Former Senator Alan Simpson once said that most campaigns for office start with a couple of friends, sitting around a table drinking beers. While this may be the way most campaigns start, they shouldn’t stay that way for long. Too often, local candidates think that the best way to run a campaign is to get some friends involved and the campaign will fall into place on its own.
Every year campaigns start earlier and earlier. The 2006 mid-term elections were not even over and we had presidential candidates crisscrossing the country meeting potential voters and donors. The 2008 elections have already seen causalities.
In most elections, incumbents have enormous advantages over challengers. Not only have they won election in the district before, and thus possess greater name ID, but they also have at their disposal all of the trappings of elected office: free mail to constituents, news coverage, patronage and increased fundraising ability.
Ten years ago, there was a legitimate question of whether the Internet had a role to play in political campaigns. That question has been decided. The Internet is here. Nearly 80% of Americans use email. Over half of US homes have broadband connections and wireless access is common and growing. As for political campaigns, the Internet has been accepted. Asking if a campaign uses email is now nearly as absurd as asking if they use the telephone. The question is not if they’re using the Internet, but what elements are they using, how much do they use it, and what’s working for them?
It’s election season again. You understand the importance of free media, name recognition, and fundraising potential. You have read about how the Internet has transformed politics and about the importance of a good team of professional consultants.
With advances in mobile smart-phone technology being what they are, and the near ubiquity of their adoption, Aristotle’s research and development teams are doing everything they can to render printed walk-sheets a thing of the past. Powered by our national voter-file distribution platform, VoterListsOnline.com, and our cutting-edge voter identification and mobile canvassing suite in VoterIQ, campaigns across the nation are saying good-bye to the old ‘print-and-scan’ walk-lists of yester-year.
Whenever an article is written about the professional glass ceiling for women, men get jumpy. They defensively point to articles written about women sportscasters interviewing male football players in the locker room, female soldiers fighting along side their male counterparts and wives out earning their husbands. They usually say this with a look on their face clearly saying, “C’mon, what more do you want?”
With Aristotle, we’ve made it easy for you to remain always connected to your data and bring the campaign wherever it needs to be. Using the mobile-optimized web applications and credit card scanning app from Square, both fully supported by the iOS and Android web-browsers, your campaign team can act, fundraise, and recruit in real time… without the need for costly and time-intensive data-entry back at the campaign HQ.
Picture your volunteer walking through a neighborhood in your district. He’s going door-to-door for you, telling people about your campaign, trying to turn them into supporters. Are you preparing that volunteer to get the job done? Does he know anything about the people who live in that next house or is he just knocking on the door and hoping for the best?
Picture your volunteer walking through a neighborhood in your district. He’s going door-to-door for you, telling people about your campaign, trying to turn them into supporters. Are you preparing that volunteer to get the job done? Does he know anything about the people who live in that next house or is he just knocking on the door and hoping for the best?
