|
|
A Field Guide to
Campaigning
Political consultant Dale Emmons won't give away all of his secrets, but he does offer a
few thoughts on the art of stumping in the Bluegrass.
Dale Emmons is, without a doubt, a political jack-of-all-trades...an energetic personality
who is one of those fortunate few who loves his work and thinks it's fun. Emmons' work is politics -- with a Kentucky flavor. In 1990, he formed Emmons & Co., a firm that provides a
number of services, including: professional marketing, real estate brokerage, fund-raising, research and planning, corporate public affairs and various services for grassroots initiatives.
Since forming his company, Emmons has served as campaign manager for many notable
Democrats, including: Harry Moberly, Pete Worthington, John Will Stacy, Kelsey Friend Jr., Denny Nunnelley, John Adams and Dottie Sims. Employing what Emmons jokingly calls
"efficiency in campaign management," he helped Adams and Sims win their "cliffhanger" races -- Adams by 66 votes and Sims by 193.
Emmons was weaned on local politics
while working at his father's general store in Fleming County, which served as the precinct's polling place. It's also where he got a jump-start on his
current profession, one he began while attending Morehead State University. At MSU, he was managing a friend's campaign
for student government when their opponent decided to steal all the copies of the freely-distributed student newspaper, which
had endorsed Emmons' friend. "I was pretty wet behind the ears at the time, and I hadn't even thought of somebody doing that.
But I was quick on my feet." Emmons found a copy of the paper and enlisted the help of a friend to create a flyer with the
editorial endorsement on it, telling readers what the opposition had done. "We killed them," Emmons said. "Dirty tricks don't always work."
With the 1998 elections getting an early start, Emmons' services are sure to be in demand. The Gazette felt this may be a
good time to take a look at running a campaign, from beginning to end, and the factors that go into orchestrating a political
victory. From someone who's been there and done that, here are Dale Emmons' views on polling, fund-raising, organization and where you start if you're going to run for office.
"The first place you start is the selective process. What's going on in Kentucky right now is people making their decisions
whether or not to become a candidate: 'Is this what I ought to be doing with my time and talent and put my family and friends
through the ordeal of running for public office?' That's a decision everybody has to make. If you're running for the state
Legislature, or U.S. Congress, it costs a lot of money even to get beat now. That'll either be your money or somebody else's
money, and generally speaking, most people have to go to their family and friends to round up enough money to run a campaign
. So, the first thing you have to do is sit down and say: 'All right, realistically, how much of my own resources can I apply to this
? How much time can I afford to take away from my vocation?' -- because campaigning is a full time job -- definitely if you're running for statewide office.
If you're running for a state Senate seat, for example, it can be pretty much a full time campaign. Some of the districts we
have, geographically, are really spread out. We have one district in Eastern Kentucky (Senate district 25 held by Republican
Robert Stivers II) that runs almost from Ohio (separated only by Lewis County) to Tennessee (separated only by Bell County).
 How much does it matter to meet somebody for 30 seconds, shake his hand, say 'yes' once or twice, and then go on
to the next person? Does that get their vote?
I would hope that we in Kentucky never get away from the personal appeal. Even if it's a brief personal appeal. I think it plays
a part. But in and of itself? No. It's just one thing you need to do, but in the absence of anything else, that works.
All humans have an intuitive ability to size somebody up. 'I like this person,' 'I don't like this person.' On some gut-level, that
plays a role in who people vote for. Wendell Ford has a reputation as one of the great ground-pounders, one-on-one
campaigners. He got elected to the state Senate that way, he got elected governor, definitely, that way. He built his empire on
that kind of foundation. It was something he loved to do. Carl Perkins is a legend in Eastern Kentucky and he did that. 
Do you make that your strategy? A campaign where they hear your message somewhere and say "I met that guy
someplace and he was real nice." You have to go to people who know a lot of other people and who can influence those voters, right?
Centers of influence is what I call those people. You have to identify the centers of influence and take your message to those
stakeholders, because all of us as citizens are stakeholders in who we elect to public office. You do not have time to talk to
everybody, because the people who choose not to participate in the system can't always be reached. You have to talk to the
people who have chosen to participate in the system, either through contributions or through voting.
