CMC Congress Course: Congressional Elections III: Strategy and Tactics

ABOUT THIS BLOG

I shall post videos, graphs, news stories, and other material there. We shall use some of this material in class, and you may review the rest at your convenience. You will all receive invitations to post to the blog. (Please let me know if you do not get such an invitation.) I encourage you to use the blog in these ways:

To post questions or comments about the readings before we discuss them in class;
To follow up on class discussions with additional comments or questions.
To post relevant news items or videos.

There are only two major limitations: no coarse language, and no derogatory comments about people at the Claremont Colleges.

Monday, February 15, 2016

Congressional Elections III: Strategy and Tactics

Finishing Campaign Finance

The basic tool of campaign messaging: the grid:

Incumbent positive ad: all politics is local

Crossroads GPS sought to nationalize the election:

As Democrats did in 2006:

Opposition research:

Wonderful positive ad, but it was not enough:

Gee, where do you think Politico got this information....

The most Machiavellian ad of 2012 -- a GOP Super PAC is plagiarizing it

The second most Machiavellian ad of 2012