7 Common Pitfalls of First-Time Political Candidates [Abbott PR]

As first-time candidates throughout the U.S. begin to prepare for elections this year and in 2022, it's a good time to take a look at some pitfalls these candidates often encounter.

1. Trying to self-manage a campaign. If you serve as your own campaign manager, you're being managed by a fool. Why? Because you cannot objectively make decisions affecting yourself. For example, you cannot objectively tell yourself that your wardrobe is inappropriate, that you must tone down your favorite diatribe, or that you're speaking too long. This is true for your spouse and other close family members, too. They cannot be totally objective. To run a winning campaign, it takes an outsider's clear view of the campaign to make these kinds of decisions - objectively. Sometimes it's hard to hear that you're approaching a campaign from the wrong direction, and you may even be upset, but better you hear it from someone who WANTS you to win, rather than from voters on election day. (Note: For some races for smaller offices with smaller budgets, a strong campaign adviser - or a communications consultant - may be fine as a substitute for a full-fledged, full-time manager. But the advice holds - get outside help.)

2. Failing to raise and spend the right amount of money. Speaking of money, if you don't have the cash, you must raise it. First-time candidates often delude themselves into thinking money doesn't matter. It does. Without money, there isn't a campaign. And it must be not only raised, but spent, wisely. Even if you think you only need a small amount of money, media and voters will be watching to see if you have the ability to raise more than you need. The truth is, candidates need professionals to help them to raise money - or force them to, if necessary.

3. Focusing on the wrong issues. You have 40 issues that you want to tackle in your campaign: abortion, the IRS, Federal defense spending, social security, etc., etc. But wait a minute, you're running for a seat in the state legislature! Much of this will be irrelevant to the office you're seeking. Spending time on issues you would have no control over if you're elected is a waste of time, and can unnecessarily give voters reasons to vote against you. A campaign must focus on a select few, relevant local issues, and not deviate from them.

4. Talking about the wrong issues ... to the wrong people. You should never lie or change your views to chase poll results in order to get votes. Voters can sniff out a phony. But it simply makes sense to speak to groups and individuals about things they care about. Making wildly irrelevant speeches to influential groups is a sure way of looking foolish - and irrelevant, yourself. Relying on speech writers, your manager and/or your communications consultant to direct your campaign's focus on issues is a wise move. It will likely keep you from looking completely out of touch, and will give your campaign a polished look and feel, without compromising your principles.

5. Steering out of the Mainstream. Okay, so you believe in UFOs and aliens, you  think flying cars can solve traffic jams, and that JFK was shot five times by CIA operatives, Castro and the Mob working together. Keep it to yourself. While some of this may seem "folksy" coming from long-time politicians, remember this: nuts don't often get elected. And if they do slip in, they frequently don't stay elected. Say something off-the-wall and it by very well be the only thing voters remember about you, and the only thing the media will focus on, and can easily destroy your chances of victory. In short, keep irrelevant views to yourself. A speechwriter will be able to "filter out" items that you may not notice in a first draft, and keep you from saying things that will "ALIENate" voters.

6. Running to lose. Sometimes, the better part of valor is not running at all. If you don't have the financial resources, if you don't have the support of colleagues and family members, or if you don't have the willpower, health, time or effort to run an effective campaign, don't do it. (And if you can't keep your head above water in one of these areas at any point in the campaign, consider dropping out.) If you do run, however, you must run to win, not to make a point. People don't vote to make a point, they vote for winners. And voters sense when you're just riding a hobby horse, and don't really care about winning.

6. Being Unprofessional. Failing to present your campaign as professional is a sure sign you haven't hired professionals to design your campaign. For example, you had better use professional design and printing, because if you don't, you may be viewed as not credible as a candidate. Independent candidates often get carried away with their message, filling a sign, website, or brochure with trite slogans and LOADS of text, resulting in unreadable nonsense no one will actually read. This is the sure sign of an amateur candidate - one who will not be  taken seriously. Keep it brief and keep it professional, and the best way to do this is to have it written by a professional.

A professional campaign consultant will help you to avoid these pitfalls, and many more, in the course of your campaign. Abbott Public Relations offers a wide array of reputation building and campaign consulting services for right-of-center candidates and future candidates in Florida and throughout the US.

Stephen Abbott is a public relations consultant and political messaging specialist, and the principal of Abbott Media Group, specializing in helping political candidates, business leaders, groups and start-ups craft effective messages. Visit Abbott Media Group for more information.

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Donald #Trump's Disastrous Announcement Speech

Donald Trump's announcement speech stands as a perfect example of why using a professional speech writer is vital to making a candidate's views coherent to voters and giving an elevated, Statesmanlike tone to a campaign, especially on the Federal level.

While managing and advising campaigns, I've found that wealthy candidates (and particularly, self-funding candidates like Trump) believe they have a "right" to simply spew forth whatever is contained in their brain at the moment. Trump's announcement speech demonstrates why this approach is horribly, disastrously wrong.

The fact that he apparently had a beautifully written, 20-minute prepared speech that he chucked at the last minute tells me he doesn't take professional advice, which speaks volumes about his character and his attitude towards taking advice from others.

