Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way

by Blodgett, Jeff; Lofy, Bill; Goldfarb, Ben; Peterson, Erik; Tejwani, Sujata

• ISBN13: 9780816653331
• ISBN10: 081665333X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-07-10
• Publisher: Univ of Minnesota Pr

Summary

As the 2008 presidential race dominates political discussion and media coverage worldwide, thousands of lesser-known local contests are being hard-fought in our neighborhoods, cities, and states. Winning Your Election the Wellstone Way is based on the work of Wellstone Action, a leading-edge progressive training center that has instructed thousands of political activists, campaign managers, and volunteers, of whom more than two hundred have gone on to run for office and win. Jeff Blodgett and Bill Lofy analyze the crucial lessons learned from many successful (and several losing) campaigns and demystifies what it takes to run forand wina political seat.

Author Biography

Jeff Blodgett is executive director of Wellstone Action.

Table of Contents

Running to win : qualities of good candidates and managers	p. 1
Writing a campaign plan and laying out a path to victory	p. 21
Creating a message and delivering it to your audience	p. 35
Identifying your base, swing voters, and opponents through voter targeting	p. 61
How to build your base and use it for direct voter contact	p. 75
Using direct mail to reinforce your message and target specific voters	p. 117
Reaching voters through paid advertising	p. 127
Working with reporters and communicating your message through earned media	p. 137
Raising money and knowing how to spend it	p. 165
Getting to know your candidate and understanding your opponent	p. 197
Maximizing the candidate's time with smart scheduling	p. 213
Getting the most out of technology	p. 225
The campaign manager : what it takes to run a successful race	p. 239
Turning out our voters : getting out the vote	p. 251
You won : now what?	p. 271
Acknowledgments	p. 281
Index	p. 283
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.