Book Reviews

Campaign Craft: The Strategies, Tactics, and the Art of Political Campaign Management

Daniel M. Shea. Campaign Craft: The Strategies, Tactics, and the Art of Political Campaign Management. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 1996. xvi + 265 pp. Tables, notes, bibliography, index. $65.00 (cloth), ISBN 0-275-95458-7; $24.95 (paper) ISBN 0-275-95459-5.

Reviewed for H-Teachpol by Fred Monardi, University of California, San Francisco.

Published by H-Teachpol (October, 1997).

Daniel Shea's book fills a void in the political science literature. Electoral behavior studies focus on topics such as the behavior and attitudes of voters, politicians, party activists, the media, or special interest groups. However, campaign strategies and campaign technologies have received little attention. Shea points out that the literature on campaign management usually falls into two types. The "manual" is the first type. Specialized campaign publications, geared toward professional campaign consultants, discuss this type. These publications are usually dry, technical instructions on how to carry out an aspect of a campaign. The other type of campaign management study is the case study. While more interesting, case studies provide no instructions on how to run campaigns. Shea successfully bridges the gap between these two types of studies.

In the first chapter, Shea summarizes the decline of the "old style" campaign and why the "new style" campaign is necessary for winning elections. The new style campaign consists of four dimensions: new players, new incentives, new tactics, and new resources. First, the new players are the political consultants. While political parties, candidates and voters are still a part of the electoral process, contemporary campaigns are now "consultant centered." Second, patronage, loyalty or ideology are no longer the only incentives for people to be involved in campaigns. Now, the main motive is financial reward. Third, contemporary campaigns focus on "targeting" voters with specific messages. Computers now allow campaigns to engage in fundraising, survey research, demographic research, and direct mail efficiently. Finally, new style campaigns can no longer rely on partisan appeals as their main resource. The main resource in the "new style" campaigns is MONEY.

After the introductory chapters, Shea divides the book into three sections: the campaign context, strategic thinking, and voter contact techniques. First, as part of the campaign context, the candidate or consultant must understand the electoral environment for the office sought. What office is being sought? Is there an incumbent running? What are the national trends? These questions and others are important for laying out a campaign strategy. Shea concisely summarizes the political science literature in this section in explaining why these factors are important for a campaign strategy. Other aspects of the researching the campaign context--demographic research, prior electoral targeting, and opposition research--may be less familiar to political scientists than to professional consultants. While not getting too technical, Shea outlines the methods, sources, and techniques used to gather this information. He also adequately explains the importance of this information and supplies some case studies of how this information has been used effectively.

In the strategic thinking section, Shea discusses survey research, and developing a campaign theme and a campaign strategy. Most political scientists will be aware of the issues involved in survey research, but the chapter would be useful to students who are not familiar with polling research. Shea provides convincing arguments and case studies for why a good theme and a well-developed strategy are crucial. The essential point made in this section is the importance of remaining consistent with the campaign theme and not abandoning the basic strategy of the campaign. When setbacks occur during a campaign, candidates are tempted to scrap the whole campaign plan. Shea argues that this should rarely be done, because it is important to present a consistent message to the electorate. Some flexibility is allowable to adapt to new circumstances, but campaign professionals need to convince the candidate not to panic when there is a setback in the campaign.

The third section discusses voter contact techniques. This section includes chapters on fundraising, paid media, earned media, and grassroots activities. Most voter contact activities have advantages and disadvantages that are summarized in these chapters. For instance, while local coverage of a campaign by a newspaper or television station provides free publicity for a candidate, the campaign staff has little control of what will be reported. As far as other types of voter contact activity, a candidate cannot rely exclusively on one type of activity. Several well-planned activities will complement one another. While direct voter contact is one of the best methods of voter contact, it is impossible to reach everyone in the district or state. Hence, it is critical that campaigns buy some media time and hire professional ad consultants. The chapter on fund raising provides an excellent summary of federal campaign finance rules and an excellent discussion on the why individuals and groups contribute to campaigns.

The strength of this book is that it incorporates a number of case studies and previous political science literature in the discussion of some of the more technical aspects of campaign management. This makes the book much more interesting to read than campaign publications geared toward professionals. Shea also convinces the reader why certain strategies are necessary and explains the advantages and disadvantages of different activities. The book also provides good historical background on campaign practices of the "old style" campaign, and the factors that have produced the "new style" campaign.

The weaknesses are few and minor. Shea usually backs up assertions with previous political science analyses or a case study; occasionally, however, assumptions about behavior are made with no evidence presented for support. Overall, the book is interesting and sometimes quite lively. However, some students may find certain sections within chapters to be dry. Many students will groan when reading about "how to collect Census data" or "calculating a swing factor." These sections are not too technical, but are unavoidably dry. However, these might make for some good assignments for the students.

Overall, Shea accomplishes his goal of writing a campaign management book that is not too technical, but provides some instructions on how to implement a campaign. The case studies and summaries of previous political science analyses makes this a very good book for a variety of political behavior classes. This book is definitely suitable as a main or supplemental text for upper division courses in political campaigns and political communication. It may also be a suitable supplement for courses in electoral behavior or political parties, if the instructor wishes to incorporate campaign management in those courses.

This book also serves as a good primer for individuals considering to run for political office for the first time. While we may admire the quests of the candidates that eschew fundraising and fancy commercials, the fact is that these candidates rarely win. This book should be able to convince most wary candidates about the necessity of "dirty work" such as fundraising, demographic targeting and good media relations. 

The H-Teachpol book review editor is Patrick O'Neil.

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