Conventional Un-Wisdom: To win this district, you need yard signs. You want to make me cry on election night? Let me find out that a good candidate lost by a slim margin, but had a ton of yard signs. The answer is always no. NO YARD SIGNS. They don’t vote, they never will. Had the […]
Read More →Author: mario
Unconventional Wisdom – From me to the world…
…not that anyone will listen. The media, the rumor mills, the pundits have been pushing the notion that Kendrick Meek should drop out of the Florida US Senate race and support Charlie Crist – this is a giant pile of Un-Wisdom. For roughly twelve years, Charlie Crist has been terrible to teachers, students, parents, schools […]
Read More →Conventional Un-Wisdom – Scheduling
Conventional Un-Wisdom: As a candidate, you need to meet as many people as possible, you should have as many events scheduled each day as is possible. This one is found on campaigns of all budgets, from the most experienced to the greenest candidates. For some candidates, this is a matter of style/choice or as a […]
Read More →Conventional Un-Wisdom – Hiring Staff
Conventional Un-Wisdom: To win in this district, you need to hire locals to work on your campaign. This is a Conventional Un-Wisdom that happens early in the campaign assembly process and creates a rapid spiral in to more un-wise actions than a campaign can typically recover from. Typically it comes from a “party elder” or […]
Read More →Conventional Un-Wisdom – False Moderate-ism
This is the second of a series of post that will take on some of the myths and mistakes that circulate campaigns and the pundit-sphere unchallenged. We will be provide links on the sidebar to the right to resources for people seeking employment in progressive campaigns, from direct job listings to career and training resources. […]
Read More →Conventional Un-Wisdom – Appearance
This is the first of a series of post that will take on some of the myths and mistakes that circulate campaigns and the pundit-sphere unchallenged. We will be provide links on the sidebar to the right to resources for people seeking employment in progressive campaigns, from direct job listings to career and training resources. If your candidate or campaign is in need of training or other assistance, please contact us.
Conventional Un-Wisdom – As a candidate, I am engaging in what is essentially a continuous job interview, as such I should wear a suit and tie everywhere I go (or similar business attire for female candidates).
This one is very common, and very funny to observe at times. Very few districts at any level have a community in which a business suit is “standard attire.” This becomes even more obvious when you look at the electorate, particularly the universes most likely to be targeted by a progressive campaign. If you don’t recognize it is funny to see a guy (or gal) in a business suit speaking to a crowd at pig roast or a county fair, you may need to get your observation skills re-tuned.
When you are perceived as overdressed by the audience, it adds to the barriers already stacked up against a candidate for breaking through with their message. The audience sees the candidate as less approachable, less like themselves, they become far less likely to become emotionally tied to the campaign. This reduces donor and volunteer potential, and it closes doors the campaign may not even be able to find on their own.
Read More →Welcome to MPA Political’s new home on the web!
In addition to providing information about our services, we will be providing content and commentary through the blog including “Conventional Un-Wisdom”, a series that will take on some of the myths that persist in the world of campaigns and often play a part in the failures of inexperienced candidates and campaigns. We hope you will […]
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