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Insiders vs. Outsiders
For years, dissidents in the Salt Lake County Republican Party have
attacked the party “insiders,” calling them unfit to lead the party.
They did it again at the organizing convention over the weekend
(see Morning
News and Tribune
stories.) Let’s see now. If the dissidents are continually harassing
the “insiders,” then that make the dissidents “outsiders.” Strident
outsiders who don’t represent a majority, hold extremist views,
can’t form a winning coalition, and can’t win elections. And somehow
that qualifies them to lead the party?
CPPA Looks at NCLB
The Center for Public Policy and Administration at the University
of Utah has published another Policy Perspectives newsletter,
this one focused on No Child Left Behind and UPASS, Utah’s system
for evaluating student achievement. The main article presents a
scholarly look at the issue and discusses what might happen if the
state loses federal funding.
7 Components of a Full-Scale
Political Operation
Some businesses, associations and government entities are entirely
dependent on success in the political realm for their survival.
For example, in the last legislative session, Intermountain Health
Care suddenly found itself the target of legislation that would
have imposed an enormous tax or even dismantled the business.
IHC was forced to quickly pull together a political operation to
defend itself. So what are the elements of a full-scale political
operation? I thought a bit about this and came up with seven components.
Not all of them are necessary for every political fight, but if
the battle is big enough most of these components will need to be
addressed in some way.
Seven components of a full-scale political operation:
- Ability to obtain and accurately analyze political intelligence,
information and research. Early warning political radar. This
involves monitoring news media, think tanks, and engaging in lots
of networking and issues discussions among policymakers to watch
for issues, trends and topics. It also entails formal survey
research, both qualitative and quantitative. This formal research
is used in a variety of very important ways.
- Ability to develop excellent relationships with key political
players. Nothing is more important in winning political battles
than having the right relationships with the right political leaders
and opinion leaders.
- Ability to provide excellent candidate support and campaign
capability. Includes ability to mobilize employees and association
members, create coalitions, create powerful legislative support
campaigns to pass or kill legislation. It involves grassroots
mobilization and sophisticated employee involvement programs.
It also involves the ability to leverage campaign contributions
and to recruit candidates.
- Ability to obtain and expertly use a variety of political
data, including the state voter file. This involves the ability
to target political activists like convention delegates and frequent
voters. It entails being able to accurately analyze vulnerability
of incumbents and candidates; to be able to analyze the political
makeup of legislative districts, and counties.
- Effective lobbying. Full-time, on-the-ground, capable lobbying
presence on the Hill.
- Effective communications and media relations. The capability
to reach the right audiences at the right time with the right
messages through advertising and public relations, including television,
newspaper, radio, newsletters and direct mail. This should also
include a direct channel to key audiences that is not filtered
by the news media. (Such as use of Utah Policy Daily to directly
reach opinion leaders.)
- Fundraising. The ability to self-fund or raise enough
money to pay the costs of an appropriate level of political activities.
Most businesses, associations and other entities are consumed with
the daily pressures of fulfilling their primary missions and don’t
have the time or expertise to develop all seven components in-house.
But a number of political consulting, campaign management, public
relations and advertising firms exist to assist where needed.
iProvo in Spotlight Before Congress
Provo Mayor Lewis Billings testified before the House Telecommunications
and Internet Subcommittee last week on behalf of the American Public
Power Association. Read his testimony here.
Provo is, of course, a public power city and home to iProvo, one
of the largest municipally-sponsored fiber-to-the-home projects
in the country.
In his 14-page speech, Billings talked about the role public power
systems are playing in the deployment of affordable broadband systems,
gave a brief history of Provo’s involvement in broadband services,
and made a strong case for municipal involvement in broadband deployment.
More than 600 public power systems are now providing some kind
of advanced communications service, and they are helping to achieve
President Bush’s goal of universal broadband deployment by 2007,
Billings said.
Reader Response
How to Stay Informed
Yesterday I discussed how I try to stay informed by reading and
scanning a variety of publications. One reader e-mailed to say he
has become a fan of The Week: “I am a former subscriber of Time
Magazine who has switched to The Week. It summarizes
and compares reports and comments from the world press on topics
of current interest.”
Another reader uses cool features on his cell phone to constantly
stay informed: “How I stay informed is, first of all, your daily
email is huge for me! Second is my Treo 650 Palm/Cell Phone. I can
get KSL Podcasts on it, Plus it can get news broadcasts like NPR
and other great news programs. I can listen to them at the gym or
in the office. Finally my Palm phone gets RSS Feeds and Avantgo.com
for free! This feeds off of top websites like MSNBC, YAHOO NEWS,
USA TODAY and the New York Times. All these services are included
in my $60-a-month cell phone plan, but I have information always
at my finger tips.”
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