Campaign Messaging Secrets

What if a car mechanic pointed out the nice expensive paint job he did on your car exclaiming all he’s done to make it look nice; but you point out to him that the car won’t crank? Then you understand the construction of cause and effect arguments of logic.

If you thank the mechanic for all his hard work and ask him to work on your non-functioning car some more because he says next week he’s going to put more money by putting new hubcaps and a nice chrome kit on it – then you don’t understand cause and effects.

Here’s a messaging hint to campaigns. Average voters don’t see the difference in these logical constructions. But don’t blame them. Voters have been lied to by politicians so much, by so many sides and have endured political spin so much – that even if you point out that the car still doesn’t work, they think you are just being partisan because look at that nice paint job. The superficial argument of what a politician has done works – even if it’s like the Texas saying that the politician is, “all hat and no cattle.”

So what do you do?

To build credibility in a campaign – any campaign be it political or any other messaging – you have to connect the dots and point out the construction of the concept. It’s easier than you think and in fact, simpler is better.

In 1984, the Wendy’s franchise had this very problem. Competitors talked about their burgers and even showed consumers their wonderful product. Wendy’s got caught up arguing from the same construction with, “No, look at me.” When they changed tactics trying to point out the flaws in competitors, Wendy’s arguments were then just more noise in the crowd of partisan burger flippers. Both tactics flopped because either way they were playing the same game.

On January 10, 1984 three elderly ladies were aired viewing a very large, nice burger. Inside was a small piece of meat. Two ladies poked it and talked about how big it was and how fluffy it seemed. They actually were agreeing with the competitors recent ads touting big burgers and fluffy buns. Then they were interrupted by 81 year old Clara Peller who angrily asked, “Where’s the Beef?” Sales at Wendy’s jumped 31% that year and the three words became a national catchphrase. Walter Mondale tried using the phrase but it didn’t work as well because a campaign has to make its own connections. He missed the point.

A campaign must actually illustrate that the competitor is answering questions and they sound good – but they are answers to the wrong question. Show the constructions just like lifting the hood on the newly painted car to point out the engine won’t work. Just saying the engine won’t crank won’t work. The problem and it’s construction must be illustrated.

Many campaigns can start by verbal jujitsu to defuse the argument and change the direction using the opponents own power they have created with their own argument. Do this by showing that all the answers the opponent is providing are perfect examples of what is wrong. It’s not that the answers don’t sound nice – it’s the questions that are all wrong – let the opponent indict themselves then show the construct.

Some politicians tout how much money they have brought to their District, for example. They painted your car. If you argue with them that they didn’t fix your car - then back and forth you go.

But if you change the question you get better results. If bringing money is the cause that is supposed to create the effect of prosperity – where’s the effect? Show it – ask it – illustrate the construction of their own argument.

Robeson is one of the poorest Counties in the nation. If a politician wishes to argue that this has lifted up the District – where’s the beef?

The opponent will not understand and will point to this building, that fire department and some other paint job on the car that he or she worked hard on. So the question is then raised – so are we number one economically as a result and does the car now run? Don’t ask a question you don’t already know the answer to and keep the message simple and focused regardless of whether the opponent changes tactics to adding a chrome kit trying to entice someone with something shiny.

Reagan did it this way – in debating Carter, he kept mocking Carter every time Carter criticized him saying, “There you go again.” Reagan was masterful at stagecraft. Reagan then framed the construct as I’ve tried to illustrate by asking, “Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is there less employment…than four years ago? Is there less….?” You get the point.

Keep asking – where’s the beef? Use your own message - then stay on message. Here's an example of effective messaging using an opponents own construct - Enjoy & Good Luck with your campaigns -

Pantano Wins Debate!

Well - Naturally, each campaign is going to claim victory, but you won't see the above WECT Flash Poll on the McIntyre website nor will you see a link to the whole debate as on Pantano's site or WECT's site.

McIntyre sticks to the valid points he has going for him and made strides to paint himself as a conservative. But although McIntyre had his supporters, the crowd was clearly a Pantano crowd.

Unlike McIntyre who sifted through notes - Pantano is fast on his feet in such situations creating a dichotomy between McIntyre serving on Armed Services Committees, voting for anti-terrorism legislation and visiting the troops against Pantano actually serving as a Marine, fighting terrorism and being one of the troops actually in harm's way that the Congressman speaks of visiting.

In essence, the difference between talking a good fight and actually fighting.

Pantano's winners are his true conservatism, ability to frame the issues and his military service. McIntyre's winners are he is the local guy, has made some conservative votes to try and balance his liberal WHIP position and he's the incumbent - to be fair.

The Blue Dog Democrats may believe opposing debate & views is un-American. You'll be able to tell they believe this if the McIntyre camp is angry after this debate because Blue Dog's in North Carolina have never been challenged and had a free ride.

