1. to manage. Remember, one person can- Hire a Staff Without Clear
not do two jobs at the same time--
particularly when each job consumes
12 to 18 hours of each day.
7 Responsibilities.
Campaigns are crazy enough as
is. Vague job descriptions not only
Leave Fundraising to Others. waste time and resources, they spur turf
3 Unlike managing or scheduling,
fundraising is a job where you
must shoulder a significant part of the
warfare. You are much better off if
your staff's competitive juices are being
directed toward the opposing campaign
rather than each other.
workload. A candidate not committed
enough to ask supporters for money Leave Confidential Information
WAYS TO LOSE should not expect anyone else to do it
for him. S on Your Desk.
Information is power, and cam-
paign offices are full of people with less
AN ELECTION 4 Travel with a Large Entourage.
Even if you are not,running as a
populist, there is nothing that
turns off voters more than a candidate
than altruistic agendas. Moles do not
exist only in John Le Carre novels, and
rival power centers are not the exclusive
. - --
who shows upwith an entourage more
provinee of -largc multi-national cor-
e regularly publish informa-
W tion about how to improve
your campaign. Unfortu-
befitting an oil-rich Arab potentate.
Fail to Articulate in 25 Words or
porations. Each can be found in many
campaign offices. Take no chances.
nately, many campaigns are lost be-
cause of simple, rudimentary mistakes.
With that in mind, we at Campaigns &
Elections, after talking with friends and
S Less Why You are Running.
If you can't do this, nothing else
matters; your race will be over before it
9
Put a Steering Committee Behind
the Steering Wheel.
A Steering Committee is a good
place for prominent people willing to
begins. To wit: the now-famous 1979 donate their name and money to a cam-
editorial advisers across the country, interview in which Ted Kennedy was
have compiled a list of the most com- paign-but not much else. They should
unable to tell Roger Mudd why he was be paraded about for all to see; they
mon mistakes made by aspiring politi- running for president.
cians and their staffs. should not be in charge of the cam-
We are presenting the story in two paign. Leave that to full-time profes-
parts. This issue offers twenty-five sug- A Campaign Manager Should Never sionals.
1
Worry about March Mo-
0
gestions. Five are for the candidate, five
Antagonize the Candidate'S mentum in a NovemberElec-
for the campaign manager, and five for
the fundraising chairman; the remain-
ing ten are divided among the press
secretary, the scheduler, the opposition
6 Spouse. Whatever you do, under
no circumstances should you irri-
tate a spouse or an immediate family
tion.
Starting early does not mean treating
each day like Election Day. The early
months are ideal for raising money,
researcher, and everyone associated member. Regardless of gender, the
with a campaign. So, whatever you do spouse will almost certainly try to run devising a strategy, setting vote targets,
in your campaign, here are the mistakes the campaign. In so doing, he or she will and building name identification. If you
you absolutely should not make. inevitably distract the real campaign are making all the right moves early,
manager. If you want to keep your job, your polls will show momentum later,
A Candidate Should Never grin and bear it. The person sleeping even if they do not reflect it now. Such
, with the candidate is more likely to pacing will also go far to forestall candi-
Lie About Your Record.
1
;.
We live in the Information Age. have the candidate's ear. date and staff pre-election burnout.
,: A candidate's every vote can be
easily located in official journals or on
computer. In addition, many political
speeches are preserved on videotape
and audio cassette. Before attempting
to rewrite history, keep in mind that
your opponent's staff probably pos-
sesses a thorough file on you. Any dis-
tortion may prompt a call to an enter-
prising reporter and destroy your
credibility
Manage Your Own Campaign.
2 Many good campaign managers
have difficulty making the transi-
tion from the back room to the speak-
er's platform. By the same token, many
good candidates do not make good cam-
paign managers. A good candidate is
one who allows the campaign manager

2. A Fundraising Chairman Should Never
20
Commit to an October Event
in May.
A campaign needs flexibility
l
Ask for Money Only Once.
