September 20, 2023 • 40 mins
Do you have political aspirations? Want to know what it takes to navigate the complexities of running for office? Join us as we pick the brain of Matt Krayton, founder and principal at Publitics and a seasoned political campaign manager. Matt breaks down the journey of a political campaign, from choosing the right office to run for, to understanding the jurisdictional requirements and the formalities of getting started.
We also explore the ins and outs of campaign budgets, giving you insight on how to source funds, find the right campaign manager, and make tough financial decisions. Learn how to strategically leverage your contact list for potential donors and gain insight into the varying costs of campaigns in different locations.
Matt also delves into the world of opposition research, giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the "oppo book" - a comprehensive record of a candidate’s past. From old tweets and Facebook posts to court fillings, Matt shares valuable advice on how to deal with potential liabilities that could affect your campaign. And wrapping up, we explore campaign timing and fund management, emphasizing the importance of early starts in competitive races. This episode promises a wealth of knowledge and fresh perspective on political campaigns. Join us for this engaging conversation.
Learn more about Matt and his work by connecting with him on LinkedIn and visiting his website at www.publitics.com
Follow Spotlight Branding for more!
Facebook: www.facebook.com/spotlightbranding
Twitter: @spotlightlawyer
Instagram: @spotlightlawyer
TikTok: @spotlight.media
Visit www.spotlightinsider.com for additional content to help your firm grow!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This podcast is brought to you by Spotlight
Branding.
Whether your firm only gets afew referrals or it's 100% of
your business, you have theopportunity to double your
referrals through educational,informative content.
The pros at Spotlight Brandingcan help you create that content
through blogging videos, emailnewsletters and more all
(00:22):
designed to help you increaseyour referrals and attract the
kinds of clients you want towork with.
Visit spotlightbrandingcomslash pod to learn more.
That's spotlightbrandingcomslash pod.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
This is Center Stage putting your firm in the
spotlight by highlightingbusiness owners and other
industry experts to help takeyour firm to the next level.
Everyone and welcome to CenterStage.
I'm your host, John Henson, andthis week we are talking about
politics, but not in a way thatmakes people irrationally angry
and ruins friendships and allthat kind of stuff.
(01:14):
We are actually talking aboutyour political aspirations.
I know a lot of you lawyers outthere have an interest in it.
You end up getting into it, andso I wanted to bring on someone
who has a lot of experiencemanaging political campaigns so
that they can come and sharewhat it's like to get started
and what it's like to run acampaign and go for a political
(01:37):
office.
And so we are joined by thefounder and principal at
Publitex, Matt Creighton.
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Thanks for having me on Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, so before we jump in, tell us a little bit
about you and your backgroundand what you do with Publitex.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Sure, absolutely so.
Publitex is a full servicepolitical consulting, public
affairs and public relationsfirm, so we've done work on the
very local level on up to thefederal level.
So I like to say, never a dullmoment.
Definitely an interesting mixof things that we do and we help
(02:13):
with all aspects of campaigns.
Our team has a pretty diversearray of experiences in terms of
managing campaigns and thenworking as a consultant on
campaigns, which are slightlydifferent roles here and there,
but yeah, so at this point we doa lot of media polling, message
(02:34):
development and generalstrategy consulting, but we've
managed a ton of campaigns aswell, and usually we're right
there on the ground floor asthese things are starting up.
So, yeah, it's definitely aninteresting space to be in these
days.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Absolutely.
So I kind of like to start atthe top in these sorts of things
and then kind of drill downinto specific areas.
And so for people who may notbe familiar with the formal
process, they may think allright, I would like to run for
office one day.
What does the process even looklike for starting a campaign?
(03:12):
Because I'm sure there's somesort of paperwork or something
that has to be submitted orsomething I don't know.
But it's got to be more thanjust someone deciding, hey, I'm
going to go run for Congress,and then they just start making
speeches.
What does it look like?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
If only right yeah, it's like I'm running, declare
it and put it in the universe.
And here we are.
So you're absolutely right.
So the requirements depend onthe jurisdiction.
So every jurisdiction hasslightly different rules.
Different states have differentrules for how to run.
(03:48):
The basic process generally isfiling some kind of paperwork
with the FEC on the federallevel or whatever state or
jurisdiction you're in, theircampaign finance board or
enforcement agency At that point.
(04:08):
Then there are ballot accessrequirements that again differ
from place to place.
So in certain jurisdictionswhat you have to do is you have
to go out and get a certainnumber of signatures.
Sometimes that's based on theprevious number of votes in a
particular election, and theyhave a formula for calculating
(04:28):
that.
Some jurisdictions have ahybrid of two different things,
so one being signatures and thenthe other.
You can kind of buy your wayonto the ballot, so just pay a
substantial filing fee to get onthe ballot.
The purpose of all of that isto make sure that the people who
(04:48):
are running for office areserious about running for office
.
So if it were just a case ofsaying, ok, show up to your
local county clerk and sign apiece of paper and then you're
on the ballot.
That could open the door toquite a bit of mischief
potentially, so most of thoserequirements are are you serious
(05:11):
, do you want to do this?
And then from there, it's amatter of building out a team,
getting an infrastructuretogether, and fundraising really
is the first step, actuallybeyond the paperwork.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah.
So when it comes to kind of thefirst campaign that you run, do
you have people who?
How do you decide, I guess,which office to run for?
Is there advantage to maybestarting at the state or local
level, or if you really justwant to be a state rep or if you
(05:45):
want to try to run for Congress?
Is there a right or wrong wayto go about doing that, or does
it kind of depend on what yourgoals and aspirations are?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
This is actually a questionthat we get quite often is, you
know, we'll have people come tous and they say they want to run
for one office and you knowthey kind of go through what
sort of commitment they'rewilling to make to it and you
think, well, you know, congress,that's can be a very expensive
endeavor in certain places Like,for example, we're in the, you
know, in northern New Jersey,our main office is up here and
(06:17):
we're smack dab in the middle ofthe New York media market,
extraordinarily expensive placeto run a campaign.
Same thing with South Jerseyand the Philadelphia media
market.
Yeah, you know, los Angeles,miami, you know.
So all of those places areextraordinarily expensive.
So, you know, sometimes we'llgo through that process and say,
well, look like it sounds likeyou're you're serious about
(06:38):
running for office, making adifference in whatever community
or whatever way that you wantto make a difference in.