The rest of Americans think debate is a healthy thing. You decide.

Note: A WECT flash poll had Pantano winnning the debate at 64% to McIntyre's 36%. Although that may be skewed somewhat - it probably is representative of the District's leanings from RNC research.

Robeson & Columbus may be fairly decent for McIntyre due to his incumbency & local standing alone. The rest of the District he's lost because those messages simply aren't resonating & even in Robeson and Columbus they are waning.

DEBATE Night!

Ilario Pantano (R) & Mike McIntyre (D) square off in their first candidates forum 7:00pm Friday, August 20th at Cape Fear Community College North Campus, 4500 Blue Clay Road, Castle Hayne, NC.

Doors Open at 6:45pm - First come, first serve. The debate will also air on WECT TV channel 6.

The Debate comes on the heels of a Press Conference today by Pantano who signed a Term limit agreement. When first elected McIntyre promised to cap his service at 12 years according to news reports but has served 14 years. McIntyre released a statement stating that term limits are only fair if all members of the House and Senate follow them although McIntyre had to have known that other members didn't follow them (term limits) when he promised to a term limit himself if the District would elect him. He also added that he has been strongly encouraged to continue serving as another reason he hasn't kept his promise.

It also comes after a damaging report from the Citizens Against Government Waste ( a taxpayer watchdog group) listed McIntyre as a wasteful government official with taxpayer money - scoring a 5 (wasteful) out of a possible 100 (superhero).

Senator Kay Hagan scored 8. US Senator Burr scored 92. See the links in the article below to read the full report published by Bane Windlow at Carolina Politics online.

Pig Book Rankings

The Citizens Against Government Waste is a watchdog group for taxpayers. It releases its PigBook every year regarding wasteful spending that regardless of ideology, everyone agrees is wasteful.

The 2009 Rankings have been published by Bane Windlow on Carolina Politics online. A ranking of 100 is a taxpayer superhero. A ranking of 0 is a wasteful tax abuser.

Click here to see the article: Citizens Against Government Waste 2009 Rankings.

US Senator Richard Burr Scored in the hero range at 92.
US Senator Kay Hagan Scored wasteful at 8.

US Congressman Mike McIntyre was more wasteful than even Hagan with a score of 5.

Read the article published by Bane Windlow at Carolina Politics Online.

The Executive Committee of the Robeson County Republican Party officially submitted a letter of intent to the Director of the Robeson County Board of Elections (Mr. Dock Locklear) today regarding their decision not to pursue filling the vacancy on the ballot for the District 13 Senatorial race that was created upon the withdrawal of candidate Marc Boudreau recently. Members of the Hoke County Republican leadership have not disagreed with the decision which was coordinated with the GOP leadership of the 8th Congressional District of which Hoke County is a part. Robeson is within the 7th Congressional District.

“We simply do not have a viable candidate nor is there sufficient time to fill the vacancy and generate a campaign,” says Phillip Stephens, Robeson GOP Chairman. “We congratulate Senator Michael Walters. We know him to be a conservative businessman and trust he will serve the District honorably.”

Stephens adds that the executive committee encourages citizens of the District to consider their Republican candidates with whom they will be concentrating efforts in the absence of a State Senatorial candidate. These candidates include US Senator Richard Burr, US Congressional Candidate Ilario Pantano, NC House Candidate G.L. Pridgen and District 6 County Commissioner Candidate David Edge.

North Carolina General Statutes permit the executive committee of a political Party to certify the name of a nominee to replace a vacancy that occurs on the ballot after the primary but at least 75 days before the general election. The deadline for certifying any nominee replacement is 8-18-10 for this election.

A Historical Lesson about District 7 Strategists should know

Robeson County is a key strategy Democrats will use to attempt to hold on to the 7th Congressional District Seat they’ve held since the Civil War. They understand that Robeson’s cache of Democratic votes has historically been central to this seat. Let’s review.

The 1996 election was Mike McIntyre’s first and closest race against Republican Bill Caster. It was a virtual tie in every county except Robeson, Columbus and New Hanover. Columbus didn’t have enough votes to swing very much (McIntyre 8,000 to Caster 3,500) and Caster won New Hanover (his home) by 28,000 to McIntyre’s 18,000. Robeson weighed in with about 18,500 McIntyre to Caster’s 4,000. It’s an interesting race to look at – analysts from both sides should take a look.

Incumbency and Robeson became a key to Democratic control but it hasn’t been the first Robeson gambit. Fayetteville native Charlie Rose
held the seat before McIntyre and depended on his agricultural connections and rural Robeson to hold the seat despite his populist stances otherwise.

In fact, with the exception of Congressman Alton Lennon (we will get back to him in a moment – remember his name), who was a Wilmington native and held the seat from 1957-1973 prior to Rose – the seat has essentially been held, at least in the past century by someone in the western part of the District who could claim ties to the mammoth votes in Robeson. Much further back gets more difficult to analyze because the District lines were much different.

