councils to governorships, from county commissioners to coroners, there are thousands of contested or vacant elected offices each year throughout the United States. In Political Tool Kit, author Ron Parsons provides a practical guide for citizens who are seeking an opportunity to participate in the democratic process through political candidacy. Based on his education and personal experience, Ron offers a step-by-step, sequential model that candidates can mold to fit their candidacies by making their campaigns unique. Political Tool Kit merges contemporary and traditional political organizational structures to address a myriad of tasks, such as fundraising, advertising, nominating petitions, and scheduling, while detailing job functions and tasks. This campaign model adopts modern communications tools through optimizing the Internet and cutting-edge mobile devices. It also includes a range of resources, such as a campaign budget, letters to the editor, mailings, and canvassing techniques. Political Tool Kit offers the tools to build a process that enables candidates to grow to their full potential. The winning ideals embedded within a campaign will follow candidates throughout their political careers.
Winning Elections with Political Marketing is a unique look at the election process on both sides of the Atlantic, providing rare insight into how modern political communication and marketing strategies are used in the United States and the United Kingdom. The leading political researchers present a cross-section of their latest findings, augmented with easy-to-read tables, charts, and figures, and reinforced with extensive references and bibliographies. The book addresses the key issues that define the interplay between political marketing and the electorate in both countries, including advertising, research methods and cross-cultural research results, political choice behavior, imagery management, the integration of business and social science theory, and the impact of political marketing on democracy.