You know, maybe you should trylocal office, and usually that's
a good way to get thefundamentals of campaigning now.
And so like campaigns will looka little bit different
depending upon what level you'rerunning for, you know.
So obviously running for towncouncil in a small town is going
(06:59):
to be different than runningfor Congress or president or US
Senate or governor or any of theother state.
You know constitutional officesbut but at the end of the day
the fundamentals, like it kindof just gets you used to.
You know the routine of whatyou have to do, some of the
basic steps in between you knowyou, and then ultimately winning
(07:19):
winning your race.
So you know I, and then part ofit is also assessing the
political landscape as well.
So I will say this there'snothing wrong with losing your
first race.
Plenty of successful candidateseventually or at some point in
their career will have lost arace and they're valuable
lessons to to going through thatprocess.
You know some of some of that.
(07:40):
Maybe you just ran in a reallytough district or tough.
You know jurisdiction and itwas the voter registration
statistics were just stackedagainst you and just wasn't
going to happen.
But again, that helps kind offlex the muscle a little bit and
you know you kind of.
You know work out.
You know those, those areasthat you need to work out.
So it really depends on a numberof things.
(08:03):
You know availability of seatsto like in some cases, do you
really want to be runningagainst the incumbent.
Does that make sense?
Do you like the incumbent?
Or are you just like trying torun for something and you know,
like, is that the right place togo?
You know it's.
So you know those are, thoseare the considerations generally
speaking, and then, like youknow, kind of looking at the
again, the amount of time thatyou have to dedicate to it.
(08:23):
So I'm running a campaign, youknow, for, like Congress, or you
know some statewide races, oreven you know certain state
legislature.
You know positions, really thatis a full time job and the
election cycle has gone frombeing, you know, a couple of
months right, so we're talkingfive, six, seven months to
(08:45):
almost like a one, one and ahalf year cycle where you're
dedicated to doing that onething, whereas town council
still a lot of work, but or citycouncil, or wherever you are
right, but you know it's not astime intensive, so it's, you
know, balancing sort of career,family, other obligations that
(09:07):
you might have.
So so there are a number ofthings you know that we kind of
take into account when, whenwe're making recommendations on
that, and then sometimes peoplejust decide you know, no, I want
to run for whatever office itis because I have a very
specific thing that I want toaddress and that is the office
that will address that.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
So yeah, so, yeah, yeah yeah, awesome, and I want
to dig into some of those thingsa little bit on.
But you know, thinking aboutonce you've started a campaign,
right?
You know I know that there arethere's potentially debates that
you can participate in.
You know different rallies thatyou can participate in.
You got to have somefundraising events.
(09:42):
Are those you know?
Are there any other kinds oftasks or activities that someone
needs to be doing when they arerunning a campaign?
How do you even, how do youeven go about setting some of
those things up?
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Yeah, I mean.
So it's.
It's funny and in some of thesecampaigns there's a little bit
of a trick or the egg issue withwith the fundraising piece,
right, because you need helpfundraising but you also don't
have money unless you're selffunding up up front, which
people do.
So I mean there is always abenefit to if you're committed
to it and this is reallysomething that you want to do
(10:16):
that setting aside some, somemoney and self funding, getting
some seed funding in there andand doing it that way.
That way you can start to bringon a team, because the some of
these things, even though we'reall kind of like familiar with
the political process, you doneed help, right, like it helps
to have someone who's beenthrough it before walk you
through exactly what you need todo.
(10:38):
So so the first, the first step,I would say, is like developing
a really solid fundraising planand that that's going to be the
lifeblood of the rest of yourcampaign, because if you can't
raise money, then you're goingto have, you're going to have no
way to reach out to voters,right, other than, you know,
physically running around andknocking on doors.
But I mean again, if you'retalking about a large city or a
(11:00):
county wide thing, statewidething, you're never going to be
able to knock on the number ofdoors they need to knock on in
order to to win your race oreven make it dent at that point.
So so money is the mostimportant thing and fundraising,
interestingly enough, is alsoone of the areas that it's a
very polarizing thing.
So either candidates love it orthey absolutely hate it.
(11:22):
If you hate it, you almost needto kind of make it a game,
figure out how to, you know,challenge yourself and get
yourself, you know, really likelock yourself in a room and dial
through your phone book.
So I mean, that's one of thebiggest pieces of advice that we
give first time candidates.
Is all right, look through yourphone book.
In your phone, I say phone book,that's like a bit of a dated
(11:44):
your contacts and yoursmartphone and you know, go
through, look at the names andthen assign each of those people
a dollar value and then callthem and ask.
And I think that you know, oneof the most important skills
that you're going to gain fromthat is not being afraid of
hearing no quite a bit, becausethere is going to be quite a bit
(12:06):
of no.
Even if you're asking for asmall amount of money, like hey,
you know, we've known eachother for a long time, can you
throw me 50 bucks for mycampaign?
People will say no, not rightnow.
I have other obligations.
You know I can't.
You know can't do it, or Idon't agree with you on this, so
I'm not going to give you moneyor whatever it is.
So hearing no means that you'rekind of getting that out of the
(12:26):
way and then that'll get you toa place where you're going to
get to yeses.
I mean you're going to get abunch of noes before you get a
yes.
You just can't get discouragedwith that.
So I would say that's like.
You know, square one in terms ofthe campaign is like looking at
that you know contacts list,looking, or even your like
LinkedIn, you know contacts andsaying like well, who do you
know on here, who could I askfor money?
It's, it is uncomfortable,honestly like I'm not going to
(12:49):
lie to you or sugarcoat it itdefinitely is uncomfortable for
some folks.
Like just straight up askingfor money.
It's a different thing thansaying like I will provide you
legal services for for money.
Right, that feels differentthan that there could, because
it's you're basically justsaying give me this and I'm
running for off.
So, but, but I will say thatlike people do like to be asked
(13:13):
as well.
Like there are some subset ofdonors that enjoy being asked,
are flattered by it.
You know it's, it's a weird,it's a weird thing.
So you just kind of have tolike learn to love the ups and
downs, the roller coaster,fundraising.
So I'd say that's square onebefore you get anything else in
place.
Otherwise you're not going to beable to hire a team.
You're not going to be able to,you know, do polling.
If you have to do polling,focus groups, things like that
(13:35):
so yeah, that's, that's really,that's really square one.