For example, Frank Carlyle
served before Lennon and was an attorney in Lumberton. Bayard Clark was from Elizabethtown and practiced law in Fayetteville. By now we’re approaching 100 years ago and the Robeson model isn’t valid much beyond that point due to re-districting. But you get the point.

Now back to Lennon– his name is key and it’s a secret strategy Democrats will play (in fact, they’re already playing it). You see, it doesn’t matter that Pantano is a Republican (They don’t care about that) as much as it matters that he is from New Hanover.

Democrats are masters at divide and conquer strategies. Trust me, I’ve worked as a small cog in that Democratic machine – they know what they’re doing. In Robeson it’s never been a battle between Democrats & Republicans – it’s been between various Democratic groups. They have experience in this strategy and the quicker other strategists learn this – the better off they will be. Here’s how it’s going to work.

With a wink & a nod and some not so subtle messages – Democrats will encourage Robeson voters to vote for McIntyre solely on the premise that he’s from Robeson. Now the words you’re going to hear are all the things he’s done for Robeson, bringing home the bacon (home meaning Robeson) and so forth.

Now when you examine this premise you find that the grants and loans McIntyre brings to the District are the same federal programs available to anyone who qualifies and applies. McIntyre just gets to bring the check – Charlie Rose just didn’t feel the need to hand out the checks, he had his people do that. McIntyre actually is smart to spin it his way though – it’s nice publicity and you really can’t blame him on that one. Just understand it for what it is. The Congressmen generally did not create these checks and programs in years past nor could they use their political position to swing these grants and loans – regardless of who is in office. But it’s sure a nice photo op.

Lennon was the last eastern Congressman.The McIntyre camp wants to send the message that you really don’t want someone from New Hanover in that seat do you? As if to say that Robeson will miss out on pork if they let that happen.

The first problem Republican (or Democrat for that matter) strategists need to understand is that the first supporting evidence that a Congressman influences these Federal grants and loans is simply hyperbole.

The second problem they have is that one has to be careful providing bringing home the bacon as evidence of what a western Congressman can do when the result has been that there is less industry and economic growth in Robeson than ever. Despite this pork strategy – Robeson is not only one of the poorest counties in the State, but nation.

Now to be fair, that isn’t directly a Congressman’s fault – but if you’re going to claim a victory lap on progress and growth you’ve at least got to show progress and growth. To use logical principles, you’ve got to use them in the proper construct - let's not fudge.

The third problem with the divide and conquer strategy is its difficult to make an argument that the native of a particular county will be biased to a particular region without admitting bias. You just can’t do it. The strategy backfires.

Which means the final problem is that this strategy should infuriate Wilmington voters both Democrat and Republican alike. It’s not about Democrats and Republicans in all respects – Robeson is a Democratic voter cache and forget ideology, if you can convince folks to vote for the hometown guy – you don’t need ideology. That's their plan.

In fact, its key. If you talk ideology and connect local Democrats with Washington – it’s a winner every time. But that’s not what you’ll see from the McIntyre camp, they want it viewed as the local guy versus the outsider and watch them paint it in that perspective. That’s their winner and they know it. Watch them play it – if I was working for the Democrats, I’d play it all day.

The Achilles’ heel is two-fold. One - Convincing voters that someone will not just cast a few votes against socialist ideology and then later support it but will fight socialism. Two – that an eastern Congressman like Pantano will be just as accessible to Robeson as the hometown guy. It’s all about fighting and accessibility to swing that strategy the other way.

So to Republican strategists – that’s one of their strategies. Don’t let them use it. Expose it for what it is. All you have to do is deconstruct it - as it fails the logic test. Deconstruct the argument because it fails with deconstruction.

Leave it as superficial spin and it wins. Deconstruct it, piece by piece and it fails.

Remember, it’s as much about East versus West as it is Democrat versus Republican in their playbook. Fighting Ideology (not just cursory votes) and Access. It’s that simple to fight it.

Am I wrong? Sure, I could be - but I don't think so. Look at the map - Roll the logic, numbers & history in your mind a time or two - Then you decide.

You're Invited! - Pantano Meet & Greet

Please join a meet & greet event featuring Ilario Pantano at the home of Mr. & Mrs. Ron Maynor, 3-5pm Saturday August 14th located at: 1492 Russ Road (just off Barker Ten Mile Rd) Lumberton.

This is not a fundraiser - it is simply an opportunity to meet Congressional Candidate Ilario Pantano who challenges Congressman Mike McIntyre in November.

Please bring anyone with you that hasn't had the opportunity to meet Mr. Pantano on Saturday. Help spread the word and take advantage of this event to meet the candidate and speak with him in person. RSVP Ron Maynor at 740-3001