From Leadership Institute Training 7/20/13

1. The Leadership Institute
Developing
Campaign Strategy

2. The Leadership Institute Campaign Strategy
Thoughts
“All politics is personal”
Tip O’Neil
“Power is not only what
you have but what the
enemy thinks you have”
Saul Alinsky

3. The Leadership Institute
Thoughts
"Organize the whole state, divide each
county into small districts and appoint
in each a subcommittee, make a perfect
list of voters and ascertain with
certainty for whom they will vote, and
on election day see that every Whig is
brought to the polls."
Abraham Lincoln
Illinois State Register
February 21, 1840
Campaign Strategy

4. The Leadership Institute
Research
A thorough and complete
understanding of the district, groups
within the district, and how those
groups behave must be developed
first.
Invest wisely in your initial research.
Skimpy research produces flawed
strategy, leading to losing
campaigns.
Campaign Strategy

5. The Leadership Institute
Strategic Goal
• Your strategy must lead to building and producing a coalition
of voters large enough to give you victory on Election Day.
• Tactics will be targeted at building that coalition, then
delivering them to the polls.
• Sound and robust logistics (operations) makes sure the tactics
work.
Campaign Strategy

6. The Leadership Institute
Strategic Concern
Candidate strengths and weaknesses:
• Ability to draw volunteers.
• Ability to raise money.
• Public speaking ability.
• Candidate’s background/story.
• Support level within the party.
• Ability to draw support from the
community.
• Pre-existing name recognition.
• Pre-existing public opinion.
• Incumbent, challenger, or open?
Campaign Strategy

7. The Leadership Institute
Strategic Concern
District/Electorate
Characteristics
• Voter registration statistics,
adjusted for turnout rates.
• Performance of past candidates
in the district.
• Historical tendencies.
• Demographic information.
Campaign Strategy

8. The Leadership Institute
Strategic Concern
Campaign Strategy
Public Policy Environment:
• Current public policy issues on the minds of constituents.
• Potential public policy issues of concern.
• Other candidates, ballot issues that will be
on the same ballot.
• Likely impact of major events that will take
place before the election.
• Other candidates for the same office.

9. The Leadership Institute
Strategic Concern – Develop Your Message
Campaign Strategy
Theme and Sub-Messages
• Develop an overarching theme, plus sub-
messages directed at specific groups
• Use the Leesburg Grid
• Select the medium
• Values-Level
• Framing

10. The Leadership Institute
Messaging Themes
Campaign Strategy
• Unified Theme: Creates a positive image in the minds of the
voters, and ties together the specific messages aimed at
groups within your identified winning coalition.
• Simple, positive, incorporates your vision, offers contrast.
• Speaks to existing voter concerns.
• Sub-messages are specific messages rooted into the theme,
and directed at targeted groups.

11. The Leadership Institute
Classic Points
Campaign Strategy
Choose 4 to 6 of these points:
1. Targeting your party’s base plus portion of independent voters, members of other
parties to secure victory. Traditional strategy based on partisanship.
2. Projecting a clear difference between you and your opponent. Strategy based on a
single defining difference.
3. Dividing voters along ideological lines (liberal v. conservative).
4. Championing a single, popular cause.
5. Building a diverse coalition into a single voting bloc.
6. Creating a positive image, proving your candidate is a good person. Often a
necessary element.
7. Proving the opponent is a bad person, unsuitable for office.
8. Building a large volunteer organization capable of delivering significant vote
numbers.
9. Overwhelming the opponent with campaign activity.

12. The Leadership Institute
Strategy Statement
Campaign Strategy
Draft a one-page summary of your
strategy, accounting for your
evaluation of the strategic concerns,
and your general approach to taking
advantage/overcoming them.

13. The Leadership Institute
Strategy Statement
Campaign Strategy
Hypothetical example #1:
Gray Davis Re-Election
Campaign 2002

14. The Leadership Institute
Gray Davis GOV (CA)
Campaign Strategy
Gray Davis is the incumbent Democrat candidate for governor in a Democratic state which has
not denied an incumbent’s quest for re-election since the 1940’s.
Recognizing the governor’s low approval rating, the campaign will first shore up support
among traditional Democrat constituencies. Once that has been achieved to whatever degree
feasible, the campaign will attack the eventual Republican nominee on issues where the
Republican differs with swing constituencies (women, suburban voters, urban voters,
minorities).
Given the ideological orientation of the state, the Davis campaign will draw stark ideological
contrasts with the Republican, confident such contrasts will benefit Davis.
As the incumbent, Davis can raise vast sums of money. We will overwhelm the Republican
nominee in broadcast media.
Drawing on support from organized labor, a large volunteer ground campaign will drive
turnout in the final days of the election.

15. The Leadership Institute
Strategic Plan
Campaign Strategy
• Expand on the Strategy Statement.
• Outline the specific programs
(tactics) that, when executed, feed
into the strategy.
Key elements:
• Thorough explanation of strategy.
• Complete outline of tactics.
• Budget.
• Timeline.

16. The Leadership Institute
4 more important things about elections
Campaign Strategy
1. Never underestimate the intelligence of the
voter, and never over estimate the interest of
the voter in the election.
2. Elections are about choices and definitions.
3. Less is more.
4. Understand what is important and stay
focused on what is important.

17. The Leadership Institute
Always remember
Campaign Strategy
• Elections are about trust. To gain that trust candidates
must let themselves be known and understood.
• Rarely in major elections do voters vote for candidates
who are unknown. On Election Day, voters vote for who
they know and think they can trust.
• It is not about doing everything right, you just have to
do more things right than your opponent.

18. The Leadership Institute
THANK YOU!
The Leadership Institute
1101 North Highland Street
Arlington, VA 22201
Phone: (703) 247-2000 or (800) 827-5323(LEAD)
Fax: (703) 247-2001