Previously posted on the Young People For Blog
Does the most-financially supported candidate always win? Does the person with the most money get the message out to the most people? Will this presidential race be like anything we have seen before? As reported in an NPR article the magic number to accumulate this year is $100 million. But why? And more importantly where do all those millions go?
The article says that more than half the money will go to cover media costs. Since the beginning of the 'TV spot' campaigning has been lengthened by 7 months. With longer time to get your face out there, that means more money will be spent. However, as noted in the article, the TV blitz is no longer the one and only method to most effectively get your name and message out there. The approach used now is called 'bracketing.' The candidates now hit you with a multi-media whirlwind. In the morning you will be met with TV ads during morning shows, then hear those ads repeated on the radio during the drive to work, later you will read and see those ads when you logon to the internet in the afternoon. Those ads will also be heard again on the radio and the evening TV news. With the rise of technology and the media era, it is hard for people to get away from the political ads as each candidate tries to reach the most people in the most mediums.
Media and communication costs, so do volunteers. A candidate needs to keep volunteers - recruited, trained, and transported. Volunteers are essential to the campaign as they make the face-to-face encounters, the flesh-and-blood interactions that people relate to the best. With all these costs, we come back to the question of 'will the candidate with the most money win?'
My answer is "no." Look at Barack Obama, the Illinois senatorial candidate with the least amount of campaign funds, yet the candidate who won in a landslide victory. Now his presidential campaign includes blogging, facebook, youtube, flickr, and a number of online multimedia approaches. These are all free and easy ways to reach a growing number of internet connected citizens.
As evidenced by the huge work of bloggers during the most recent election, the multimedia approach is effective and important to the outcome of the election. It is important to write and read and gain knowledge about a campaign, but in the end the best way to win is by connecting to the individual voters. The news and commentary sparked numerous discussions on mainstream media sources on political candidates and issues. Check out my entry on the state of the media.
We can also look back to the campaign of Howard Dean, where he took no large campaign donations from large donors and relied on the small $5 donations from individuals over the internet. Large campaign donations are no longer the stuff that winning candidates are made of, massive amounts of capital are no longer necessary to win an election. This is the day and age where the true connecting to voters and citizens wins elections and puts the right candidates in the right offices.