It’s another Saturday, so for those who tune in, welcome to a diary discussing the Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic Campaign. If you’ve missed out, you can catch up anytime: Just visit our group or follow Nuts & Bolts Guide. Every week I try to tackle issues mailed in, and with the help of other campaign workers and notes, we tackle subjects that people who want to assist a campaign want to know.
A few weeks ago, a campaign sent me email asking about problems they were having with gaining credibility among local activists. The problem was that they had been unable to find a “good staff” yet, and as a result a lot of campaign workers had worked for them for a short stint, were fired, and new staff brought in.
When they went to speak with elected Democratic officials in their state, a legislator told them it would be very hard for anyone to support them until they were seen as more stable.
What exactly makes a stable or unstable campaign? How can you avoid being seen as an unstable campaign?
Consultant or staff, who’s in charge?
Unless you are a very small campaign, campaigns need at least one person who takes on the job of managing the important details of a campaign. In small campaigns, candidates often can hire a consultant who may manage multiple campaigns. They could also just be a volunteer in a tiny race.
For donors and others, though, the one thing that person really shouldn’t be is the candidate themselves. The role of looking after the campaign is a tough one, and part of the job is pushing the candidate to continue to work, to do call time, to walk the sheets they are given and manage schedules. While only a fraction of the job as a whole, those elements alone are a reason why donors look suspiciously at campaigns where the candidate themselves try to run everything.
It is difficult for party activists to believe that you are prepared to do the work required when the person responsible to keep you on task is, well, you. The larger the office you seek, the more support you will need. Running for a county-wide or a state house election? Adding a finance director will be one of the next steps. Everyone you add is designed to support the candidate and done well this support can also show voters that the candidate makes smart choices and builds good relationships.
Instability can set in
As a candidate, however, you may find out that the campaign manager or finance director you are working with doesn’t line up with what you want. Having a campaign staff worker leave and work elsewhere is fine. One change, people will understand. A series of changes, however, will lead to questions.
Constant turnovers in staff will be held against the campaign, in general. Your candidate can be portrayed as difficult to work with, a bad assessor of talent, or far less generous assessments.
If you face a Democratic primary, your opponent will call it out, but in a general election, Republican candidates will use this as a campaign against the competence of the candidate.
Building stability in a campaign
The easiest way to avoid instability is to build your campaign in a way that makes for a constant, stable presentation of your efforts. People have a tendency to think that success could be charted out by a straight upward line. In fact, achieving success and stability has a lot more in common with a curvy road than a straight line.
Still, it is the presentation of stability that matters—whether the road is straight or has a lot of curves, drivers feel safe because of the constant nature of a center line and traffic signs. Imagine your campaign a bit like that—maybe there are curves, but the signs help people feel as though there is a direction to what you are doing.
If you know that campaign staff is short term for any reason, like a young student who will leave for college in the fall, a staff member who will become a parent before election day, or any other reason, make sure people know that there is a plan. Having what seems like a plan helps calm people around you who will feel as though your curvy path to success has some direction.
Don’t fire/hire frequently unless you really need to. It is okay to reshuffle a campaign, to move people around, but booting people off of a campaign can quickly gain attention.
Final thoughts
Whether you use a consultant or campaign staff or just volunteers, treating them well and holding onto good staff is critical for your success. Work hard to be an environment that holds onto good people.
Next week on Nuts & Bolts: Introducing …