How well does that spread the message? If you go to one of those centers of influence, how hard do they work to
get you elected? Or is it simply that they happen to go to a friend's house for dinner on Friday night and talk to them?
Don't count on them working very hard is my advice to everybody. There's no one who's going to work quite as hard as the
guy whose name is on the line. We have to define centers of influence a little bit beyond that. In addition to the small groups, in a
legislative race, for example, you have PTAs, farm bureaus, chambers of commerce, Lions clubs, churches, etc. But then you
also have membership entities that are serious stakeholders, whether they be trade unions, teacher's organizations, and any number of employee-organized entities.
How much of getting people to vote for you depends on philosophy? How important is philosophy versus practical
politics in Kentucky?
I think people in Kentucky have to like you before they're willing to listen to you. If you have a dislike or a distaste for
someone's demeanor, you're not apt to vote for them -- unless the other choice is just as repulsive. Frequently, people vote for
candidates they don't agree with because they don't have a perfect choice. Voters have to put candidates on a scale and decide how everything balances out.
Does a candidate need to have defined issues? If so, how many?
I think the voters are entitled to a candidate who puts serious forethought into what it is he wants to do when he gets elected.
I'm not so sure voters want candidates to take an ironclad position on every specific cause. But they should address the issues
of the day. Obviously in Kentucky right now it's pretty easy to define what's going on. We can talk about higher ed reform, and
others. I expect that issues is not going to go away once this session is adjourned. There's still going to be some lingering hurt
feelings about who was and wasn't for it, who said what to who and why they said it.
If you were advising someone running for mayor, would you tell him, for example, to pick just three issues - even if
one of the issues was keeping the weeds cut on the road leading into town? Is it that simple?
Running for mayor, I'd say community service is the number-one priority -- 'Is my street going to get scraped when the snow
flies? Are they going to pick my garbage up when they're supposed to? Are the traffic lights going to work?' Yeah, it's that
simple. Because voters are saying 'What's in it for me?' If they have something that irritates them, that aggravates them, then they're going to vote to change things.
How focused do you need to be on the issues? Can you have a few or do you need a lot? Do you need to be
comprehensive?
Well, nobody can be everything to everybody and the reality is most voters have a brief amount of time that they devote to
making these decisions. So, it's important for the candidate to narrow his or her message, whatever that message is, and deliver
it in a timely manner so people can make their decisions. That's not to say you don't have a lot of issues, you just don't have the
time to talk about all of them. The best political poll in the world is knocking on neighbors' doors and hearing what they have to
say. Humans sort out the issues and say, 'Here's what our local government needs to be doing.' That's what all these focus
groups and polling work on the national level is all about. Our society is so large now that there's really not any other practical
way to find that out. I know that in local elections -- which we're getting ready to experience in Kentucky next year for the first
time in five years -- there are many rural communities in this state where, if you're running for county court clerk, or for sheriff, you're expected to knock on people's doors.
Do candidates still walk neighborhoods, running for statewide office?
In legislative races, definitely. For state House seats, you have to (go door to door). Every candidate becomes a manager the
day he decides to become a candidate, because he has to decide what to do with his time. "How much of my time am I going
to spend knocking on doors, how much am I going to spend raising money.' That's after they decide how much time they have
to give. You also have to decide who you're going to ask for money, when you're going to ask them for that money, and where you're going to knock on doors.
How much work goes into figuring that out?
The databases we have now make it a lot easier than it used to be. Technology has replaced the traditional block captain, who
knew everybody. You can use databases on voters purchased from government or from private vendors. We have a really
good voter file in Kentucky (with the Registry of Election Finance), it has voter history, gender, race, etc. The Registry keeps a
five-year history of primary and general election participation (if a voter voted, not how they voted). When you study those
statistics, you can determine who is likely to participate in an election. Now, junkies like me, who do this for a living, we keep
voter histories, as best we can, from parts of the state even longer than five years. You can find 'super voters' -- people who
have voted in every election since they've been registered to vote. Those people are folks you definitely want to spend your time with.
These databases, how detailed are they?
