Inside Campaigns: Elections through the Eyes of Political Professionals

by William J. Feltus, Kenneth M. Goldstein, Matthew J. (Jeremy) Dallek

Overview

"Inside Campaigns: Elections Through the Eyes of Political Professionals is essential reading not only for students interested in running campaigns and for journalism students who want to cover politics, but for campaign operatives generally and journalists who want to raise the level of their game. In fact, it’s good reading for everybody."
—Thomas B. Edsall, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism

"Much of our useful knowledge sits at the intersection of disciplines.  Inside Campaigns demonstrates that through a skillful combination of political science with management in a highly readable and practical format. A first for this field!"
—Leonard A. Schlesinger, Baker Foundation Professor-Harvard Business School, President Emeritus-Babson College

Inside Campaigns, Second Edition takes readers on a journey into the world of campaign managers. Powered by scores of interviews and surveys of political professionals, the book considers the purpose, potency, and poetry of modern political campaigns in the US. The expert author team draw from years of scholarly research and professional campaign experience to guide readers on a behind-the-scenes tour of the ways campaigns are managed, the strategies that are employed, the roles played by both staff and the candidates, and the affects election outcomes have on American democracy. Readers will develop an understanding of what campaigns do and why they matter, as well as gain practical skills for working in a campaign or advocating for a cause. 

 

New to the Second Edition: 

• A case study created from an in-depth interview with Bernie Sanders’ top digital decision-makers describes how the Sanders’ campaign used digital media to harness the energy of their highly motivated base supporters. This case shows students a real-life campaign decision-making situation, and demonstrates how campaigns use new digital media to drive traditional news media coverage.
  
  
• A unique joint interview with the top media buyers from the Clinton and Trump campaigns reveals how each campaign tracked the other’s advertising and adjusted their own advertising based on competitive tracking information. This interview illustrates to students how modern campaigns use media tracking technologies to monitor their opposition and spend tens of millions of dollars at the presidential level.
  
  
• A top Trump digital manager shares inside details of how the Republican National Committee moved quickly to help build out the Trump digital operations after it was clear that Trump would be the party’s presidential nominee. This insight helps students understand how the Trump campaign answered, "What do we tell them?" by testing messages online, including recycling Trump’s personal tweets in instant messages and emails.
  
  
• The differences between how the Clinton and Trump campaigns managed the news media are highlighted in a case study of one journalist’s experiences covering both campaigns. This case study helps the student build skills for becoming a "spinmeister" who handles day-to-day relationships with the news media. The authors’ research surprisingly reveals that, behind the scenes, Trump was much more available to reporters than Clinton, despite Trump’s continuous public attacks on the "fake news media."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781544316758
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	07/04/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

William J. Feltus is senior vice-president at National Media Research Planning and Placement LLC, an advertising and media agency in Alexandria, Virginia, where he manages political, corporate, and not-for-profit clients. Mr. Feltus is recognized as an innovator in the application of media research data to political and public affairs marketing. Providing polling, communications, and advertising services, he has worked for eight presidential campaigns and for gubernatorial, Senate and Congressional clients in forty-four states. Feltus has been a press secretary in the U.S. Senate, deputy campaign manager of President George H. W. Bush’s unsuccessful 1992 re-election bid, and staff director of the U.S. Senate Republican Conference. He received his B.A. from Yale and his M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Feltus has been an adjunct instructor at Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University and the University of San Francisco.

Ken Goldstein is a professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco and founding Director of the USF in DC program. Goldstein earned his PhD at the University of Michigan and before joining the University of San Francisco, he was a professor of Political Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison. While at the University of Wisconsin, he won the Kellet Award for his career research accomplishments and the Chancellor’s Award for excellence in teaching.

His publications on political advertising, voter turnout, survey methodology, presidential elections, and news coverage have appeared in top line political science journals and major university presses as well as in refereed law and medical journals.

Goldstein combines his academic training with an ear for real politics and strategy as well as an impressive set of contacts and extensive professional experience in a variety of media, corporate, and political settings. Goldstein is currently a consultant for the ABC News elections unit and a member of their election night decision team. He has worked on network election night coverage in every U.S. federal election since 1988. You can read here about some of what he does on election nights.

Goldstein’s reputation for unbiased and non-partisan analysis has made him a favorite source for politicians and the news media alike. He has appeared numerous times on Newshour, ABC World News Tonight, NBC NightlyNews, CBS Evening News, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, CNBC and CNN, and is a frequent contributor on National Public Radio. He is also quoted extensively in the country’s top newspapers. Goldstein also hosted a weekly interview show, “Office Hours” that was broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

