One DC trip and 3 Reed Awards later…

Dashing back to the Marriott after meeting tweeps Lovisa Williams and Dr. Mark Drapeau to catch up with Larry before heading to the awards dinner, I realized I was more excited for this event than any Christmas or New Year’s Eve… it was almost better than election night!

You know the saying that in West Virginia everyone knows everyone? Well who should be sitting to my right during the awards dinner but none other than John Perdue’s campaign media strategist, Ben Chao. Beside Ben sat Tom Rossmeissl from Trippi & Associates who was up for a Reed against Struble Eichenbaum Communications for Senator Joe Manchin’s “Dead Aim” TV spot.

Rainmaker won three Reed Awards from Campaigns and Elections Magazine: Toughest Newspaper Ad, Toughest Radio Ad, and Best Direct Mail- Democratic County, Local, and Judicial Candidate. To see all Rainmaker’s 2010 political work, click here.

To see all the Reed Award winners, click here.

Just a little FYI...Trippi & Associates TV spot for Jerry Brown’s campaign beat “Dead Aim.” In fact, the spot won two Reed Awards!

But the evening got more interesting…

Whether or not Secretary of State Natalie Tennant can raise money for her gubernatorial campaign this year has been a topic of discussion for over a week now. Several mentioned that Emily’s List, a fundraising group for female gubernatorial and congressional candidates, could raise her several hundreds of thousands of dollars. After investigating a little, it appears this is not the case. Last year, Emily’s List only contributed approximately $65,000 for their top targeted House race. Their fundraising power is not what it has been in the past, so where will Tennant turn for funds?

I find it odd that most national political consulting firms only specialize in one type of campaign effort: e.g. direct mail, website design, media, etc… My favorite thing about Rainmaker is we are a full-service political consulting firm, doing everything from logos and social media to direct mail and TV and radio spots. Our clients choose what services they want us to do. Chao told my boss and me that in order to branch out into other states, we should distinguish ourselves in one category. If you know me at all, I like to have my stilettos and wear them too, so sticking to one category is not something I’ll be doing. Chao will be in Charleston on Monday, February 7^th.

Joe, Washington is no West Virginia

By now we all know that newly elected Senator Manchin skipped out on two key votes, DADT and the DREAM Act. As a former Secretary of State, Manchin was the Chief Elections Officer of West Virginia. In that role, one of his duties was to increase voter turnout. Imagine if we all decided to do something else this past Election Day and skip out on the very special senate election!

We’re told Manchin had an extremely important family Christmas party to attend to that had been planned for over a year. Why couldn’t he have just voted and flown himself home? Maybe he was scared his plane would have another tire blow out on the runway. Other options? As Ben Smith from Politico and Brandon Kiser from the Daily Caller point out, “the vote was held at 3:00 pm, and Manchin could have taken a United Airlines flight at 5:40 and been in Charleston before 7:30.” (Although, the party was supposed to be at the home of his daughter in Pittsburgh.)

Some have mentioned that the way he would have voted on these two issues would not have been favorable with his constituents and fellow senators, so skipping out was the best option. But I disagree. Not voting and giving a party as an excuse is unacceptable, unsenatorial-like behavior. It shows lack of respect for his constituents and his position in my opinion.

While the press, blogs, and constituents in West Virginia have been pretty easy on Manchin, he needs to realize that Washington is a horse of quite a different color.

What’s After Decision 2010 for WV?

With Manchin headed to Washington, what does that mean for us here in wild, wonderful, West Virginia? Well I believe we’ll have a gubernatorial primary in a few months. Can you believe West Virginia will have three straight years of political campaigns?

Several politicians have already thrown their hat in the ring as contenders to take over Manchin’s mansion, including Treasurer John Perdue, Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, Senator Brooks McCabe, and Speaker of the House Rick Thompson for starters.

Treasurer Perdue named his campaign manager, Chuck Smith, early last month. Brooks McCabe stated his intentions to run back in late August. And through the numerous ceremonies for the late Senator Byrd, West Virginians saw what a match-up between Tomblin and Thompson would look like when several photos of each soon-to-be candidate standing at podium where perfectly positioned beside each other appeared in several newspaper articles.

