Voted Best Web-Based Political Campaign Software 2 Years Running

Getting the Strong Urge to Run? Get Started Right After Election Day

As we approach yet another Election Day, all politically-minded eyes are focused on this year’s big races.  There are a small number of people, though, who have already begun to look beyond Election Day: next year’s candidates.  For them, while this year’s campaigns are important, the most important campaign, their own, is just beginning. 

Whether you’re just thinking about running for office next year, or you’ve already decided to throw your hat in the ring, you may be asking yourself, “When should I start my campaign?”  The best answer anyone can gi

Should You Hire a Vendor for Your Voter File?

Brad Blaemire

As a voter file vendor, this is not a new question for us.  In fact, we have found our greatest competition is from clients who decide to “bring the voter file in-house”.

Is this wise?

Like most decisions, nothing is always right or always wrong.  But there are certain arguments that should be considered by every campaign or party that is considering the building and management of their voter file in-house.

   1.      Bringing it in-house

Keeping Political Campaign Email out of the Junkmail Box

Benjamin A. Katz

Effective communication has always been the key to a successful election campaign and in the electronic age, email has increasingly emerged as an efficient, low-cost medium for doing just that.  Unfortunately, if your campaign staff is not sufficiently aware of the pitfalls posed by spam filters, your carefully crafted email message may simply end up in the intended recipient's Junk Folder.

Email service providers (such as AOL, MSN and Gmail) have been forced by the glut of unwanted bulk email to institute increasingly sophisticated filters on their email systems.  T

Not All Elections End on Election Day

Jim L. Burdge

The Saga of a Lost Campaign Being Won 

As campaign consultants we must offer our clients more than just the usual fare of voter targeting, issue research, polling, message crafting, and all the nuts and bolts of campaigning.

We must be aware of the election laws and the procedures used by local election officials to conduct the elections and enforce these laws. In close elections, the consultant must be ever vigilant for anomalies and obvious changes in voter patterns on a precinct-by-precinct basis.

A case in point is a recent elect

New Media Is Driving Politics Into The Unknown Zone

Joe Rothstein

Technology is changing the way we work, shop, bank, exercise and most other areas of life.; Why would we expect political campaigns to be immune?  

It’s been 30 years since Robert Redford played the role of Bill McKay in “The Candidate,” which accurately represented what was then a whole new political form:

Polling for message+Poll-Driven TV spots+saturation TV buys+clever press manipulation.  That’s the way statewide campaigns and many congressional and municipal races have been run ever since.

But now we are seeing a new formula at work

The Making of a Candidate

Mark Proctor

So you want to run for an elected office?  Answering the following questions can help you confirm that running is the right decision for you. 

1) Why do you think you are the best person for the position you seek?

2) Does your immediate family understand that if you are running for an elected office you will be spending many hours away from home during the campaign?

3) Do you have anything in your personal background (public records, credit reports, financial obligations, business or employment experience, etc.) that you would not want to be mad