Campaign tactics for underfunded candidates
I saw Tom Raleigh standing out in the rain on Route 20 yesterday, and stopped to chat with him. We had a very pleasant conversation. He's a great guy.
He does now seem to be discovering how difficult it is to get your message out. I had hoped we could do something together on the theory that the media might find that more interesting, but he didn't want to go that way before (or yesterday) and it's too late now.
He commented on my web ads that he's seen in the Times Union. That has been a very inexpensive approach, but I'm afraid it doesn't reach that many people. I just checked my web stats and there have only been about 1400 unique visitors. My ads linking to my website have appeared a total of roughly one million times on local websites including the Times Union and Capital News 9. Those are called impressions and I don't think they count for much. I guess we'll see about that.
Now I face the dilemma - should I pay for TV ads? I'm leaning towards no. It's a lot of money. I spent $17,000 for TV airtime in 2004. I think that helped, but it certainly wasn't enough to win the election. It was mostly my own money last time and would be all my own money this time.
Few voters realize that it's difficult for candidates to communicate a message to them. Unfortunately, few voters go out and try to find out more about candidates. And they have conflicting expectations - on the one hand they expect us to actively reach them (which gets expensive) and on the other hand they dislike the idea of us accepting campaign contributions.
Any suggestions on tactics would be appreciated.
He does now seem to be discovering how difficult it is to get your message out. I had hoped we could do something together on the theory that the media might find that more interesting, but he didn't want to go that way before (or yesterday) and it's too late now.
He commented on my web ads that he's seen in the Times Union. That has been a very inexpensive approach, but I'm afraid it doesn't reach that many people. I just checked my web stats and there have only been about 1400 unique visitors. My ads linking to my website have appeared a total of roughly one million times on local websites including the Times Union and Capital News 9. Those are called impressions and I don't think they count for much. I guess we'll see about that.
Now I face the dilemma - should I pay for TV ads? I'm leaning towards no. It's a lot of money. I spent $17,000 for TV airtime in 2004. I think that helped, but it certainly wasn't enough to win the election. It was mostly my own money last time and would be all my own money this time.
Few voters realize that it's difficult for candidates to communicate a message to them. Unfortunately, few voters go out and try to find out more about candidates. And they have conflicting expectations - on the one hand they expect us to actively reach them (which gets expensive) and on the other hand they dislike the idea of us accepting campaign contributions.
Any suggestions on tactics would be appreciated.
posted by Albany Lawyer at 1:35 PM
1 Comments:
Well, you could hold a rally with some College Republicans in the area. At RPI there's a more than active chapter of the College Republicans who aren't all big-time fans of McNulty's more "progressive" approach to government spending. It could be an easy way to get some cheap publicity because RPI and SUNY Albany's CRs find ways to get themselves read about in the newspaper. I can get you in touch with some of the officers of the club if you were interested.
-Matty N
Post a Comment
<< Home