I'm a TCU Alumni currently living in Fort Worth, Texas who enjoys Golf, Labrador Retrievers and the occasional cigar. I run a political consulting company called (eightoneseven) Strategies, enjoy the fascinating animal that is the Internet and love a good iPhone app.
Before reading this post, check out the introduction http://tumblr.com/xqx38hrboj
As a broad based example, I’m going to use the model Texas has for election season vs. legislative season.
In Texas, the Legislature meets for approximately 6 months in every other year (the odd numbered years). The election for that Legislature is held in the year preceding (the even numbered years). So, elections were held in November of 2010 for representatives who would go to the Legislature in January of 2011. So the period after the conclusion of the session (June 2011 - January or February 2012) is considered the off-season until the 2012 election season gets going again in the spring. So just to be clear.
November 2010 - Election is held
January 2011 - Legislature Begins
June 2011 - Legislature Ends
June 2011 - January 2012 - Off Season
What this all means is that Texas has a very large window of time where the constituents of the recently elected Legislators are getting very little if any information from their elected officials. It is possible for a voter to not hear from their elected official for 16-18 months, which is entirely too long.
Why shouldn’t politicians do just as good a job informing their constituents, about the Legislature’s progress, as they do about explaining why they need to be re-elected? What if every politician spent not only the legislative session but also the off-season explaining to voters at least monthly, maybe more, exactly what is going on. They could talk about the important issues facing the area, what pieces of legislation are being voted upon, and what exactly they can do to help their constitutents.
So how do we implement this?
1. Start fundraising based on a communication strategy for the entire year, not just on the election cycle. Instead of communicating with voters and constituents only during campaign season, lets communicate during the entire year.
2. Change the mentality of how GOTV is done. Instead of only turning out the base and hoping the persuadable voters go to the polls. Why don’t you spend the entire year talking to everyone. It costs less during election season, because the voters are more informed about whats going on. Also, voters feel engaged and are more likely to listen to a campaign pitch because they know who is talking to them.
3. Use today’s technology to its fullest extent. The Internet and Social Media has revolutionized how people communicate with each other. A large percentage of today’s young adults don’t even use email, because its considered to slow. With the help of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, Tumblr and about a dozen other online applications people can communicate everything that is going on in their life. Athletes, Movie Stars and Television Personalities are using these tools to get people to talk about their new team, tv show or movie. Why shouldn’t politicans use the same tools to communicate the importance of Medicaid funding.
Now obviously changing the course of an entire system isn’t simple and honestly it could take decades to see real improvement, but the adaptation of a few key politicians to a Full-Time Election Cycle across the US could get people to notice how things could be versus how they currently are.