And then, beyond that, you know, finding, finding your team.
So, again, depending upon therace, you know you're you're
probably going to need acampaign manager, like someone
that's like dedicated staff onthe ground, who will be with you
and just manage all of themoving parts, especially for
(13:57):
larger campaigns.
Where you have a media shop,you're gonna have your polling
shop, you're gonna have yourField team.
You know the people that aregoing out and organizing
canvassers, knocking on doors,the people are doing phones,
volunteer work.
So you're gonna need someoneelse, because, I mean, the most
valuable resource on a campaignis Is the candidates time
ultimately, so that step tworeally is finding a good manager
(14:20):
, and what type of person youpick for that role Really
depends on what you need.
So so what I found In a lot ofraces is the.
The skill that I wouldprioritize is someone who
actually has really goodmanagement skills, not
necessarily a strategist, but amanager like someone who can
(14:42):
manage effectively and, you know, keep a team moving in the
right direction.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah, so a couple of things those are.
So I know, yeah, I know, andall of this really depends on
the the type of you knowElection you're running for and
the market that you're in.
You know, because, like I wouldthink that Running for you know
, like mayor of New York City isgonna be multiple millions of
(15:08):
dollars I cost, versus runningfor mayor of a 20,000 person
town, maybe, I don't, probably afew thousand, maybe, you know,
over 10, I don't know what, what.
What are kind of the ballparkcosts of Running for these
different kinds of offices youknow, from like that small
20,000 person town to more ofjust like a Generic, like us
(15:31):
Senate seat.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, I, that's.
That's a really good question.
So, like you said, it's alittle bit of a sliding scale
depending upon where you are.
For you know, for a town, youknow 20,000 people are 20,000
voters.
Let's say, you know you'll,you'll need to run a very robust
campaign.
You know, anywhere from 75,000to about a hundred thousand
dollars.
Now, can you run that campaignunless, sure, you absolutely can
(15:55):
?
But you have to make some toughdecisions about what you're
gonna do and what you're notgonna do.
So, yeah, the way that we liketo think, think about these,
these types of races, we, as wework backwards from the ideal,
the ideal setup for you.
So it's like, you know what, atwhat budget, can we do
everything that we should do forthis race and then work
(16:16):
backwards from there.
Now, yeah, does it always workout that way?
No, it doesn't.
More times than not.
Like, you do have to make thosedifficult decisions.
So like, for example, you know,maybe you decide, you know
we're not gonna do any pollingon this race, we're not gonna do
focus groups or we're gonnahave to, you know, rely more
heavily on volunteers ratherthan a paid you know Field
program.
So there are our pieces of that, you know, at that level, but I
(16:38):
would say from 75 to $100,000in most, like 20,000, 30,000
voter Juroristicians.
That's that's like, again, avery robust campaign and that's
assuming that it's.
It's very competitive as well.
So that that's.
The other sort of factor is,you know, certain places don't
(16:58):
have a history of where wherecandidates spend a ton of money
in in campaigns, so like thereare towns even smaller than that
.
See, like a hundred thousanddollar, wow, you know campaign,
and and it's just because thoseplaces have a history of
contentious Elections, likeevery cycle there's always
something happening and there'salways some big interest in in
(17:22):
that, so so they end up spendinga lot more in in those small
places.
So if it's not a supercompetitive election or your
opponent doesn't really have thetype of resources that you're
gonna bring to the table, thenmaybe it's not as much.
But if it's a, it's a hypercompetitive election.
That's what we're looking at onon that front.
For for a house seat,million-dollar plus race again,
(17:44):
can you do it?
That's sure.
I mean there are certaincertain markets where you can do
it for quite a bit less,because the Media markets really
.
I mean really it depends on the, the television market, right,
the DMA that you're in and which, which sounds kind of outmoded
at the at this point, but cableand Specifically broadcast
(18:07):
advertising, right.
So you know advertising on thelow channels and I'm sure you
know a lot, of a lot of yourlisteners and I'm sure you've
been inundated at times with,like in the fall of the
presidential cycle or midtermcycle, add after add after add
after add.
Those are extremely expensivein a lot of these media markets
Again, especially like New York,la, miami, philadelphia, like
(18:31):
those are just expensive Places,but there are other markets
that aren't quite as expensive.
So you know you, three-quartersof a million dollars, you can,
you can run a pretty robustcampaign.
I mean, I've seen, again,successful campaigns run for
less.
Right then that even.
But again, again, you try towork backwards from like what
should we do in order to toensure the you know, victory in
(18:53):
this particular place?
I mean, the other question toagain, in those in those races
are is you know how many peopledo we have to actually persuade?
Like are we in a in a districtthat tilts one wire another?
Like do we have a built-inadvantage based on on the voter
registration Numbers in thatparticular district?
So that, so that depends Senateraces, you know, and so those,
(19:15):
those can get quite expensive.
So you're talking Anywhere fromyou know, two million plus
three million to like 10, 15, 20million in some contentious
places, I think yeah that youknow, georgia runoffs were
extraordinarily expensive.
I don't have an exact figure init, but I was, like you know,
tens of millions of dollars onthose races and and and the
(19:36):
thing that happens there.
Well, first of all, that waslike the only thing happening in
the country at this point.
So not every race is gonna getto that point.
But, but I mean again, you lookat a Senate race in a place
Like, let's say, rhode Islandversus California, like those
are two completely different.
I mean the size of those.
You know two states, I meanthey couldn't be more different.
Yeah, so I think that's so, sothat that's sort of the marker
(20:02):
is yeah, and it's getting moreexpensive to run these races
every single day.
Like broadcast TV, cable TV,it's, it's getting more
expensive.
Direct mail, believe it or not,huge things still in the camp,
actually very, very effectivemethod of communication.
But post-drates printing, youknow, paper like it was, it was
(20:24):
tough to get paper at certainpoints, like during the pandemic
, like actual real supply chainissues, because a lot, of, a lot
of mills kind of shut down.
So there was, there's not.
So things got a little bit moreexpensive and have kind of
stayed at that level.
So you know politics not immunefrom from inflation.
And then you know the CPMs onOn digital are getting more
(20:46):
expensive to insert in platform.
So it's it's definitely aninteresting, interesting thing,
but again, the budgets are gonnavary from from place to place.
But I would say those are goodmarkers and the thing that you
want to do again is like workbackwards from that.