11 Even the postman always
rings twice; a fundraising
chairman should call upon people four
in the final three weeks before Election
Day. Having to cancel scheduled events
at the end of the campaign to provide
this flexibility will unnecessarily anger
or five times. If a donor has not given
you a flat-out "No," he or she ulti- a lot of people who are about to step
mately may make a donation. This rule into the polling booth.
is particularly applicable to those who
A Researcher Should Never
. have already contributed. Your donors
believe in and have invested in your
21
Leak An Attack.
candidate. That is why a contributor The element of surprise is
who has given once is far more likely to critical in politics. To maxi-
give in the future than someone who has mize the success of an attack, you
not donated before. should do everything possible to catch
your opponent off guard. The fewer
Think SmaU.
12 The only thing worse than
not asking enough people for
people who know about your planned
attack, the better.
money is to not ask people for enough
money. It is far better to flatter people
by asking them for too much than to
insult them by asking for too little.
22 Impersonate Someone Else.
There are many ways you
can go about digging up dirt
on your opponent. One way not to is to
tell people that you are a reporter, gov-
Take Rejection Personally. ernment agent, or anything else. If the
13 People will say no. Some-
times even a lot of people
will say no. But if love means never 17
Go Over a Reporter's Head.
If you have a serious com-
plaint, approach the reporter
press ever finds out, and it probably
will, the campaign would suffer a pain-
ful body blow. Just ask Wisconsin Sen-
having to say you're sorry, fundraising ate candidate Ed Garvey.
directly. If you have not complained
means never feeling sorry for yourself. No One Should Ever
much in the past and you really believe
Expect to be turned down a lot. It
you have been wronged, you will earn
Lie.
23
comes with the territory.
points for expressing your displeasure
When the lie blows up in
directly to the reporter's face. Com-
your face-and it will-the
14
Assume a Pledge is a Con-
plaining to his or her boss will be seen as
tribution. candidate is not going to be the one to
a direct assault on his job and pocket-
People mean well, but when take the fall. Any attempt at damage
book. Given reporters' pay scales, that
all is said and done there is usually control means you lose your job. If you
is a mistake you do not want to make.
more said than done. A fund raising refuse to lie, you still may be fired, but
chairman should not count money in you will leave your dignity-and fu-
A Scheduler Should Never
the bank until it has actually been de- ture-intact. This is especially true of
posited. press secretaries, who once caught lying
Ignore Small Details and will quickly find they are of no value to
15 Keep Sloppy Records.
Bad bookkeeping not only
reduces your-ability to raise
18 Personal Eccentricities.
Little details like what time
alLe'le.J1Ls.ta~~d the exact .location
the campaign-or any future cam-
paign. Just ask Larry Speakes.
24
Forget to Say Thank You.
money in the future, it can get you in become magnified when a candidate
You do not need a Ph.D. in
trouble with the Federal Election Com- has 13 events scheduled in a single day.
psychology to know people
mission or the state election board. Any Be sure you know precisely all of the
are more likely to respond positively if
such incident is sure to embarrass the details of a particular event-and make
they feel appreciated. Campaigns are
candidate. sure the traveling aide knows them, too.
long and arduous, and staffers are in-
Also, keep in mind the candidate's per-
variably underpaid and overworked. An
sonal preferences and eccentricities.
A Press Secretary Should Never Behind an unhappy candidate often lies
occasional "well done" and "thank
you" goes a long way toward increasing
an unemployed scheduler.
productivity-and often compensates
16 Leak to the Same Source Re-
for an ill-timed temper tantrum.
peatedly. Force the Candidate to
The largest newspaper or
media outlet should not receive every
hot tip. Otherwise, the others will resent
19 B~cktrack Across the Dis-
tnct.
Candidates find few things as frustrat- 25
Forget Who is the Ultimate
~~Uickest path to the un-
you for always giving the break to the ing as spending most of a day riding in a employment line is to forget whose
big guy. Even if you save the biggest car when he or she could be outside name is on the ballot. Only the voters
scoops for the biggest papers, toss a few pressing the flesh. Your job is to maxi- can fire a candidate. But a candidate
morsels to the smaller sources every mize the candidate's exposure-and can easily fire a staffer-or a campaign
once in a while. minimize the amount of time wasted. manager.