By precinct. What you have to do, if you're going to do walking campaigns -- intelligent campaigns study voter histories, and
create what are called 'walking lists,' for either the candidate or supporters to drop literature at some point, either early or near
the election, depending on what your strategy is. By studying the voter files, you can determine what precincts had the best
performance, where you get the best bang for your buck. The resources of a campaign are divided into three areas: time, talent
and money. The thing a lot of candidates forget quickly during a campaign is that the most precious commodity in any political
campaign is time. The election is set by law and there's not going to be any more time created. You can raise more money, you
can hire more help, you can recruit more volunteers, but you can't get any more time.
How is politics in Kentucky different from other states?
It's more fun. It does get rough and tumble...I think people take politics very seriously -- like basketball, politics and horse
racing. We have so many offices and so many counties and so many offices in every county...every time voters have been given
a chance to reduce the number of offices that are elected they've chosen not to. They basically want to keep those choices and I think those choices make it fun.
When a candidate draws up a plan, do you advise them to take a position on any issue that could come up in a
campaign?
It's virtually impossible to identify every issue that's going to come up in any campaign. Generally speaking, you try to identify
those issues that a candidate needs to be prepared to respond. And timing is pretty important. Sometimes you can use an issue
stance to draw attention to your campaign: 'I'm going to announce my policy on x, y, and z issues on this date' -- that draws
attention to your campaign. That's earned media. It's attention that you have gone out and sought, and you don't have to pay for it.
What about the power of television and the influence of money and TV consultants?
Television is a phenomenally efficient tool. In spite of the fact that it is extremely expensive, the placement of electronic
broadcast advertising is the most efficient way to convey a message rapidly and to a large audience. It's much more efficient that any other medium.
Can good, grass roots organization beat the candidate with more money?
It can compete with it. I think the circumstances dictate whether organization can offset the lack of money. There are certain
instances where a grassroots organization can be the deciding factor.
Is there a model budget for what percentage of campaign funds should go, under normal circumstances, to which areas of a campaign?
My personal goal, and this may vary from campaign to campaign, is to spend 70 percent of your money conveying your
message. The other 30 percent would go to the other incidentals of running a campaign -- fuel, phone, the day-to-day stuff.
How prevalent or how important are phone banks?
I think the telephone is real important, because the reality is most people are busy. So volunteers for campaigns are few and far
between. If you only have 10 volunteers and you're running a campaign for Congress, it's going to be pretty hard to cover an
18, 19-county district with 10 people. That means you have to use your volunteers wisely, because the hours they work may not necessarily match when you need them to do a task.
How important are yard signs nowadays?
There are places where I consider it to be an institutional requirement, as a right of passage, that you have to put up signs. If you
don't have any signs, you're not considered to be a viable candidate. On a professional level, I frequently can't justify them
because they're so expensive. But I wouldn't diminish the fact that a well-placed sign in a rural community in a certain person's yard, is going to help you.
Is polling only important in larger races?
I'm big on research -- polling, opposition research, issue research. That's part of that 30 percent (of the budget) we talked
about. You have to research your constituency to identify who they are, to find out how to talk to them and find out what it is in
your dossier of positions that they are willing to listen to. The reason I advise candidates to do research and polling is because
your most important issue might be one that nobody else cares about. Like I said before, the best way to find that out is to
knock on doors. If you hire a professional pollster you have to limit the time devoted to research, based on how much money you have to spend.
How important is a campaign manager to a campaign?
Somebody needs to be managing the campaign. Whether it's a paid person or a volunteer -- it should not be the candidate,
because in the heat of the campaign, they don't make objective decisions. the dog that's barking right now is the one they're
likely to listen to. And it may not be in their best interest to listen to the dog that's barking at them right now.
What are some of the trends you're seeing that you like or dislike?
Something I like, lots of communities are getting local Internet access. Political candidate home pages give a candidate the
opportunity to say: 'Here's who I am, what I've done, here's what I believe in, and here's why you should elect me.' I think
that's exciting. And I really believe, in the not-too-distant future, that will become a part of most campaigns. The people who
will go to the web page are highly motivated voters, and that's where you want to spend your time first."
Kentucky Gazette, May 20, 1997
|
