Huntingdon College | Political Science | Courses | What's New?
PSC 311: Voters, Parties & Elections.

1. Introduction NEW
2. Decision to Run
3. Structure & Organization
4. Finance
5. Strategy NEW
6. Tactics
Appendix; Post Script

962 candidates ran in major parties, 795 defeated.
Survey: 34% response from losers, but very few from winners.
Personal interviews with 39 candidates in 19 districts.

Only 5/179 challengers defeated incumbents in 1978 primaries.
128 nominess from contested primaries faced 219 other candidates -- but only 14 won general election.

districts vary greatly, hard to generalize about them.
Only descriptive statistics, not causal.

Even incumbents run in ignorance -- let alone challengers.
Maisel did not even know who main opponent would be.

2: The Decision to Run
Charles U Walters, 2004

How did Maisel decide to run for office?

1. Partly Emotional Reasons
1. As a college intern Maisel felt inspired to run for Congress
2. He finally chose an election to run in when he felt that it would be his last chance in the foreseeable future. (No pin-point-able reason why)
3. Felt his children would be honoured to have a father in such a political position.
4. He talked to the runners of the previous election two years prior, and the only active candidate was Richard Spencer, he was a man who seemed a lot like Maisel, and had a similar background. He concluded that Spencer would not scare him out.
2. Partly Analytical Reasons
1. Analysis of his opponent
1. His opponent had a less than impressive legislature record
2. He was, however, doing an effective job of constituent service
2. He rationalized his personal background as a factor being that he was a Jew, but he did not know how it would affect his campaign
3. Knew that another intraparty battle among the Democrats that they would lose again
4. Analyzed with politicians that maybe a door-to-door campaign with young faces would help him.

What he did not know

1. Did not know who his opponents would be
2. Did not know how he was perceived
3. Did not know how much money he could raise or how much would be spent against him
4. Did not know how his views would be received
5. Did not know his one known opponent’s, an incumbent, weaknesses

Maisel later made a poll to determine whether his experiences were common or not.

1. Maisel found in his poll that nearly 50% of the candidates in the 1978 congressional elections relied on their own political intuition on rather to run or not
2. 19.5% of the runners relied on political intuition and from discussions with political leaders
3. Less than 10 percent conducted polls before their decision to run.

Why don’t many run for office

a. Incumbency
1. Incumbents have extremely high percentage of getting reelected
2. Few are challenged at all at the first step of the electoral process in 78, 43 members were elected without any competition
3. Only 17 incumbent members in 78 were challenged in the primary, but not in the general election.
4. Incumbency seems to keep competition down because of the difficulty to challenge one successfully, only five incumbents lost primaries in 1978.
5. Name recognition, a good campaign organization, and hard work are important to defeating an incumbent
1. Personal and/or Family Reasons
1. Congressional job changes such as longer sessions, more trips, and more limitations etc.
2. Roberta Weil had been seen as a woman who could win the seat from David Emery, but decided that the life of a politician was not for her.
3. The amount of one’s support from family and friends
4. Some feel that being a politician is not a good way to raise a family.

Maisel decided to run from his experience in Washington, his gut instinct that the 1978 election was the best time for him to grab the golden ring, and the incredible high he experienced every time some one told him something supportive.

---

3. Structure & Organization
Ryan Rice, 2004

L. Sandy Maisel uses the failure of his own campaign to describe the necessary structure and organization of a political campaign.

- Rule number 1 – never run your own campaign … no matter how much you know about politics and campaigning, you need a good campaign manager.
- Finding a campaign manager is the hardest part of a campaign
- This person must be completely committed the campaign and willing to give up time and monetary satisfaction to run the campaign.
- Campaign consultants are very useful, however most primaries lack the funds to afford such advice.
- Maisel ended up with Susan Kenyon as his campaign manager – she was formerly in charge of volunteers.

- Campaign organization depends on a number of variables: characteristics of the districts, the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, and the candidates resources.

- Maisel had a very large district: 150 miles north to south and 50 miles east to west.