What is a really robustcampaign, look like, like what
is a campaign that we'll feelgood about, and like winter Loot
.
The end of the day, we couldsay that we did everything that
(21:08):
we needed to do here, like what,what does that look like and
how much is that gonna cost?
And then working backwards fromthat.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah, and and all the more reason to, you know, ask
for, ask for money from somepeople you know, because you
know not, I know lawyers are alot of lawyers out there that
make good money, probably notreally willing to spend millions
of dollars to to self fundtheir own campaign.
So Another question, and thisis something that I see a lot
(21:35):
you know you'll have a candidate, they'll burst on the scene,
they'll get a ton of attentionand then Almost inevitable that
a story will come out.
Someone has dug up somethingthat they tweeted like 12 years
ago or something at some sort oflike controversial, cancelable
sort of offense.
How do you Mitigate or reducethe chances of someone
(22:00):
Potentially digging up somethinglike that to that that could
wreck your entire campaign?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
That's a good question.
I think it's actually somethingthat a lot of candidates are,
or prospective candidates are,cognizant of.
That's sort of one of thebiggest fears of running for
office, which actually honestlykeeps quite a large number of
people out of the mix.
It may not even be likesomething like a tweet, but it
(22:29):
might be something a familymember did at one point years
ago.
You personally have absolutelyno control over how things get
twisted.
It's a really tough thing anddoes have a suppressing effect
on the number of people that arewilling to run for office,
especially in local elections.
(22:51):
We've been through a coupleraces where it's like it got so
contentious.
I'm talking small town stuffhere.
Some of these small towns couldbe more vicious than the
national level, where kids arenot going to be invited to other
kids' birthday parties anymorebecause parents ended up on
either side of whatever localfight was happening.
Or the old grocery store snub.
(23:12):
You're in a vegetable aisle andyou try to wave to a neighbor
and they just give you the coldshoulder Because of stuff that
was dug up or some of that.
From a mechanical perspective,like a tactical perspective, one
of the things that we like todo right off the bat is number
one, and I think attorneys canprobably relate to this a little
(23:34):
bit is that you say, well, okay, tell me the full story, tell
me everything you know, like anyliabilities, any opportunities
that we might have here tomessage around your biography.
But you've got to be honestabout the liabilities.
Is there anything that you canthink of, even if it doesn't
feel like it was that big a dealto you at the time?
Just tell us about it.
(23:55):
Well, you and I both know andI'm sure a lot of your listeners
know like their clientsprobably don't always say it's
like but you're in the courtroom, he's like oh, by the way, I
did do that thing, I'm sorry.
Like, oh, I forgot to tell youabout this other thing.
So that does happen from timeto time.
But what we try to do tomitigate that, so it sort of
(24:16):
cuts both ways.
So there's a whole disciplinewithin politics called
opposition research.
So you put together what theycall oppo books that's the
terminology that we use.
So oppo books on youropposition, where you do all
sorts of research.
You dig through all the oldtweets, all the old Facebook
posts.
My space posts go way back inthe time machine.
(24:37):
Yeah, you go as far back as youcan, any sort of legal records.
You go through court cases,court filing, just really fine
tooth comb it's a prettyinvasive process on the
opposition to see if there'sanything there that would be
considered disqualifying foroffice.
(24:57):
You also do that for your owncandidate.
I mean you should right, that'sthe thing that you should do.
So that turns up some stuffSometimes that the candidate
themselves either like genuinelyforgot about and just like
didn't tell you, or they'll.
It'll turn up stuff that maybedidn't seem like a big deal, but
like after having done you knowhundreds of campaigns and on
(25:19):
our side you just see it andyou're like I know where this is
going, so you have to addressit.
So once you kind of know soagain, not perfect, because
stuff will come up during acampaign Like, even if you go
through everything with finetooth comb, sometimes you miss
stuff too, like as a consultantor a campaign manager.
So you kind of have to dealwith it to your point.
(25:41):
So how do you deal with it?
There are a number of differentways.
I mean it really depends onwhat it is.
So it could be something thatwas taken out of context.
I will say like there is thisreally sort of underappreciated
skill of making a genuineapology for something like if
it's worth it and sometimes likeyou don't feel like as a
candidate, you don't feel likeyou should have to mean it that
(26:04):
way and you know, having havingthat dialogue I think goes goes
a long way.
Like that apology just sayinglike look like I understand how
people that are taken in thatway and really kind of most
times trying to avoid the sortof like I'm sorry you were
offended apology, like I'm sorryif this is like it's your fault
(26:25):
for being offended, so I'msorry about that, not that I
like tweeted something superoffensive or you know, or did
something like ridiculous backback in the day.
So I think you know there'sthere's a little bit of an
apology.
There's also a way to kind ofinoculate yourself against these
sorts of things, to using alittle bit of humor.
(26:46):
So like this has really been akind of an interesting thing for
both younger and oldercandidates, right, because like
younger candidates right, I'mtalking like you know,
millennials are really even likeGen X on down.
You know, we kind of like grewup with the internet and like,
so, you know, just thinking in,you know, for my own personal
(27:10):
experience, right.
So like Facebook was juststarting to become a thing as I
was getting into college andlike I guarantee you that very
few college freshman sophomoresat that time or high school
seniors were thinking, ah, yeah,this is going to be on the
internet forever and one day I'mgoing to run for office and
maybe this post could cause mesome trouble down in what.
No one thought that way.
So it was sort of like thisdigital native thing You're
(27:32):
living there posting all sortsof crazy stuff and and then you
realize years later, oh,shouldn't have done that, right
so so that's kind of aninteresting thing.
And some of that is just likestuff that, like in college you
would seem like entirely normalor not offensive or not
problematic, but like as anadult you're like, wow, you know
(27:55):
, like doing a keg stand withyour shirt off maybe not the
best look for a Kennedy, so Imean that's a reality that you
know that you have to have todeal with is sort of like all
this stuff that's out there likedocumenting our lives from, you
know, the very early age.
At this point It'll beinteresting to see, like how Gen
Z, who really like, grew upwith it right, because, like I
(28:15):
still like I remember dial-upinternet, right, like that
horrible sound or someone picksup the phone and you get knocked
off, right, which honestly,like was a totally different
experience than what kids havetoday which is on their phones.
You know they have the abilityto access the internet, so it'll
be interesting to see wherethat goes.