But the list doesn’t end there, as I have a feeling several 2012 candidates could switch to 2010. Senator Jeff Kessler has announced his intentions to run in 2012, and he even as a website, jeffkessler4gov2012.com, but jeffkessler4gov2010.com is still available. Senate Minority Leader Clark Barnes has also stated he’d run for governor in 2012, and I have a sneaky suspicion that Senate Minority Leader Mike Hall has visions of governor’s mansions dancing in his head at night.

Either way, I can’t help but wonder with everyone running for office, who is running West Virginia government?

Was there an actual debate?

Was there an actual debate?

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.

Last night we watched as the four candidates for United States Senate “debated.” It might have been called a “debate”, but according to WSAZ’s Jessica Ralston (@JessicaRalston), the Gazette’s Kathryn Gregory (@kitgregory), the Daily Mail’s Ry Rivard (@ryrivard) what happened on TV last night was anything but. Where were the hardball questions? No one raised their voices, no one debated. So I’m calling for a Twitter debate between the candidates. No, we all know it most likely won’t be them doing the tweeting, but since their campaigns cannot pick a mutually beneficial date to debate in Charleston, this seems like the most logical solution. Thoughts?

Changing the subject a little, the most surprising candidate last night was the Constitution Party’s Jeff Becker. Whoever prepared him for that debate should have given him a xanex. Someone tweeted asking if he even spoke English. Another tweep said he would be the Daily Show’s dream. Needless to say, he won’t be our next United States Senator.

Winners and losers from last night’s debate:

Winning moments:

-John Raese (@RaeseforSenate) had two quotes I rather enjoyed, the first one being “We win, you lose.” The second one being “It’s called demand.”

-Joe Manchin’s charisma, calmness, appearance, and perfect sound bites. The quote that ended the debate, was nothing short of cheesy perfection: "I believe in you, and I'm asking you to believe in me."

-Manchin taking on the “rubber stamp” tag and owning it.

Big fat fails of the so-called debate:

-Raese wearing his Rolex and black suit. It’s not a funeral.

-Becker’s inability to speak coherently (I appreciate nervousness but there are pills for that).

-Johnson waisting half of his closing “minute” to speak fussing about how he didn’t get to respond to previous questions.

And moments I was lost:

-Becker talking about physics

-Johnson asking “Are you sick enough yet?”

-Raese’s statements on global warming

-Johnson dwelling on penmanship

-No one asking about subpoenas

I think West Virginians need to see a the candidates speak for two hours and it needs to be an actual debate. You can call what happened last night a debate, but for many of us it wasn’t.

Voters, November 2nd, and Manchin

It’s true that people rarely learn from elections, but there’s something brewing out there in the minds of likely voters that repudiates this statement. America has always been a solid nation, one of economic growth and stability, the land of the free and the home of the brave. But that’s not the sentiment felt across the nation right now. The longest serving senator in Delaware was replaced by a Sarah Palin prodigy, cementing the anti-establishment sentiment among voters all over America.

When did this anti-establishment feeling really begin (in the last few years)? In my opinion, it all began during the Presidential Election of 2008. Obama’s campaign strategists developed a campaign that focused its efforts on mobilizing the number one unlikely voter base: the youngsters. How’d the do it so successfully?

Here’s my shoe box-sized summation; Generation Y is an ensemble from an entirely new breed of designers, and we’re not easily understood by anyone but ourselves because we’re anything but an establishment. We’ve lived through the Oklahoma City bombings, Sesame Street, September 11th, when MTV actually played music videos, Desert Storm, globalization, and the birth of the interconnected digital world we refer to as the “Internet.” This digital development connected us youngsters not only across the nation, but across the globe. Suddenly, we’re sharing our lives via Facebook and getting jobs by posting resumes on LinkedIn. We’re constantly connected to our phones and to each other, because we like to unabashedly share our life experiences with the world. Since we share in our peers joys and sorrows, we’ve developed an acute sense of camaraderie and tenacious teamwork. One might say that all this life experience sharing with hundreds and thousands of people across the globe means we crave attention, and they’d be right. Gen Y’ers do crave attention, but it’s the right kind of attention we crave, such as feedback at work, from our beloved families, and from our peers. We crave this attention and feedback because we’re achievement-oriented. We’re a happy generation, one of hope, civic-mindedness, and we fall head over stilettos in love with the possibility of making a real difference we can see and feel.

What the Obama campaign did was take the ideals of Generation Y and base their campaign around it, and it worked. Two years later, most young folks have not altered their views of the President, but it might not necessarily have been Obama they fell in love with, moreover I strongly believe it was the chance we could actually be involved in making a difference, in the power of an active democracy.