How does he expect to govern if he doesn't take advice? Well, he actually tells us: He's going to bully China, bully Putin, bully Mexico, bully the CEO of Ford.

Not that we shouldn't stand up to them all, and the sad thing is that he isn't RIGHT when he says that 'free trade' deals have been detrimental to our economy, but he must bring Congress and the American people along with him. And he does that that with the proper tone and the correct political rhetoric that inspires us to come along with him.

Listening to a blowhard at a coffee shop or a bar blow off steam with irrational "bomb them all" language and simple, but wrong-headed, solutions is one thing, and can easily be excused as the ramblings of someone who hasn't studied any of these issues in depth.

But a presidential candidate isn't simply making thoughtless statements in a coffee shop, he's placing himself into history.

And that makes hearing a self-obsessed braggart make arrogant bloviations from a presidential announcement podium is historically inexcusable.

Unless Donald Trump now gives a series of serious, scripted policy speeches in the coming weeks - which is extremely unlikely - his candidacy is doomed, and it was a long shot to begin with, so he'd better start listening to people.

English-Language Signs in Cyprus Shows PR Savvy

I have to commend those protesting the Cyprus bank account levy for creating protest signs in ENGLISH. From a PR point of view, this is just smart.

Protest signs written in English allows UK and American news cameras to capture the anger in a way that appeals to news consumers in the UK and US, and even Europeans, most of whom read English.

It instantly transforms what could have seemed a far-off problem - with signs written in Greek, which is literally "Greek" to most Americans and Britons - to something close, easily understandable and "real."

Signs legible to hundreds of millions of people around the world allows the protest to be "branded" as something of international, not just local, interest. And that makes it far more valuable as a news story.

I'll also note that most of the signs look like they are from a single protest. The lettering on on "Hands off Cyprus" sign looks the same in several (meaning: dozens) of wire service photos that have been used for four days in a row now (this coming from an informal Google image search.)

This is even more amazing, since a small number of signs have been effectively transformed into the LOOK of this story for days now. This shows the power of the idea of non-English-speaking protesters appealing to English-language readers.

I often wonder why protesters in Middle Eastern nations like Egypt and even in the Palestinian West Bank don't use more signage in English, and adopt protest techniques proven to be successful in Western nations. My advice to them is to watch the Cyprus experience and learn from it.

 

GOP Candidates Must Have Big, New Ideas to Win Primaries and in November

Big Ideas capture the imagination. They change lives. They change countries. They can even change election campaigns that are drifting aimlessly, five weeks before Election Day.

But first, they must be articulated by courageous Republican candidates for office. I don’t see that happening much here in New Hampshire.

In the new film Inception, a character says, “Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed – fully understood – that sticks.”

It sticks in elections, too. It sticks in the voter’s minds. It resonates, and sinks deep into the subconscious. Consider:

"It's morning in America." - Reagan correctly identified hope and change - and optimism - as what would win against a bleak Carter-led nation.

"It's the economy, stupid." - Carville and Begala correctly understood the mood of the nation during a horrible recession. The Washington GOP elites didn’t. So we lost.

"Hope and change." - GOP activists ridiculed this as “the hopey, changy thing.” I said it was foolish to ridicule hope during a near-depression filled with misery. Regardless of how inept Obama’s policies turned out, he had this advantage during the election, and it worked.

"It's not Ted Kennedy's seat, it's the people’s seat." - Underdog Scott Brown electrified his Senate campaign with this one line, smashing the idea of inevitability and opening voters to his message.

These themes, backed by powerful Ideas (some better than others) resonated. And yet, campaigns here in New Hampshire aren’t talking about New Ideas, but instead opt for the same, old slogans.

Examples? "Lower taxes" and "More jobs" are okay as slogans, and nice as concepts. All Republicans agree with them. But that's the problem. No candidate simply spouting slogans can break out and be noticed. Slogans aren’t fleshed out. Will these slogans create jobs? What's unique? Where are the New Ideas?

NH Democrats in 2006 and 2008 won by adopting these innocuous, me-too concepts. Voters trusted them twice, in part because the GOP failed nationally and statewide to impress them with new and better ideas to back up the slogans.

Being Idea-less, some candidates are being advised to simply spout slogans and run an Idea-less Primary, relying on spending lots of money on TV and getting “face recognition” alone to get attention. This is a rather weak strategy.

Candidates don’t need a million dollar TV strategy. They need million dollar ideas. The ideas will generate coverage and recognition.

They must capture the voters’ imaginations with the power of these Ideas. They need Great Ideas and must deploy them correctly to run transformative, memorable, winning campaigns.

Winning candidates will say to primary voters, "Here's something new, different, and consistent with Republicanism. THESE are the BIG, NEW IDEAS that will win us the election in November!"

And these Ideas can’t be backward-looking ideas that seek to return us to the 1950s (or 1760s) or try to turn the GOP into big-spending mini-Democrats. 21st Century voters won’t stand for either approach.

So, what are these Ideas, exactly? I can certainly suggest a few directions. But when a candidate calls me and is willing to listen, I’ll be there to help them effectively articulate their own Great Ideas.

Stephen Abbott
Abbott Public Relations
www.abbottpr.com
603-341-0372