Matthew Dallek (Ph.D., Columbia University) is an assistant professor of political management in the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, where he teaches courses on political leadership, the presidency, and Washington’s political culture. He is the author of The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan’s First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics (Oxford University Press, 2004) and the forthcoming Defenseless Under the Night: The Roosevelt Years and the Origins of Homeland Security (Oxford University Press, 2016). His articles and reviews have appeared in many scholarly and popular publications including the Forum, the Journal of Policy History, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and Politico. In addition, he has been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center for the American West. He served as a speechwriter for House minority leader Richard A. Gephardt as well as William E. Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Tables, Figures, and Boxes
Chapter 1. Losing and Winning: The Craft and Science of Political Campaigns
A Tale of Two Managers
Learning and Experimenting
Why Campaign Managers Do It
What Campaigns Do
The Roles and Goals of a Campaign Manager
Chapter 2. Political Math
The Fundamentals
The Role of Fundamentals: From Demographics to Party ID
Share and Performance
Blue Wall Math
Summary
Chapter 3. Political Historian and Data Scientist: Charting a Path to Victory through Information and Analysis The Secret Ballot Problem
Focus Groups, Polls, and Other Forms of Information Gathering
Who Do We Need?
How Do We Reach Them?
What Do We Tell Them?
How Are We Doing?
What Are Our Opponents and Allies Doing?
Summary
Chapter 4. Entrepreneur and Chief Financial Officer: Launching and Sustaining the Campaign
Spending and Margins
The Money Advantage
How Money Matters (Decisions)
“The Nightmare of All Campaigns” (Fundraising)
Summary
Chapter 5. Team Builder: Embracing the Personal Side of Politics
Team Building in Trump’s Organization
Jen Pihlaja
Team Builder: “A Big Cheerleader”
Chapter 6. Ideologist and Policy Wonk: Standing for Something
“An Altitude of 30,000 Feet”
Clinton as Policy Wonk
Campaign Manager as Policy Wonk
The Frustrated Policy Wonk
Summary
Chapter 7. Marketing Maven: Reaching the Campaign’s Target Voter Audiences
“What Are They Doing?” Competitive Media Tracking in the 2016 Presidential Race
What Are Gross Rating Points? Learning the Basic Math of Media
“How many GRP’s do we have?”
"How Many Gross Rating Points Do I Need?”
The Business of Political TV Advertising
Today’s Media Mix: More than TV
Chapter 8. Producer and Stage Manager: Creating and Presenting the Campaign’s Messages
Producing a 4 a.m. Media Event
The Making of the “Guru Spot”
What Do We Tell Voters?
How the Message Matters
Why Campaigns “Go Negative”
“A Hugging Contest?”: Why Negative Ads Affect Election Margins
Going Negative in a Primary
Responding to Negative Attacks
Summary
Chapter 9. Spinmeister: Navigating the News Landscape
Spinmeister Turned Reporter: A Case Study
Cautious Clinton versus Risk-taking Trump
A Failure of Crisis Management: “Let Herman be Herman”
Inoculation: Preparing for Bad News
How Do We Reach Them? What Do We Tell Them?
“Your Best Friend or Your Worst Enemy”
Earned Media
Digital and Social Media
The Changing News Landscape
Making News with Both New Media and Old Media
Chapter 10. Field General: Waging the War on the Ground
How Do We Reach Them?
The Two-Step Process: Deciding to Vote and Voting for or against a Candidate
“Old-Fashioned Grunt Work”
Summary
Chapter 11. Strategy Enforcer and Team Builder: Keeping a Day-to-Day Focus on the Long-Term Path to Victory
James Carville: Losing Before Winning
Clinton-Gore 1992: “The Best Campaign Ever”
Keeping the Campaign Team on Strategy
Inheriting a Team: Executing a Strategy
Strategy Enforcer in the Age of Super Political Action Committees
How Are We Doing?
Chapter 12. Candidate Caretaker and Confidant: Handling Details and Building Trust
Becoming Indispensable
The Buffer and the Concierge
Building Trust: “Jimmy, Here’s What We Need to Do”
Building the Relationship
Honesty
Managing the Candidate’s Family
Losing and Winning: When the Campaign Ends
Appendixes: Teaching and Research Resources
Appendix A. Campaign Manager Survey Questionnaire Library
Appendix B. Interview with Doug Bailey
Appendix C. Manager Profile—Katie Merrill: Managing in the California Big Leagues
Appendix D. Manager Profile—Reed Galen: Just Say No
Appendix E. The Audacity of Smoke: The Rise and Fall of the Unorthodox Herman Cain Campaign
Index
About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

[The] extensive interviews that the authors did with campaign managers [result] in an insider view that is typically not present in a book written by political scientists.

Travis Ridout

The content is built upon what many real professional think is most critical in campaigns. The voice of the campaign professionals comes through.

Joseph A. Kunkel III

I was impressed not only by the purpose of the authors—to bring real-world perspectives to the study of an immensely important part of the overall topic of campaigns and elections—but also by their fascinating take on the debate over the degree to which campaigns matter.

Malcolm Cross

"Much of our useful knowledge sits at the intersection of disciplines. Inside Campaigns demonstrates that through a skillful combination of political science with management in a highly readable and practical format. A first for this field!"

Leonard A. Schlesinger

Complicating issues are explained clearly for even the novice political science student.

Adam Silver

"Inside Campaigns takes readers into the world of campaign managers. Powered by scores of interviews and surveys of political professionals, the book considers the purpose, potency, and poetry of modern political campaigns in the US.Written by a team with both a scholarly pedigree and a hand in applied politics, Inside Campaigns is a deeper, more systematic approach than seen in several other volumes that do little more than transcribe the comments of political professionals. Instead, the authors take readers on a carefully laid out guided tour of major campaign tasks, such as voter targeting and message strategy. Though the typical campaign text is stuffed with data and wrung free of life, Inside Campaigns includes the drama and intrigue that courses through the topic. Run the negative ad or not? Put money into afield staff, or shift resources elsewhere? These are decisions that can elect candidates and determine whether campaign professionals will work again. An invaluable guide for college students considering a career in campaign politics and a useful work for any campaigns class. "

Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through professionals.

D. Niven

The strength of Inside Campaigns is its differentiation from most other books in this market. Extensive interviews conducted by the authors with campaign managers results in an insider view that isn’t typically present in a book written by political scientists. Feltus, Goldstein, and Dallek are able to juxtapose the theories typically used by political scientists with the knowledge given by campaign managers, providing readers with a unique 360 degree perspective.

Travis N. Ridout