The Election Game and How to Win It

"This was written in the late 1960s and it’s an excellent book. Napolitan invented the industry of political consulting. If you want to build a house you hire an architect and builders to create something to your specifications – I want five rooms, two bathrooms… If you are sick you go to the doctor. But if you are running a political campaign you hire your friends? It’s not normal, he says. You should hire professionals. Napolitan worked on low-level campaigns for county officials and on Kennedy’s campaign in the late 1960s. Well, honesty is one of the main things. And understanding what your candidate wants, using the tools available to push the message through to the target groups. It’s easy to explain but it’s one of the hardest things in the world! Every election is different – different people, different place, different budget and time constraints. You have to juggle the variables to find the best solution and you have to craft your message to be easily understood by the highest number of people. The most common mistake is hiring marketing people to run a campaign. But marketing for supermarkets or toothpastes is not the same because you can always go and buy toothpaste at any time. In politics you have a very short time – between 30 and 60 days, depending on what country you’re in, from the announcement of the election to election day. You have to deliver the message to peak on election day. If you peak ten days too early people forget about you, if you peak after it you don’t get votes that were yours. It’s an emotional rollercoaster and it can make you sick just being involved. This is the Bible of political consulting and I look at it frequently. The state of democracy and its development in our country probably hasn’t yet reached the level of the US 40 years ago, so, although it’s an old book, the situations and cases described can be used as a template somewhere else."