But the other thing that you canuse is a little bit of humor in
(28:37):
diffusing some of thesesituations too, to inoculate
yourself so like don't takeyourself too seriously, like if
it's something silly, and youknow people are trying to make a
big deal out of it.
Then just use a little bit ofhumor, joke about yourself, be a
little self-effacing there'snothing wrong with that.
I think there's this perceptionin politics that you have to be
(28:58):
perceived at all times ascompletely infallible, this sort
of like you know perfect figure, and if you're not, then you
know you're not worth.
But I think people do connectwith other human beings and it
is human to to error, right likeit is.
It is actually a human traitthere.
So a little bit of humor works.
(29:18):
There was one example of thisthat this is like an
extraordinarily extreme,actually a really extreme
example of sort of inoculatingyourself.
But John Hickenlooper, who wasthe governor of Colorado and now
a US senator, you know he wasrunning for president and
essentially what he did was hepublished this book, like it was
(29:39):
an autobiography or memoir, butit really was like an oppo file
that he took and then publishedas a book on himself, like so
it was like all these like weirdlittle stories from his past,
like things that people wouldthink might be a little bit
offbeat or whatever, and he justlike put it out there and he
was like you know.
I am who I am and it works.
I mean, it's, it's, it's so.
(29:59):
It's just like if you, if youbring it to the table, it's
harder for your opponent to takethat and be like oh, you did
this horrible thing when you'rekind of being about so yeah, I
mean, that's, that's, that'swhat I would say.
Like those are the two bigthings.
For bigger stuff, you reallyhave to like go situation by
situation.
I mean there's like genuinelybad stuff that like you have to
consider, even as a consultant,have to consider like do we, do
(30:20):
we want to defend this?
And and I think you know,sometimes the answer is no, you,
it's really like indefensibleand you have to make a hard
choice at that point yeah, so acouple more questions here
before we wrap up.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
I know we're coming up on a major election year.
Obviously there's there'sdifferent elections going on
almost seemingly all the time.
When should someone what's kindof the sweet spot for starting
a campaign like how many monthsout before an election?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
yeah, I mean that's, that's another good, that's
another good question.
I there's no real sweet spot.
Like I said, the the cycle, thecampaign cycles have really
expanded now.
So you know, instead of being aone-year campaign or six-month
campaign, you're looking at likea two-year run land.
Some of things so for forcongress or even like governor.
(31:11):
You know there have been someexamples of people who are
running for governor who startedthree years ahead, right, just
kind of poking around andstarting to set up
infrastructure, starting toflesh out their ideas about what
they might want to do or whattheir message might be.
So, so it really depends on onresources, in bandwidth.
And then there are somecampaigns that are much on a
(31:34):
much shorter runway, just basedon on the calendar, the
electoral calendar.
So like, for example, ifthere's a retirement in in
congress and all of a suddenthere is a seat open and you
have three months to run acampaign, then you know you're
just considering it on the flyessentially.
So I would say like, the moretime the better, especially with
the fundraising stuff, because,like, as the campaign heats up
(31:57):
toward the end, as you getcloser to election day, it just
becomes your, your schedule,your calendar is going to become
even more hectic and it's goingto be harder to find that time
to do the fundraising.
So I would say, like, if you canstart that, you know a few
months, like for a, for a localcampaign, start five, six, seven
months out, and there are alsolike filing deadlines too that
you have to adhere to, so youhave to just make sure that
(32:18):
you're in.
So if you're filing, deadlineis in March, you know, for the
primary, which then will qualifyyou for the general election
ballot you know you definitelywant to start in January of that
year, or even like lateDecember.
Just start thinking about it,yeah, and thinking about, like,
how you're going to raise money.
But the more time you giveyourself to raise the money, the
better off you are, because ittakes the pressure off in the
(32:41):
final weeks where you're runningaround, you're doing rallies,
you're going to events, you'rebarely sleeping or you know
barely have time to eat, soyou're not going to want to be
on the phone.
You know dialing for dollars atthat point got it.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
So then, after an election is over win or lose uh,
what does someone have to dowith any leftover funds?
Or are there typically anyleftover funds after an election
to do?
People typically max out andeven kind of go into the red on
these sorts of things?
Speaker 3 (33:11):
You are.
You're touching on a topic thatthat we have a lot of
conversations about here at the,here at the office.
So, like, our generalDisposition here is like, if
you're in a competitive race,there's almost no excuse for not
spending to zero.
Like, why would you leave anydry powder in in the?
(33:32):
You really really have to.
You have to pull out all of thestops to win.
So you know, and you never wantit you the worst thing on the
worst feeling on election dayfor a candidate and a consultant
is sitting there and askingyourself what could we have?
Is there something more that wecould have done?
Or like actually knowingexactly what you could have done
(33:52):
potentially, yeah, you two havemade a difference.
Late there were.
There were a couple of electionsthat you know we were watching
a few years ago where, where thecandidates were separated by
four votes Wow, so think aboutthat.
Four votes in in an entirelegislative district.
So you're gonna sit there, anelection that can go.
What Could we have?
(34:13):
That four votes?
Like you can count that I meanyou can.
Like you can figure out whoDidn't vote for you, like almost
like you can almost figure outlike the people who didn't come
out like right off the top ofyour head.
So I think you always want to,in a competitive race, spend to
zero, like there is almost noexcuse for for not doing that
Other than this weird fixationwith like keeping keeping money
(34:35):
in the bank for whatever reason.
But like on election night ifyou lose and you still have a
million dollars in the bank,that that's like a real kick
yourself kind of situation.
Yeah, if it's not a competitiverace or or like the sort of
partisan Tilt of a district isis heavily in your favor, you
(34:56):
know, then you can leave somemoney in the bank.
I mean, there are a lot ofreasons to do that, so you know.
The first is that if you're inwhat would be considered a safe
district is your, your typicallyboth parties do it a little bit
differently, but you'retypically expected to pay into
whatever committee, likecampaign committee at large,
they have.
(35:16):
So like, for example, on thecongressional side you would pay
into the the, you know,democratic congressional
campaign committee or theRepublican version of that Pay
in dues.
So then that group can helpother vulnerable or competitive.
It will help in othercompetitive races where where's
yours is not so there you know,in that in that case, like
(35:37):
that's how you would, how youwould keep your, you know that's
how you would use your, utilizeyour campaign funding.
