Politicking, Campaigning and Hair Grease

cross-posted at MyDD

This weekend, the Washington Post and the NY Times both carried stories about Senators Clinton and Obama actively courting African-American women in South Carolina by campaigning in beauty shops and barbershops.

From the Washington Post article, "In South Carolina, Beauty Salons are also political soapboxes,"

When South Carolina Democrats vote in their presidential primary in January, African American women will make up 29 percent of voters. One place Clinton and her main opponent, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, think they can reach them is at the hairdresser's.

"Girl, that's where we like to spend our time. If I could, I'd be in a beauty salon now," Clinton's state director, Kelly Adams, said with a laugh. "Seriously, we have to go where the voters are."

Both Adams and Obama's South Carolina campaign director, Stacey Brayboy, are black women who understand that beauty salons allow for intimate exchanges. They are escapes from a woman's hectic life -- places where the pulls of work, husbands and kids take a back seat to a new hairstyle and a good talk.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

The Washington Post article discusses some of the details of what the Obama campaign calls the "B&B strategy" aka as the beauty and barber shop strategy. For instance, the article describes the type of messaging that the Obama campaign employs to urge a beauty shop customer's to vote for Obama:

We need your support, y'all," Champaign said over the buzz of domed hair dryers in a room decorated with abstract art and thick with the smell of hair spray and oil sheen. "I want you to vote for Senator Barack Obama not just because I work for him. I don't want you to vote for him because he is the black candidate or just because you think he's cute, but because he is the best candidate."

The Washington Post article also discusses the literature that Senator Clinton's campaign is dropping off at these beauty shops:

Last week, the Clinton campaign mailed hundreds of countertop pop-ups to Bell and other beauty shop owners; they display photos of her changing hairdos under this Clinton quip: "Pay attention to your hair, because everyone else will."

In the videos that accompany both the Washington Post and NY Times articles, you can also see the campaigns giving out typical campaign gear like signs, pins and buttons to the clients at these beauty shops.

Interestingly enough, on the same weekend, the NY Times also decided to discuss both campaign's B&B strategy to woo South Carolinian African-American women. Unlike the Washington Post's article which focused on the process for attracting these womens' votes, the the NY Times devotes the focus of its article as to why these women are supporting Obama and Clinton:

In interviews with more than three dozen black women both here and in Columbia, the state capital, most said they were still puzzling over which way to go. Some said that specific issues like health care and education were important to them, but most thought their votes would be based on intangibles and determined in the end by prayer.

Vanessa Gerald, 38, a stylist at Carrie's Magic Touch, a salon around the corner from Miss Clara's, said she was torn because Mr. Obama was "trying to help his people, which Hillary is too." Ms. Gerald said she would "have to go with my faith" in making her final decision but was thrilled to have such a choice.

http://www.nytimes.com/... itics/14carolina.html?pagewanted=1&_ r=1&hp

From a political science point of view, I find it absolutely fascinating that both campaigns are trying uniques ways to reach voters where they are instead of passively seeking their support. I hope our eventual nominee continues this strategy of reaching out to voters in unique venues and possibly expanding it to daycare centers etc. I believe if Kerry had implemented a similiar strategy to woo women, particularly single women, he might well have won in 2004. I think the key is that people like to be courted. Creativity wins. The Bush campaign implemented a strategy of courting Amish voters--something that no other campaign had previously even thought to do. Perhaps the Democratic nominee will need to campaign in places that have never been reached out to before in order for us to win next November, instead of relying on the same pool of voters that always vote in campaign every election cycle....

A few questions for everyone:

1. What other non-traditional venues would you suggest that the campaigns should explore to reach out to voters?

2. Are there any blocs of people that the Democratic nominee should court this election that have been ignored in past election cycles?