Fair Play: Give Me the Old Days of Simple Campaigning

fair-play-give-me-the-old-days-of-simple-campaigningThere was a time when I sat with a group of political consultants with whom I was involved in the seminars I managed at the “old” Campaigns & Elections magazine. I would sit in on the bar sessions which followed most of our training programs, then we would head off to dinner, only to retreat once more to the bar area to chat. Even
those who didn’t drink (shockingly, there were several) stayed with the group and told the stories that constituted the folklore in our consulting business. Some stories were even true.
The interesting part of this was the fact that we talked campaigning, not politics. We talked of our candidate’s prowess, or lack thereof, of fundraising efforts, of winning or losing.
The bull session is a longstanding tradition in politics. I remember, during a Boston mayoral campaign I managed, imbibing at J.J. Foley’s pub (the watering hole for Boston pols), with the managers of my opponent who ultimately won the election. We drank, laughed and smirked and then went back to our respective headquarters to run our campaigns. I can never recall a solitary moment of rancor when we shredded our opponent’s philosophy—we talked campaigning, not issues.
There were moments in later years when the two great polling Marks—Mellman and Penn—were standing outside the meeting room after their podium stint, chatting with Whit Ayres and Neil Newhouse—two Republican greats. They were talking about polls and projections of upcoming elections. Although all were strident advocates of their much-different political beliefs, there was never a moment of clenched fists or raised voices or any other signs of anger or disdain.
In my time at Campaigns & Elections, the closest we got to a fi ght of any kind came at a seminar when two sign vendors who spoke on the same panel accused each other of usurping the other’s allotted time. 
Fortunately we broke up the confrontation, sparing both seniors from embarrassing themselves further.
But now turn on the television or listen to the radio and you will encounter more mudslinging, screaming, ranting and general lunacy then ever. Were it not for the crawl identifying the screamers as “political consultants” from this party or that, you would wonder from what hole in the ground they crawled.
Our political consulting world has changed over the years. As elementary schools have moved on from the readin’, writin’ and ’rithmatic days, so too have we moved to the Internet, blogging, tweeting, targeting and the like.
Unfortunately we’ve also moved from the camaraderie of a truly meaningful profession. The time has come for the consultants to do just that: consult. Let the politicians rant and rave and politic. Otherwise, it’s sabers and pistols and the end of our profession.Alan Locke was publisher of WINNING CAMPAIGNS magazine before semi-retiring in 2008. He previously was vice president of operations and political training for Campaigns & Elections magazine. He recently was awarded the first Freedom of Political Speech Award by the AAPC Political Foundation. He and his wife, Betty, live in Florida and can be reached at allocke@aol.com.