Campaign strategy plan WI CD8
Campaign 2012
We chose to defeat incumbent Reid Ribble (R-Wis.) in Wisconsin's 8th U.S. House District for several reasons. This has been Ribble's first term in Congress; Wisconsin was a swing state in the last presidential election, and we believe we have a credible candidate given the voter demographics. Ribble himself defeated incumbent Steve Kagen by a 10% margin in 2010, which mirrored the prior two presidential elections, when Wisconsin in general voted 55% for Bush in 2004 but then gave Obama 54% in 2008 (Proximity 2011). We hope to repeat that in District 8 ("CD 8"), if we can turn Ribble's 55% lead over Kagen around. A quick lay-of-the-land scan suggests that given a fractured GOP and vocal discontent with Obama, the time will be right for a strong independent to take WI CD8 in 2012. While Ribble enjoys clear strategic advantages as an incumbent, this campaign plan outlines in detail how we will not only overcome these, but unify apparently irreconcilable constituencies across our district.
The U.S. Census Bureau's "Fast Facts for Congress" (2010a) reveals a 92% white, suburban, lower-middle class electorate, 49.9% male, 57% married, with a higher high-school graduation rate than the U.S. average but lower than national college education rate, one percent more civilian veterans, about a fourth of the share of immigrants than the national average, and a fifth of the national Latino average. Labor force participation rate in CD-8 is 4% higher than national rates, but per capita, household and family median incomes are all at least a thousand dollars less than U.S. average, although individuals and families below poverty level were both below national averages by about 3% in 2010. CD-8 is about 2% higher than the U.S. In age, with 14.2% over 65, and a median age of 39.3 years compared to the national 36.5.
Ribble styles himself perfectly within these demographics at home, as an upstanding, white male business leader, president of several construction firms; a hometown boy made good through hard work, Christian ethics and the American way. During this his first term in Congress he sponsored four bills, none of which passed (OpenCongress 2011). While this demonstrates an admirable attempt for any junior Rep., we will use all these attributes and demographics to defeat him in 2012, even though he enjoys the usual incumbent advantages of free mail and travel, and taxpayer-funded staff. Though daunting, even our opponent was able to overcome these incumbent advantages through aggressive campaign strategy.
Incumbents typically enjoy greater name recognition than challengers due to their exposure and involvement in public events, organizations and the like. We considered running our candidate for several Wisconsin House districts and even the Senate, but chose D-8 largely because Ribble has not yet finished his first term and has yet to accomplish any significant legislation. The other strategic way we overcome this typical incumbent advantage is through superior name recognition: Our candidate happens to be Carrie Lee Dodgson, wife of the late Gaylord Nelson Dodgson, elected District-8 Representative ten times before finally being unseated in 1992. Rep. Dodgson passed away in 2005, and after half a decade Mrs. Dodgson, now aged 61, has decided to carry on her husband's work by taking back first District 8 and then ultimately the Wisconsin Senate. While Ribble may have the incumbent's advantage at the moment, when we unveil Mrs. Dodgson, no one will remember he was ever there.
Another advantage incumbents usually enjoy is raising funds in and out of district. Challengers often find it difficult to raise a few thousand dollars until they can hire professionals, but Mrs. Dodgson has spent the last twenty years gathering millions as a volunteer or as paid development director for many of Wisconsin's largest charities, including the state United Way; the Milwaukee and Madison Art Museums; the National Association of University Women, and a career's worth of charitable organizations around the region. While none of these nonprofits may donate to political campaigns without specific IRS designation, Carrie's address book contains the wealthiest and most active donors in the state, including both Senators, whom she has often entertained at home, and none of whom appear on Ribble's donor list with the Federal Election Commission (n.d.). Ribble may style himself a business player but Rep. Dodgson left his wife an estate worth over $80 million, ten million of which he set aside for her to continue his political work, including running for office. Carrie enters this race with a war chest of $1 million of her own funds, and aims to outraise Ribble...
Campaign Plan Political environment It has been noticed that in the recent years the Shot Wood School District has had very few success at the polls. It has lost by a small margin more than once in past few years even though the voters and the tax payers were asked to cast their votes. It is crucial for the school to get the support in the upcoming elections because if they lose
Campaign Finance Reform With our national election cycle reaching its quadrennial fervor, filled with frenzied campaigning and feverish advertising blitzes, American citizens are once again charged with the enormous task of deciding upon their next leadership class. What began with our forefather's modest experiment in democratic governance, built upon a foundation of informed citizenry selecting candidates who best represented shared values on the relevant issues of the day, has since become
Campaign Finance Ongoing Issues in Campaign Finance Reform: Political Freedom and Recent Supreme Court Rulings The issue of campaign finance reform comes and goes as a focal point of national attention, and though recent economic events have eclipsed attention to this issue in the past two years, recent changes ought to be carefully noted by the voting public. Over the latter half of the twentieth century, various pieces of legislation have been
Campaign Finance Spending You decide Campaign finance spending reform For many years, campaign finance reform was an important 'talking point' amongst populist Democratic and Republican senators alike, cumulating in the McCain-Feingold Act. The Act placed spending limits upon 'soft money' (money not directly given to a candidate or party) as well as banned corporations from financing advertisements designed to influence voting about particular issues before an election (Gitell 2003). The Act was intended
Campaign for the U.S. Presidency When Barack Obama was elected to the presidency in 2008, it was a remarkable historical event; never before had an African-American achieved the highest office in the United States. And Obama was facing a daunting task; he was expected to bring the country out of the severe recession, create new jobs, to help the middle class regain its footing, stimulate the economy, and shore up the
However, he advocated a policy of conservative, limited government and opposed the policies of the Republican's view of punishing the South during Reconstruction. Seymour was quite competitive in his run against Grant with the popular vote, but was soundly defeated by an electoral vote of 214 (Grant) to 80 (Waugh, 2009). Grant had a particularly easy campaign, running on his war record, a desire to repair the Union, and a
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now