Playing devil’s advocate for just a second, younger generations have not had nearly the experience with government that our parents and grandparents have. We don’t even come into contact with the government until we go get a driver’s license, so we’re more idealistic because we’ve yet to experience what our predecessors have. And it’s this experience that’s turned the most likely voters against the “DC establishment.” This is why the Palin prodigy won in Delaware, and since Manchin started running an attack ad against Raese, I cannot help but think his tracking polls must have been pretty close to Rasmussen’s results.

How do we Democrats capitalize on this anti-establishment sentiment among our likely voters? Where’s there’s a will, there’s a way. And when asked how well we Democrats work under pressure, I always reply, “Pressure makes diamonds.”

Manchin v. Raese: Psychology behind the ads

United States Senate candidate Joe Manchin released his first TV spot to counter opponent John Raese’s accusations. But was Manchin’s spot effective?

Believe it or not, the Democratic and Republican parties produce campaign ads that appeal to different sections of your brian. Your brain has a part called the cerebral cortex, which takes up about 80% of our entire brain mass. The area from behind your eyes and about a couple inches past the top of your forehead is called the prefrontal cortex. This section is then divided into two parts; the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (which runs toward the top and sides of the prefrontal cortex), and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (which runs behind the eyes and approximately half way up the forehead).

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is active when we make conscious decisions, as well as consciously remembering phone numbers or what to pick up at the grocery store, conducting cost/benefit analysis, and reasoning. Traditionally, Democratic campaign ads target this section of the brain. In Manchin’s ad, he’s speaking directly to you in a rational manner, hoping you’ll make the rational choice when you go to the polls on November 2nd. But, if viewers are just flipping the channels and aren’t in a state of mind to make a conscious decision, this ad becomes ineffective.

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is positioned around where the amygdala is located in the brain, which is heavily involved in the emotional processes we go through as humans. Other mental processes the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is involved with include; emotional and social intelligence, moral functioning, linking emotions with thoughts, like when emotions guide the decisions we make. Raese’s TV spot links Manchin’s name with President Obama’s, which arouses negative feelings inside voters. Also, the background is of High Street in Morgantown, the number one growing area in wild, wonderful West Virginia right now.

While subconsciously manipulating voters’ minds through campaign psychology is extremely unethical, I don’t see it stopping any time soon

Will Manchin Play the Clinton Card?

We all know that Obama’s approval rating is somewhere near 27%, both nationally and here in West Virginia. But we didn’t need to poll to find that out. At the late Senator Byrd’s service, Obama got some shouts and claps, but no elected official could trump the excitement felt by the crowd for none other than former President Bill Clinton.

Bill Clinton is no stranger to West Virginia, he’s spoken at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner, at a recent West Virginia University graduation, he campaigned here for his wife, and least we should forget, he carried West Virginia in the 1992 and 1996 presidential races. His campaigns and his charisma have charmed wild, wonderful West Virginians for 18 years, and based on the cheering from his most recent visit, this trend won’t be reversed any time soon.

While Obama has been flying across the county campaigning for Democrats, I feel it’s “The Comeback Kid” who Manchin should call in for backup support.

Why do I feel that way? I grew up in a Clinton household. During the time “The Great Empathizer” was in office, America was happy (at least that’s how I remember it). All my friends and I grew up pretty much in peace and prosperity, then... (start musical interlude of Jaws theme) ...came Bush.

Bill Clinton not only appeals to the WW II Generation, he also appeals to Baby Boomers, and to me, a Gen Y’er. There’s something nostalgic about the Clinton years, and it’s perhaps that feeling which caused me to cast my vote for Hilary Clinton for President just two short years ago. While Obama’s campaign efforts were unsustainably remarkable, I wasn’t a fan. I was a Hilary girl, (and still am).

I digress... In the most recent Gallup poll, former President Clinton trumps Obama. Maybe the reason Clinton’s approval is much higher than Obama’s is because America itself shares in my nostalgia of life almost 20 years ago. And I know he made a mistake or two, but we’re all human. Somehow, to me, Bill Clinton embodies the goodness of Americanism. And it’s this proud passion for patriotism that America, and West Virginia, seem to be running low on right now.

I know one man can’t move mountains, but maybe Clinton could move more West Virginians in favor of Manchin.