The other thing that people dotoo is which is interesting, is
like you see a lot ofretirements and Massive sums of
money and campaign accountsafterwards and you just kind of
wonder.
So you know, some people spendthat down slowly by giving to
(35:58):
other candidates or giving othercauses.
You're allowed in most placesto give, give that money to
charity.
I mean you can't pocket itright, like that's right number
one.
It's like you can't be like,okay, I'm done now and you know,
here's, here's my windfall atthe end of it.
So a lot of people do use thatfor For charity.
If you lose, there are a lot ofsituations to where people will
(36:22):
have run and especiallycompelling campaign.
So this, this happens a lotwhen you have a candidate
running against what you knowyour base voters would consider
like one of the like Marquisvillains right of the other
party and let's say you cameclose, like really close in In
an unexpected way in thatdistrict, then people are kind
(36:46):
of thinking you should takeanother shot next time and
they'll continue to fundraiseand then announce for for the
following election cycle.
So you can like roll that overin most cases as well.
So it kind of just depends onwhat you want to do afterwards.
But but you know, I would saylike again, competitive race
spends a zero.
Do not take anything for granted, you know.
And and you know one more pieceon that too is like early money
is always better than latemoney drives us nuts.
(37:07):
So yeah, I think that's a goodpoint.
You know you'll get a call likefour, three or four weeks
before election day.
It's like, oh well, you know,we just got, you know, another
two million dollars and what dowe do with this?
And you know, tv's booked rightlike most of the most of the
broadcast and and cable isbooked.
(37:28):
You know CPMs are through theroof on like, pre like for the
midterm cycle.
You know pre-roll, midroll, butCTV OTT, that those were all
maxed out like it was absolutelynuts.
And in direct mail, I mean, atthat point people are getting,
you know, ten pieces of directmail every day to their mailbox.
So, like, do you spend it?
(37:49):
Sure, you absolutely do.
You find a way to spend thatmoney, but it's always better if
you can get that in a littlebit earlier rather than Later,
because I mean there is a limitto like if you want to send more
mail, you know you can't dothat a week out.
You have to make sure that youhave everything ready to go
before that.
So yeah, you know you don't wantto be in a position where you
have, like this huge infusionlike just a few days before the
(38:10):
election and you're like whatare we gonna do with this?
So, so in that case, like, somepeople do get caught with with
money in the bank At that pointtoo, because you just cannot
effectively spend it at the end.
So I say early money if you canget it, and always emphasize
that to your donors.
It's like, you know, theearlier it is the higher
leverage we have here, the youknow later it is the lower
(38:30):
leverage we have.
But yeah, spend, spend is zero.
That's my, that's my thing.
I think you know maybe somepeople would disagree with me on
that, but you know, I justdon't see a reason to to leave
anything on the field.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
So I mean, this has been really great, a ton of
great insight.
I know I've learned a lot fromthis, and so, before we wrap up
here, let people know how theycan get in touch with you, how
they can learn more about whatyou guys do.
Yeah, absolutely so you cancheck me out on LinkedIn.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
So that's Matt Creighton, k-r-a-y-t-o-n.
That's a odd spelling, so Ithink I might be the only Matt
Creighton on the internet that'sspelled that way, so very easy
to find.
You can also check out publicticks on on LinkedIn as well.
Those are the sort of two majorplatforms that were that we're
on at the moment and feel freeto, you know, check out our
website so you can always sendme an email.
I'm always happy to answerquestions and and go through go
(39:25):
through three things with withperspective candidates.
I know it can be kind of adaunting task.
And then there are a lot of,you know, questions that people
might have that are not easilyanswered just by googling.
So, yeah, always happy toanswer, answer a question if
someone's got it, or point themin the right direction too, so
happy to do that.
So I would say LinkedIn andcheck out our website.
Awesome, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Well, that's gonna wrap it up for us today.
If you have not done so yet,please leave a rating and review
.
Wherever you are listening tothe show.
It really does help us out andgets us out in front of more
people.
That's gonna do it.
Thanks, matt.
So much for joining us.
Thank you, thanks for listening.
To learn more, go tospotlightbrandingcom slash
(40:07):
center stage.
This podcast is brought to you by Spotlight
Branding.
Whether your firm only gets afew referrals or it's 100% of
your business, you have theopportunity to double your
referrals through educational,informative content.
The pros at Spotlight Brandingcan help you create that content
through blogging videos, emailnewsletters and more all
(00:22):
designed to help you increaseyour referrals and attract the
kinds of clients you want towork with.
Visit spotlightbrandingcomslash pod to learn more.
That's spotlightbrandingcomslash pod.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
This is Center Stage putting your firm in the
spotlight by highlightingbusiness owners and other
industry experts to help takeyour firm to the next level.
Everyone and welcome to CenterStage.
I'm your host, John Henson, andthis week we are talking about
politics, but not in a way thatmakes people irrationally angry
and ruins friendships and allthat kind of stuff.
(01:14):
We are actually talking aboutyour political aspirations.
I know a lot of you lawyers outthere have an interest in it.
You end up getting into it, andso I wanted to bring on someone
who has a lot of experiencemanaging political campaigns so
that they can come and sharewhat it's like to get started
and what it's like to run acampaign and go for a political
(01:37):
office.
And so we are joined by thefounder and principal at
Publitex, Matt Creighton.
Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Thanks for having me on Appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, so before we jump in, tell us a little bit
about you and your backgroundand what you do with Publitex.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Sure, absolutely so.
Publitex is a full servicepolitical consulting, public
affairs and public relationsfirm, so we've done work on the
very local level on up to thefederal level.
So I like to say, never a dullmoment.
Definitely an interesting mixof things that we do and we help
(02:13):
with all aspects of campaigns.
Our team has a pretty diversearray of experiences in terms of
managing campaigns and thenworking as a consultant on
campaigns, which are slightlydifferent roles here and there,
but yeah, so at this point we doa lot of media polling, message
(02:34):
development and generalstrategy consulting, but we've
managed a ton of campaigns aswell, and usually we're right
there on the ground floor asthese things are starting up.
So, yeah, it's definitely aninteresting space to be in these
days.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Absolutely.
So I kind of like to start atthe top in these sorts of things
and then kind of drill downinto specific areas.
And so for people who may notbe familiar with the formal
process, they may think allright, I would like to run for
office one day.
What does the process even looklike for starting a campaign?
(03:12):
Because I'm sure there's somesort of paperwork or something
that has to be submitted orsomething I don't know.
