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Nation Hahn posted on January 27, 2012 12:00
With Governor Perdue’s announcement that she will not seek reelection the North Carolina political landscape has shuffled quickly. As of today, candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor (with Walter Dalton’s entry into the Governor’s race) have 107 days to raise money, reach voters, and win a statewide primary. This compressed schedule is unprecedented in North Carolina politics.
In order to quickly build buzz, build their list, raise money, and reach voters, all of the candidates should seize the opportunity to become the social media candidate for Governor/Lt. Governor.
A few hundred bucks spent on targeted (read: don’t just throw ads up...) Facebook advertising, web videos produced at the fraction of a price of television ads (make sure that they have an actual narrative and theme), a well designed website (could be had for less than $12,500), and well written emails can begin to build the foundation that is needed.
The joy of the internet is that it moves at light speed, which is necessary in this short of a campaign.
The steps above will get you the foundation of what you need, but to get to the next level you really need to embrace the power of social media.
Capture behind the scenes photos using Instagram and post to Facebook and Twitter.
Share stories, tidbits, and anecdotes about the candidates that show them to be real people, who care about the rest of us.
Post rough cut videos of the family spending time together on the road.
Speak in the candidates own voice through the social media.
Brad Miller, Cal Cunningham, and other potential candidates have already shown a willingness to use social media to elevate their voice. If others seize on their example, and make it part of the campaign’s DNA, then they have a real shot.
Simply putting up a Twitter account (Lt. Governor Dalton...) isn’t enough, you must use the platforms to show that you are different if you hope for real success.
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Carter Wrenn posted on January 26, 2012 18:21
Explaining that his chances of winning reelection look dim, this morning Democratic Congressman Brad Miller announced he will not run.
About an hour later Governor Beverly Perdue explained that, because the one thing she cares most about is schoolchildren (who, she added, are victims of Republican legislators cutting spending), she’s not running either.
Follow the logic:
Brad Miller says he won’t run because he’ll probably lose.
Bev Perdue says she won’t run because she’s fighting for school children.
You have to appreciate Brad Miller’s candor.
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Luther Snyder posted on January 26, 2012 10:47
Gary is taking a break this week from consulting, blogging and politics. He invited several TAPsters to contribute blogs during his hiatus. Here's one of them:
Art Pope likely has never thought of himself as allied with the oft-bashed-as-liberal news media, but the mainstream media has succeeded in giving undeserved credibility to Pope’s squadron of institutes that serve as cheerleaders for partisan Republican causes.
News media now regularly quote the Pope-bankrolled Civitas Institute in news stories with no hint of its conservative orientation.
Moreover, smaller newspapers around the state, desperate for content after the newspaper business laid off reporters in droves, have begun running Civitas reports as news stories, even though the biased reports lack opposing viewpoints.
Mind you that Civitas is unlike some of Pope’s other dollar store think tanks, like the John Locke Foundation, which publishes agenda-driven research and news stories. Civitas has an appendage that funds, operates and executes campaigns to defeat Democrats, while maintaining the defense that its campaign operation, Civitas Action, is separate from the institute. Never mind that the same guy runs them both. This is like a McDonald's manager arguing that the drive-through is a separate operation.
Even larger mainstream publications, like the News & Observer, are providing credibility for Pope’s operations. The N&O’s John Frank recently wrote a front page story on the Republican-led legislature’s midnight session – the one devoted to passing legislation that undermines the state teachers association after the group stood up to GOP education cuts. The story examined whether, among other flaws, the legislature’s session was constitutionally convened. Frank quoted two experts: a scholar at UNC’s Institute of Government and a top lawyer at Pope’s N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law. The Pope lawyer (who, not surprisingly, said that the General Assembly's procedure was fine) was quoted without any qualifier about NCICL, such as Pope’s funding or its six-member board that includes two men who held state office and one who ran statewide – all as Republicans. Frank failed even to mention that House Speaker Thom Tillis' legal counsel, whose job would include advising Tillis on issues such as the constitutionality of the 1 a.m. session, was hired directly from – wait for it – NCICL.
