American Politics Today - Essentials (3rd Ed)

ELECTORAL CAMPAIGNS| 203

other things. While only the most well-funded campaigns can aff ord top consul-

tants, almost all campaigns have paid and volunteer staff , ranging from the dozen

or so people who work for a typical House candidate to the thousands that run a

major-party candidate’s presidential campaign.

The General Election Campaign

General election campaigns begin in early September. By this point several

important steps have occurred: candidates have announced their intent to run

and have built their campaign organizations, primary campaigns and elections

have taken place, and both parties have chosen their presidential nominees and

their congressional candidates. Interest groups, candidates, and party commit-

tees have raised most of the funds they will use or donate in the campaign. The

race is on.

BASIC CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES

One fundamental campaign strategy, particularly in congressional campaigns, is
to build name recognition. Since many citizens know fairly little about congres-
sional candidates, eff orts to increase a candidate’s name recognition can deliver
a few extra percentage points of support—enough to turn a close defeat into a vic-
tory. (Practically all voters can identify the major party presidential candidates,
so name recognition eff orts are not as central to these elections.)
A second basic strategy is mobilization. Turnout is not automatic: candidates
have to make sure that their supporters actually go to the polls and vote. Campaign
professionals refer to voter mobilization eff orts as GOTV (“get out the vote”) or
the ground game.^20 Most campaigns for Congress or the presidency use extensive
door-to-door canvassing, as well as phone banks and e-mail. Both Republican and

SOME CANDIDATES RUN FOR OFFICE

to gain publicity for causes they

support. During the 2008 and

2012 presidential campaigns,

Representative Ron Paul of Texas

ran for the Republican presidential

nomination. Although Paul knew

that he had no realistic chance of

winning the party’s nomination,

his goal was to garner press and

public attention for his libertarian

ideology.

GOTV (“get out the vote”) or

the ground game A campaign’s

efforts to “get out the vote” or make

sure their supporters vote on Elec-

tion Day.