But it's got to be more thanjust someone deciding, hey, I'm
going to go run for Congress,and then they just start making
speeches.
What does it look like?
Speaker 3 (03:26):
If only right yeah, it's like I'm running, declare
it and put it in the universe.
And here we are.
So you're absolutely right.
So the requirements depend onthe jurisdiction.
So every jurisdiction hasslightly different rules.
Different states have differentrules for how to run.
(03:48):
The basic process generally isfiling some kind of paperwork
with the FEC on the federallevel or whatever state or
jurisdiction you're in, theircampaign finance board or
enforcement agency At that point.
(04:08):
Then there are ballot accessrequirements that again differ
from place to place.
So in certain jurisdictionswhat you have to do is you have
to go out and get a certainnumber of signatures.
Sometimes that's based on theprevious number of votes in a
particular election, and theyhave a formula for calculating
(04:28):
that.
Some jurisdictions have ahybrid of two different things,
so one being signatures and thenthe other.
You can kind of buy your wayonto the ballot, so just pay a
substantial filing fee to get onthe ballot.
The purpose of all of that isto make sure that the people who
(04:48):
are running for office areserious about running for office
.
So if it were just a case ofsaying, ok, show up to your
local county clerk and sign apiece of paper and then you're
on the ballot.
That could open the door toquite a bit of mischief
potentially, so most of thoserequirements are are you serious
(05:11):
, do you want to do this?
And then from there, it's amatter of building out a team,
getting an infrastructuretogether, and fundraising really
is the first step, actuallybeyond the paperwork.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah.
So when it comes to kind of thefirst campaign that you run, do
you have people who?
How do you decide, I guess,which office to run for?
Is there advantage to maybestarting at the state or local
level, or if you really justwant to be a state rep or if you
(05:45):
want to try to run for Congress?
Is there a right or wrong wayto go about doing that, or does
it kind of depend on what yourgoals and aspirations are?
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yeah, that's a really good question.
This is actually a questionthat we get quite often is, you
know, we'll have people come tous and they say they want to run
for one office and you knowthey kind of go through what
sort of commitment they'rewilling to make to it and you
think, well, you know, congress,that's can be a very expensive
endeavor in certain places Like,for example, we're in the, you
know, in northern New Jersey,our main office is up here and
(06:17):
we're smack dab in the middle ofthe New York media market,
extraordinarily expensive placeto run a campaign.
Same thing with South Jerseyand the Philadelphia media
market.
Yeah, you know, los Angeles,miami, you know.
So all of those places areextraordinarily expensive.
So, you know, sometimes we'llgo through that process and say,
well, look like it sounds likeyou're you're serious about
(06:38):
running for office, making adifference in whatever community
or whatever way that you wantto make a difference in.
You know, maybe you should trylocal office, and usually that's
a good way to get thefundamentals of campaigning now.
And so like campaigns will looka little bit different
depending upon what level you'rerunning for, you know.
So obviously running for towncouncil in a small town is going
(06:59):
to be different than runningfor Congress or president or US
Senate or governor or any of theother state.
You know constitutional officesbut but at the end of the day
the fundamentals, like it kindof just gets you used to.
You know the routine of whatyou have to do, some of the
basic steps in between you knowyou, and then ultimately winning
(07:19):
winning your race.
So you know I, and then part ofit is also assessing the
political landscape as well.
So I will say this there'snothing wrong with losing your
first race.
Plenty of successful candidateseventually or at some point in
their career will have lost arace and they're valuable
lessons to to going through thatprocess.
You know some of some of that.
(07:40):
Maybe you just ran in a reallytough district or tough.
You know jurisdiction and itwas the voter registration
statistics were just stackedagainst you and just wasn't
going to happen.
But again, that helps kind offlex the muscle a little bit and
you know you kind of.
You know work out.
You know those, those areasthat you need to work out.
So it really depends on a numberof things.
(08:03):
You know availability of seatsto like in some cases, do you
really want to be runningagainst the incumbent.
Does that make sense?
Do you like the incumbent?
Or are you just like trying torun for something and you know,
like, is that the right place togo?
You know it's.
So you know those are, thoseare the considerations generally
speaking, and then, like youknow, kind of looking at the
again, the amount of time thatyou have to dedicate to it.
(08:23):
So I'm running a campaign, youknow, for, like Congress, or you
know some statewide races, oreven you know certain state
legislature.
You know positions, really thatis a full time job and the
election cycle has gone frombeing, you know, a couple of
months right, so we're talkingfive, six, seven months to
(08:45):
almost like a one, one and ahalf year cycle where you're
dedicated to doing that onething, whereas town council
still a lot of work, but or citycouncil, or wherever you are
right, but you know it's not astime intensive, so it's, you
know, balancing sort of career,family, other obligations that
(09:07):
you might have.
So so there are a number ofthings you know that we kind of
take into account when, whenwe're making recommendations on
that, and then sometimes peoplejust decide you know, no, I want
to run for whatever office itis because I have a very
specific thing that I want toaddress and that is the office
that will address that.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
So yeah, so, yeah, yeah yeah, awesome, and I want
to dig into some of those thingsa little bit on.
But you know, thinking aboutonce you've started a campaign,
right?
You know I know that there arethere's potentially debates that
you can participate in.
You know different rallies thatyou can participate in.
You got to have somefundraising events.
(09:42):
Are those you know?
Are there any other kinds oftasks or activities that someone
needs to be doing when they arerunning a campaign?
How do you even, how do youeven go about setting some of
those things up?
Speaker 3 (09:55):
Yeah, I mean.
So it's.
It's funny and in some of thesecampaigns there's a little bit
of a trick or the egg issue withwith the fundraising piece,
right, because you need helpfundraising but you also don't
have money unless you're selffunding up up front, which
people do.
So I mean there is always abenefit to if you're committed
to it and this is reallysomething that you want to do
(10:16):
that setting aside some, somemoney and self funding, getting
some seed funding in there andand doing it that way.
That way you can start to bringon a team, because the some of
these things, even though we'reall kind of like familiar with
the political process, you doneed help, right, like it helps
to have someone who's beenthrough it before walk you
through exactly what you need todo.
(10:38):
So so the first, the first step,I would say, is like developing
a really solid fundraising planand that that's going to be the
lifeblood of the rest of yourcampaign, because if you can't
raise money, then you're goingto have, you're going to have no
way to reach out to voters,right, other than, you know,
physically running around andknocking on doors.