- Biggest resource throughout his campaign was a corps of student volunteers. Students will do tasks that older/more experienced political activists shy away from.

- Problem was that most students have restrictions on the amount of time they can commit. Test, clubs, athletics, etc.

- Maisel’s campaign named a democrat, in every county and each large city and town, local coordinator. Each coordinator had a student liaison to assist them. The students were able to do the dirty work while the coordinators did the experienced jobs.

- Scheduling is very important – candidates must use every available hour in the day to speak to voters.

- Basically, aside from a solid staff, time and money are the two most important things to a campaign according to Maisel.  Volunteers are enormous helps to campaign b/c the free up money for travel and professional assistance. All members of the campaign must be committed to the job, giving as much time as they possibly can and working for the lowest wage the possibly can.

---

4. Financing the Campaign
by Kathern Wendt, Fall 2006 Importance or money and how much is spent
            Money is very important in today’s campaigns
                        One can be elected without a large volunteer organization, if they have enough to spend
                                    Candidates can “buy” professional organization or media campaigns
            How much is spent?
                        Most candidates fall into two categories:
                                    -Candidates that spent less on their campaign than expected
                                                Those who spend considerable less than expected were unable to raise the funds
                                    -Candidates that spent more on their campaign
                             Those who could either gather more funds than expected or were able to put in more of their own money
Fundraising
            Candidates do not enter campaign without thinking about fundraising
                        Problems occur when candidates fundraise less than they wanted to spend
                        According to Maisel, candidates should research the previous election to find the appropriate amount to spend on a campaign
            According to Maisel, there is nothing more challenging than fundraising for a campaign
Where did Maisel attempt to pull money from?
            $10,000 of his own money
            Family and Friends
            Harvard Classmates
            Colby Alumni
            Colby Faculty
            Washington Contacts
            Jewish Community of Maine
            Traditional Maine Sources
Where was Maisel actually able to get money?
            Family and Friends
            Colby Faculty
            Buffalo, NY fundraiser
            $20,000 of his own money
            Local Democrats
Was the financing that Maisel allowed for his campaign enough?  No
            With $25,000 to $30,000 dollars more, Maisel believed he could have reached many more people
            Vast majority believe that their campaigns were not adequately financed.
Is more financing necessary for winning the election?
            Half agree that even if their campaign would have been adequately financed, they may have won the election
            Twenty percent say they would have still lost
            Thirty percent say they are unable to tell if they would have won
Key areas when dealing with finance in campaigns
            Difficulty raising money
            Dominance of special-interest money
            Advantages of more money
            Complexity of solving this problem through public financing
How much money should be invested into a campaign?
            This is determined by how much you can and are willing to put on the line.
                        If you win, you can pay it back to yourself
                        If you lose, you will have lost the investment
Difficulties of Fundraising
            Not knowing how
            Poor districts
                        Unable to support any candidates
Conclusions on fundraising
            The more that is spent on a campaign, the less the candidate must spend
            Campaigns do not seem to raise very much money from candidate’s families or small donors
Those with the more expensive campaigns receive not only more money but also a higher percentage of their money from big individual donations and from PACs
Debt
            During a campaign, money is spent without thought of where it will come from
            After a campaign, the candidate is left paying back the amount borrowed
Problems with how campaigns are funded
            Those who have the most money, have the most advantage in a primary election
            Cost is the burden of those running for office
            Complexity of the FEC regulations means that many campaigns much hire an accountant to insure compliance
            The heavy reliance of candidates of PACs for funding
How to deal with these problems
            Limit the impact of PACs by restricting the amount of money a congressional candidate could receive
            Extend the concept of public financing to congressional elections

---

5. Strategy
By Jeremy Lewis, Fall 2008

Wanted to run on competence (Emery ineffective in Congress) plus liberal policy positions -- some could not be compromised.

Bill Hamilton's poll found Maisel perhaps viable in primary -- but not in Fall, because public viewed Emery as likeable and unaware of any legislative incompetence.

Decided to run name recognition spot early, in winter 1978, when other campaigns quiet.  Bow tie for recognition.

