Today is Thursday, May 17, 2012

Campaign Mgmt

Michele Bachmann pioneers YouTube advertising in Iowa

Michele Bachmann's campaign is doing pioneering Google and YouTube targeted advertising in Iowa, Politico reports.

Sharon Angle trusted Terry Campbell to run her Senate campaign; how to pick the wrong guy

The Tea Party nominated Republican Sharon Angle to run against Senate Leader Harry Reid in Nevada. Instead of hiring a professional campaign manager and team to run her campaign in the general election, she stuck with her old friend, Terry Campbell. Like Angle and too many Tea Party candidates in 2010, Campbell proved to be out of his league and ran a dysfunctional campaign, reports Shira Toeplitz in Angle's campaign sank candidate..

Will Colorado’s women let a strict anti-abortion activist be elected president, governor or senator?

Will Colorado's women let a strict social issues , anti-abortion activist be elected president, governor or senator in Colorado?

Ken Buck, GOP headed for victories, NRSC says

The National Republican Senate Commitee's press secretary, Amber Marchand, has been Ken Buck's most effective media relations person during the campaign, sending out daily bulletins about polls and attacking Michael Bennet as often as possible. While I haven't republished many of her releases, I've followed up on a few and have written my own pieces. Here's one of Marchland's last e-mail blasts for the GOP and Buck. It's a good roundup of the political outlook as reported by Colorado's and the nation's media:

Post hits dishonest ads by Michael Bennet, Cary Kennedy, Stan Garnett, Tom Tancredo

Desperate Democrats are putting ethics on the back burner as they run dishonest ads against Republicans who are about to beat them. The ads being run by Michael Bennet, Cary Kennedy and Stan Garnett are backfiring. And I've long believed that Tom Tancredo's ad that tries to blame John Hickenlooper for an illegal immigrants' accident that killed a child is just unfair and dumb. LINK: Low blows debase high-profile races; unfair attacks by 527s are one thing, but candidates who wish to serve the public should keep punches above the belt. Denver Post editorial.

How political campaigns track voters online

Back in 1960, John F. Kennedy's campaign managers used index cards to track political allies and voters. Today's political consultants track voters' comments, visits to various types of web sites and purchases to build data bases. They use those costly databases to identify types of voters in areas and neighborhoods who they can most cost effectively target with fundraising and direct mail campaigns. LINKS: Politicians tap sophisticated online tracking tools, by Emily Steel and Peter Wallsten. Big Brother Inc., by James Verini. Political parties reap data mining benefits, by Wayne Rash.

How the Left used blogs, Facebook and Twitter to attack Ken Buck and how he failed to respond

Ken Buck may lose the U.S. Senate election because he failed to effectively use ads, his debates with Michael Bennet, his web site, e-mails, news releases, blogs, Facebook or Twitter to fight back when the Left used those tools to gin up outrage over a date rape case that he handled professionally, if not as sensitively as he might have.

Chuck Plunkett reviews how the Left used The Colorado Independent, Coloradopols, Facebook and Twitter to spread the made up outrage. My comment on his piece is cross posted with some links below the jump: