Lessons From Losing

I read a lot of article and advice from experts in the biz, and I can't tell you the last time I read one about losing. In my experience I have learned a great deal from my losses. In some ways I've learned more from them. With every great victory has come a loss equally as great. It is never fun to lose a campaign...your own or someone else's. It's an even greater loss if you fail to learn from it.

Campaigns fail for any number of reasons. Some are doomed from the word go, and others look great on paper all the way through the announcement of those devastating results. Here are a few ways to avoid failure. Look at them as lessons learned in the trenches

Work with the press, not against them - Realizing that most reporters are not out to "get you" is a good first step in achieving this goal. When you begin to see the news from their perspective and not just the campaigns you set yourself apart, and usually firmly in the good graces of any press you're interacting with. Keeping the press happy usually keeps them off your back. An angry beast is usually much more hostile when you come around for feedings.

Stop telling a candidate or campaign what they want to hear - this is never a good idea. You end up feeling like less of a person at the end of the day and you're really not offering your expertise when you start down this road. It's easy to be a YES man or woman, and you can usually earn a lot of money being one. You don't win campaigns that way. Your job or role is to be honest and give your best advice. In some cases you're paid for it, so don't be a fraud. If a campaign isn't comfortable with your honest interpretation of the situation, then it's best for both of you that you part ways. Don't sugar coat the truth. You're not helping yourself or the campaign.

Research, research, research - Whether you're running a major campaign or a small local one, you better have done your homework! In today's day and age, anything can be found with a simple Google search. If you're not researching the issues, your opponents, your donors, and your own candidate, you're in for a bumpy ride. In some cases, for larger campaigns, it's even necessary to hire a professional research firm. Just like other experts your campaign should solicit, these firms do research and they do it well. If you're not able to do it for your campaign, find someone who can.

Message, message, message - Don't fall into the trap of relying on your candidates networking skills and overall appeal to get elected. Your campaign MUST have a message. Your message is not the bumper sticker slogan, or the line on the back of your t-shirts. It must be more than that. As an incumbent don't fall prey to the idea that "the people already know me". Indeed they might, but your campaign still needs a message to stay relevant. Find a message, communicate it effectively, and stick with it.

There are any number of mistakes I could continue discussing. The bottom line is to not take your failures for granted. Use them. Learn from them. Don't repeat them! Many factors play into campaigns, both good and bad.

Don't just brag about your successes, take time to examine your mistakes. It may surprise you what can be learned...

The Ten Worst Mistakes of Losing Candidates

With thanks and credit to Morton C. Blackwell

Some candidates lose because they can’t raise enough money, no matter how hard or skillfully they try. Others lose because their election districts are demographically wrong, because the trend is against their party or because their views are not close enough to those of the voters.

But many losing candidates could have won, if they had avoided making one or more of the following common mistakes:

1. Failure to develop in advance a comprehensive campaign plan, including a timetable and a realistic budget. In politics you can start late, but you can’t start too early. Losing campaigns almost always misorder priorities, putting too much effort on things which can have little effect on the election outcome.
2. Managing their own campaigns.
3. Spending too much time at headquarters rather than going out personally to solicit votes or raise money.
4. Hiring consultants who personally absorb too much of their campaign budgets.
5. Spending too much of the campaign funds on paid media and polling and not enough on building an organization of large numbers of people in campaign activities.
6. Adopting (and sometimes changing) positions on issues because of pressure from major contributors or the results of public opinion polls. Polls can be useful to determine which of their personal positions on issues should be stressed in their campaigns.
7. Misreading public opinion polls, which usually measure preference but seldom measure intensity. Intensity, not preference, motivates people to act in politics.
8. Failure to stress properly the issues which motivate the core elements of their supporters.
9. Responding to every minor criticism rather than focussing on the carefully considered issue thrust of their own campaigns. Campaigns lose when too much on the defensive.
10. Failure to respond properly to continuing negative information, whether from an opponent, the news media or both. Ignoring a continuing negative issue won’t make it go away.

The Ten Worst Mistakes of Winning Candidates

With thanks and credit to Morton C. Blackwell

Some candidates win but disappoint their supporters and even themselves. They achieve little or nothing of what they hoped to do. Here are incumbents’ worst mistakes:

1 -Hiring staff who don’t personally share their policy agendas. Personnel is policy. Staff who lack enthusiasm for their bosses’ priorities prevent elected officials from doing what they intended to do in office.

2 -Not keeping campaign promises. These days voters have little tolerance for incumbents who break their word.

3 -Not paying attention to the interests of the coalition which elected them. Incumbents lose their allies when they don’t vote right, sponsor key legislation or sign allies’ fundraising letters and aren’t there when their friends need them.

4 -Seeking approval of their enemies, particularly their media enemies. Many incumbents start craving to have everyone love them and no one hate them. But trying to make friends of their enemies makes enemies of their friends.

5 -Failure to handle constituent relations effectively. All politics is personal. Service can be as important to voters as policy. They appreciate prompt, personal service when they contact those elected to serve them.

6 -Succumbing to temptations newly present when one achieves some power. Election to office tests anyone’s strength of character, family ties and personal morality.

7 – Getting greedy for money or higher office.

8 – Becoming arrogant. Many people, constituents who request help and especially the officials’ staff, treat incumbents with deference bordering on obsequiousness. A consequent loss of humility can destroy a politician’s base.

9 – Accommodating opposition incumbents who now are “distinguished colleagues.” Excessive collegiality is a trap for incumbents who really want to accomplish things.

10 – Not helping to nominate and elect allies in their home states and elsewhere. A well-run team takes care of its own. Serious politicians work hard to elect others who share their public policy principles.