No follow-up poll to find whether effective, but anecdotally some did recognize him after.

Fundraising did not improve.

Advertised on policy issues, cost of food in Maine, economics, unemployment, elderly on fixed incomes, plus good command of national issues.

Richard Spencer: stressed local issues; did not attack Marcotte's conservatism on abortion

Guy Marcotte: emotional appeals on abortion, little knowledge of Washington.  Gave campaign funds (mostly borrowed personally) over to AdMedia entirely, as get-tough, anti-government, anti-liberal.  Solid base of York county.

John Quinn: thoughtful on consumer affairs but little policy knowledge otherwise; did not attack Marcotte's conservatism on abortion.  Quietly campaigned among Portland & South Portland Irish and wife's Augusta base of French.

Against advice, Maisel launches devastating reply to Marcotte in candidate forum.  This suits Marcotte's anti-liberal appeal.

most primary challengers (85%) aware of incumbent in general election as a major factor.

in majority of cases, attacking incumbent was the only factor

Out of state factor: Mainers are 5th generation, and major factor.  Some cands from outside blue collar districts.

ethnic appeals common across country, where large districts with ethnic minorities, like Marcotte and Quinn.  Sometimes, though, too many cands divide ethnic group and let in another candidate.  Backlash also can happen if candidate unknown, e.g. rich, Jewish businessman in first NJ campaign.

 

---

6. Campaign Tactics
Nicole Adams, 2004

Candidates set one goal early:  win the primary.  They develop tactics to implement a strategy.  Some stick with their original plan; however, many more change tactics as the campaign progresses, going with what feels good, what works, what they have the workers to do, and what they can afford.

There are 3 aspects of campaign tactics:  what the candidate and their campaign workers do with their time, how the financial resources of the campaign are used, and how the campaign relates to the news media coverage.

Campaigning by the Candidate

How much time one spends campaigning should be less important than what one does with that time.  A candidate should consider what contact they have with the voters, with what voters, and how this relates to what staff members and volunteers are doing.

Some of the activities that candidates often engage in during political campaigns to reach the voters:
  *visiting factories and/or gates
  *visiting shopping areas
  *door-to-door campaigning
  *meeting key people
  *delivering speeches
  *attending coffees & parties
  *participating in political party functions

There are significant differences between the activities done by Democrats and those done by Republicans.  It is also evident that candidates in different parts of the country spend their time in different ways.

There is no way to distinguish winners from losers by their campaign activities.  What is right for one candidate in one district might not maximize the votes for another candidate in that district nor for the same candidate in another district.  One of the most frequent errors by candidates is to attempt to replicate someone else’s campaign.

Use of Financial Resources

The differences among primary campaigns in terms of financial resources available are of far greater magnitude than those relating to personal time.  These differences reflect the seriousness of the campaign effort, personal wealth of the candidate, candidates’ ability to raise money, and variations among districts.

The amount of money to be spent on paid media advertising is the first variable one must consider in determining how a campaign budget is to be allocated.  A decision to use paid media advertising involves a commitment to put hard money on the line, up front.

Of those responding to the questionnaire, many more candidates used radio advertising than television, newspaper advertising was used by 73.9 % of the candidates, and over a quarter of the candidates used either billboards or public transit advertising.  Direct-mail adverstising has become more important in congressional campaigns.

Even in the age of modern media-oriented campaigns, even with sophisticated means of reaching large numbers of potential voters all at once, candidates and campaigns need the “memorabilia” of politics, the buttons, bumper stickers, road signs, handcards, gimmicks.  Many candidates feel that these items are necessary but not effective.

Use of Free Media

Candidates view the news media as an opportunity to get their message across to the public at no, or very little, cost.  Congressional campaigns only get coverage when the candidates are easily accessible to the journalists.  The major role played by the media is to separate the fringe candidates from those who have a real chance of success.

Of those responding to the questionnaire, nearly three-quarters of the candidates held some press conferences during their campaigns and over 90 % of the candidates issued press releases.

---

Appendix; Post Script

---