Congratulations, Mr. Pope. Your institutes have arrived, and what’s left of the mainstream media paid for the ticket.
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Luther Snyder posted on January 25, 2012 10:38
Gary is taking a break this week from consulting, blogging and politics. He invited several TAPsters to contribute blogs during his hiatus. Here's one of them:
Mitt Romney’s reluctance to turnover his tax returns proves yet again how important it is to FALL FORWARD FAST in politics. What started out as a refusal by Romney melted into a “maybe” that inevitably became a “must” three days after a thorough drubbing in the South Carolina primary. Now front page news, we learn that yes, indeed, Romney is among the .01 percent of the 1 percent. His effective tax rate is a modest 15 percent and his charitable contributions include a $1.5 contribution to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In addition to offshore funds in Ireland, Germany and Luxembourg, Romney’s wife has a cushy $3 million cash account in the United Bank of Switzerland. Ooh la la.
When will they ever learn? The one thing that still unites Americans of all persuasions is that they want their politicians to tell the truth, and tell the truth now.
As Barney Frank said in a 1/22/12 New York Times Magazine profile when asked about his encounter with a male prostitute in front of George Bush’s locker in the Congressional gym, “ When I was confronted, I told everybody everything. Lawyers are very, very good at keeping you out of prison, but they will sacrifice your reputation and credibility to do so. So don’t be evasive and don’t be cute. And unless you think there is a serious chance you’re going to jail, don’t listen to your lawyer.”
Newt Gingrich, are you listening?
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Carter Wrenn posted on January 24, 2012 12:11
Someone ought to say a kind word about Ron Paul – after all, he may be the last of an almost extinct species in American public life: An honest politician.
A politician who doesn’t spin at all.
Ask Newt about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and he’ll tell you they paid him for his advice ‘as an historian.’ Ask Mitt Romney about ‘venture capitalism’ and he’ll make it sound like roses in bloom. But not Paul. Ask him about Iran and he’ll give you a straight answer even when he knows it may sink him.
And what reward has Paul reaped for his candor: He’s been called crazy-as-a-loon and unelectable.
It’s a hard kind of politics: Honest = crazy = unelectable.
What’s wrong with this picture?
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Luther Snyder posted on January 23, 2012 14:21
Gary is taking a break this week from consulting, blogging and politics. He invited several TAPsters to contribute blogs during his hiatus. Here's one of them:
One of the most distasteful and useless public policy efforts in North Carolina is underway, and hardly anyone knows it.
The NC Center for Public Policy Research has launched its tawdry, biennial process to rank the effectiveness of the state’s lobbyists. The Center sends a paper ballot to lobbyists, reporters and legislators so they can vote for the lobbyists who they think have the most clout. After the conclusion of the short session, the Center will publish the results as an alleged ranking of the top 50 lobbyists in the state.
Here are the reasons that a dignified organization like the Center should cease this sham, which is nothing more than a job fair for lobbyists.
1. The rankings are meaningless. Lobbyists vote for themselves and their friends. Legislators vote for who twisted their arm or gave them money. Reporters screw this up like most everything else. The pitiful, mediocre lobbyists lobby friends and colleagues to include them on their ballots. Any lobbyist who asks for this vote should be drummed out of the business.
2. The best lobbyists are near the bottom of the list or not on the list at all. The truly best lobbyists do their work quietly and with dignity and don’t care whether they are on the list or not. And, never in a million years would they stoop so low as to ask someone to vote for them. Indeed, some of the highest ranked lobbyists in past years were fools whose sole source of influence was from a large PAC or the economic clout of their client.
3. Contract lobbyists who make the list use it when they are trolling for clients, suggesting (and lying) to naïve prospects that a high ranking is a validation of influence and political expertise. At the very least, the Center should prohibit the use of the rankings to generate business.
4. Electing a high school prom queen is more sophisticated than the Center’s process. There’s nothing scientific about it at all and nothing to prevent a lobbyist from making dozens of copies of the ballot and stuffing the ballot box with their name. And, for years, there’s been the unfounded assumption that the Center staff “adjusts” the list to make it look politically correct.
