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Webb, Tester and Angelides: The Best and Worst Campaigns of 2006
Thanks to dailykos.com, mydd.com, and youtube.com, political junkies can now closely assess the campaign strategies of key state and national races. When Virginia Senator George Allen uses a racial slur, or his staff assaults a Webb campaign volunteer, the event can be seen on the Internet within hours. These and other sites also enable us to get activists’ up to the minute campaign reports, rather than having news about breaking campaign events filtered and distorted by the media. Based on my analysis of all of the Senate and high-profile Governor campaigns this year, Virginia’s Jim Webb has done the best, along with Montana’s John Tester. Phil Angelides may well have run the worst campaign in California’s recent political history, as unlike the infamous Kathleen Brown Rice gubernatorial campaign of 1994, the Angelides campaign had a smart, personable, and savvy candidate.
...
George Allen, Pennsylvania’s Rick Santorum, and Ohio Congressmember “Mean” Jean Schmidt have all run extremely poor campaigns, but California Democrat Phil Angelides has run the worst campaign seen in a high-profile race in years. Many compare his effort to the Kathleen Brown campaign in 1994, but Brown was not conversant on issues and was no match intellectually for Governor Pete Wilson.
In contrast, Angelides is a personal, likeable guy who could have run the type of campaign George Deukmejian ran in the 1982 Governor’s race. A campaign that says, “I’m not charismatic and good looking but I have common sense and can run a government.”
Angelides never connected with the state’s large progressive base. If you can’t connect with your base, you can’t expand beyond it.
Why did Angelides not quickly secure progressives’ loyalty? Because he never created the grassroots field campaign necessary to give progressives a sense of ownership over his candidacy.
Why did he not create such a grassroots campaign? His campaign staff, some of whom worked on the ill-fated Gray Davis recall election, apparently took progressive support for granted while seeking “independent” voters.
After realizing after Labor Day that Democrats were still not unified behind Angelides, the campaign focused on connecting Arnold Schwarzenegger to George Bush and Iraq. While Angelides’ campaign attacked Arnold for saying he had no role in Iraq policy, polls showed California voters overwhelmingly agreed that Iraq was not an issue in the Governor’s race.
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http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3869#more
George Allen, Pennsylvania’s Rick Santorum, and Ohio Congressmember “Mean” Jean Schmidt have all run extremely poor campaigns, but California Democrat Phil Angelides has run the worst campaign seen in a high-profile race in years. Many compare his effort to the Kathleen Brown campaign in 1994, but Brown was not conversant on issues and was no match intellectually for Governor Pete Wilson.
In contrast, Angelides is a personal, likeable guy who could have run the type of campaign George Deukmejian ran in the 1982 Governor’s race. A campaign that says, “I’m not charismatic and good looking but I have common sense and can run a government.”
Angelides never connected with the state’s large progressive base. If you can’t connect with your base, you can’t expand beyond it.
Why did Angelides not quickly secure progressives’ loyalty? Because he never created the grassroots field campaign necessary to give progressives a sense of ownership over his candidacy.
Why did he not create such a grassroots campaign? His campaign staff, some of whom worked on the ill-fated Gray Davis recall election, apparently took progressive support for granted while seeking “independent” voters.
After realizing after Labor Day that Democrats were still not unified behind Angelides, the campaign focused on connecting Arnold Schwarzenegger to George Bush and Iraq. While Angelides’ campaign attacked Arnold for saying he had no role in Iraq policy, polls showed California voters overwhelmingly agreed that Iraq was not an issue in the Governor’s race.
...
Read More
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3869#more
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