Advice to handlers: Ditch the 'handlers'
By Mark Staples
MTA Government Affairs Counsel
I'm already receiving calls from political candidates running for statewide and national office in 2012. Most of the candidates ask for advice and of course, money.
I've been around enough to realize that my financial input is more sought after than my advice, but since they're asking, and I do have this column space, I have one piece of advice I'm dead serious about: If you're running for office in Montana or to represent Montana, go light – if at all – on the so-called “national” consultants.
In the 35 plus years I've been involved with Montana politics, I've seen more campaigns dashed by the politically tone-deaf, over-polled, and over focus-grouped “expertise” of “national” consultants, than any other single factor.
As was the musical mantra of Professor Harold Hill in the classic show “The Music Man,” “ya gotta know the territory” to make a sale. Well, to put it plainly, most national consultants don't know jack about Montana. What works on the coasts doesn't often work in Montana. In fact, you're probably safe assuming if it does work on the coasts, it won't work here!
And nothing's worse than some wet-behind-the-ears ex-assistant to the assistant to the aide to the deputy to the manager of some “major” campaign somewhere else (that more often than not they lost) now drilling a Montana candidate on the “talking points” to “stick to,” which come from some jiggered push-pull poll. Worse is watching the Montana candidate robotically adhere to the inept stage direction.
Montanans abhor “slick.” They don't want to be talked down to, manipulated, exploited, or “spun.” Just tell us who you are, what you hope to do or have already done, and please, be yourself! If you never wear cowboy boots except for an occasional “Cowboy Ball,” don't all of a sudden don a beat-up pair when you campaign. Don't out of the blue start with “ah shucks” talk if that's not the way you usually speak. And spare us the tabloid “hot buttons” – we don't want to hear about Barbara Streisand, or Nancy Pelosi, or Mr. Text Your Weiner, or Newt Gingrich, or Sarah Palin, or George Bush, or, or, or, … ad nauseum.
Please focus on real issues like the staggering federal deficit, the growing international trade imbalance, the loss of American (and Montana) manufacturing jobs to foreign countries, and whether we can balance resource development with environmental responsibility. We don't need to know who slept with who, where or when.
There's far too much “got ya,” and far too little “got it” from “advisers,” as in “getting” who Montanans are and what we expect from fellow Montanans: Play fair; work hard; carry your own load; help those who truly can't help themselves (but not those who simply won't); live within your means; have a sense of humor; stop whining; if you screw up admit it and apologize; judge not lest you be judged; tell the truth; dance with whoever brought you to the dance; don't try to build yourself up by tearing others down; win honestly, and lose graciously.
Finally, be your own man or woman: Ditch the “handlers,” spokespersons, and above all, the “national” consultants! Good luck and may the best candidate win.