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Carter Wrenn posted on January 23, 2012 10:05
Does it seem the Republican debates have become a lot like a ‘reality show?’
Herman Cain gets voted off the island.
The bachelorette says no to Rick Perry.
Michelle Bachman gets voted off Dancing with the Stars?
And – in the season finale – we’ll know America’s New Idol.
Up until now, I thought this was an election with an unusual number of debates. But could it be somewhere there’s a mad Howard Beale or a network executive roaring, To hell with politics – we’ve got a hit show on our hands?
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Carter Wrenn posted on January 20, 2012 16:58
Ole’ Mitt Romney’s hit a rough patch – a week ago he was the conqueror of Iowa and New Hampshire and rolling to victory in South Carolina then his victory in Iowa vanished in front of his eyes and Newt shot past him in South Carolina.
The Republican Establishment’s a peculiar beast: Armed with legions of political masterminds and lobbyists it’s handpicked every Republican nominee from George H.W. Bush to Bob Dole to George W. Bush to John McCain but this year it can’t quite seem to get Mitt Romney across the finish line.
It’s like voters look at Romney and remember the first President George Bush saying ‘Read my lips – no new taxes,’ and the second President Bush piling on the spending. and say, We’ve seen this before.
Newt’s got enough warts and foibles to frighten even the most jaded skeptic but one thing he’s not is the Washington Establishment’s candidate – and, beyond that, he’s got one other big edge on Romney.
In the last South Carolina debate Romney was affable and intelligent but he was up against something a lot stronger than brains.
The first two minutes of the debate Newt took apart and filleted John King then when King didn’t have the good sense to hush about ‘Open Marriages’ Newt filleted him again and it was pure entertainment. And I’m guessing a fair number of people are going to vote for Newt out of appreciation for the good time.
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Gary Pearce posted on January 20, 2012 10:03
It was reputedly Robert E. Lee who said, “the problem with South Carolina is that it’s too small to be its own nation, but too large to be an insane asylum.” General Lee should have lived to see this year’s Republican primary.
Stephen Colbert’s candidacy officially makes the race the best comedy show on TV. And there are multiple characters and story lines to keep you entertained.
First there’s the fall of Mitt Romney. Remember when he was going to roll the table and roll to the nomination? Now, instead of winning three in a row, he’s in danger of losing two of the first three.
Newt Gingrich stole another page from Bill Clinton’s book, turning attention from his extramarital affairs to a vast left-wing media conspiracy. You have to admire his gall. Newt is never daunted by the facts. One TAPster mused: “A swinger in the White House!” Think of the fundraisers in the Lincoln Bedroom.
Then there’s Rick Santorum, the reformer turned earmarker turned born-again reformer. And perhaps the most viscerally unlikeable human being who has ever run for President.
Don’t forget everybody’s favorite crazy uncle, Ron Paul, whose supporters – as one wit noted – appear to be a mix of Tea Partiers and bong partiers.
A salute to Stephen Colbert for bringing back Herman Cain for comic relief.
We’ll miss Rick Perry, who was such a bad candidate that polls now show he would lose Texas to President Obama.
Most of all, don’t you wish Michelle Bachman and her husband were still around?
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Gary Pearce posted on January 19, 2012 10:45
Mitt Romney has a worse case of Rich Foot in Mouth disease than George H.W. Bush and John Kerry combined. A few favorites:
“I like being able to fire people.”
“I had to worry about a pink slip.”
(Of his $374,000-plus in speaking fees): “It wasn’t very much money.”
(Of the gap between the 1 percent and 99 percent): “These things should be talked about in quiet rooms” – not the hurly-burly of politics, apparently.
(On his recent tax rate): “It was about 15 percent.”
My only fear is that he might talk himself out of the Republican nomination.
In his defense, however, he strikes me as the kind of guy, unlike John McCain in 2008, who knows how many houses he owns.
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Spirits of the Air
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