But I mean again, if you'retalking about a large city or a
(11:00):
county wide thing, statewidething, you're never going to be
able to knock on the number ofdoors they need to knock on in
order to to win your race oreven make it dent at that point.
So so money is the mostimportant thing and fundraising,
interestingly enough, is alsoone of the areas that it's a
very polarizing thing.
So either candidates love it orthey absolutely hate it.
(11:22):
If you hate it, you almost needto kind of make it a game,
figure out how to, you know,challenge yourself and get
yourself, you know, really likelock yourself in a room and dial
through your phone book.
So I mean, that's one of thebiggest pieces of advice that we
give first time candidates.
Is all right, look through yourphone book.
In your phone, I say phone book,that's like a bit of a dated
(11:44):
your contacts and yoursmartphone and you know, go
through, look at the names andthen assign each of those people
a dollar value and then callthem and ask.
And I think that you know, oneof the most important skills
that you're going to gain fromthat is not being afraid of
hearing no quite a bit, becausethere is going to be quite a bit
(12:06):
of no.
Even if you're asking for asmall amount of money, like hey,
you know, we've known eachother for a long time, can you
throw me 50 bucks for mycampaign?
People will say no, not rightnow.
I have other obligations.
You know I can't.
You know can't do it, or Idon't agree with you on this, so
I'm not going to give you moneyor whatever it is.
So hearing no means that you'rekind of getting that out of the
(12:26):
way and then that'll get you toa place where you're going to
get to yeses.
I mean you're going to get abunch of noes before you get a
yes.
You just can't get discouragedwith that.
So I would say that's like.
You know, square one in terms ofthe campaign is like looking at
that you know contacts list,looking, or even your like
LinkedIn, you know contacts andsaying like well, who do you
know on here, who could I askfor money?
It's, it is uncomfortable,honestly like I'm not going to
(12:49):
lie to you or sugarcoat it itdefinitely is uncomfortable for
some folks.
Like just straight up askingfor money.
It's a different thing thansaying like I will provide you
legal services for for money.
Right, that feels differentthan that there could, because
it's you're basically justsaying give me this and I'm
running for off.
So, but, but I will say thatlike people do like to be asked
(13:13):
as well.
Like there are some subset ofdonors that enjoy being asked,
are flattered by it.
You know it's, it's a weird,it's a weird thing.
So you just kind of have tolike learn to love the ups and
downs, the roller coaster,fundraising.
So I'd say that's square onebefore you get anything else in
place.
Otherwise you're not going to beable to hire a team.
You're not going to be able to,you know, do polling.
If you have to do polling,focus groups, things like that
(13:35):
so yeah, that's, that's really,that's really square one.
And then, beyond that, you know, finding, finding your team.
So, again, depending upon therace, you know you're you're
probably going to need acampaign manager, like someone
that's like dedicated staff onthe ground, who will be with you
and just manage all of themoving parts, especially for
(13:57):
larger campaigns.
Where you have a media shop,you're gonna have your polling
shop, you're gonna have yourField team.
You know the people that aregoing out and organizing
canvassers, knocking on doors,the people are doing phones,
volunteer work.
So you're gonna need someoneelse, because, I mean, the most
valuable resource on a campaignis Is the candidates time
ultimately, so that step tworeally is finding a good manager
(14:20):
, and what type of person youpick for that role Really
depends on what you need.
So so what I found In a lot ofraces is the.
The skill that I wouldprioritize is someone who
actually has really goodmanagement skills, not
necessarily a strategist, but amanager like someone who can
(14:42):
manage effectively and, you know, keep a team moving in the
right direction.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Yeah, so a couple of things those are.
So I know, yeah, I know, andall of this really depends on
the the type of you knowElection you're running for and
the market that you're in.
You know, because, like I wouldthink that Running for you know
, like mayor of New York City isgonna be multiple millions of
(15:08):
dollars I cost, versus runningfor mayor of a 20,000 person
town, maybe, I don't, probably afew thousand, maybe, you know,
over 10, I don't know what, what.
What are kind of the ballparkcosts of Running for these
different kinds of offices youknow, from like that small
20,000 person town to more ofjust like a Generic, like us
(15:31):
Senate seat.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, I, that's.
That's a really good question.
So, like you said, it's alittle bit of a sliding scale
depending upon where you are.
For you know, for a town, youknow 20,000 people are 20,000
voters.
Let's say, you know you'll,you'll need to run a very robust
campaign.
You know, anywhere from 75,000to about a hundred thousand
dollars.
Now, can you run that campaignunless, sure, you absolutely can
(15:55):
?
But you have to make some toughdecisions about what you're
gonna do and what you're notgonna do.
So, yeah, the way that we liketo think, think about these,
these types of races, we, as wework backwards from the ideal,
the ideal setup for you.
So it's like, you know what, atwhat budget, can we do
everything that we should do forthis race and then work
(16:16):
backwards from there.
Now, yeah, does it always workout that way?
No, it doesn't.
More times than not.
Like, you do have to make thosedifficult decisions.
So like, for example, you know,maybe you decide, you know
we're not gonna do any pollingon this race, we're not gonna do
focus groups or we're gonnahave to, you know, rely more
heavily on volunteers ratherthan a paid you know Field
program.
So there are our pieces of that, you know, at that level, but I
(16:38):
would say from 75 to $100,000in most, like 20,000, 30,000
voter Juroristicians.
That's that's like, again, avery robust campaign and that's
assuming that it's.
It's very competitive as well.
So that that's.
The other sort of factor is,you know, certain places don't
(16:58):
have a history of where wherecandidates spend a ton of money
in in campaigns, so like thereare towns even smaller than that
.
See, like a hundred thousanddollar, wow, you know campaign,
and and it's just because thoseplaces have a history of
contentious Elections, likeevery cycle there's always
something happening and there'salways some big interest in in
(17:22):
that, so so they end up spendinga lot more in in those small
places.
So if it's not a supercompetitive election or your
opponent doesn't really have thetype of resources that you're
gonna bring to the table, thenmaybe it's not as much.
But if it's a, it's a hypercompetitive election.
That's what we're looking at onon that front.
For for a house seat,million-dollar plus race again,
(17:44):
can you do it?
That's sure.
I mean there are certaincertain markets where you can do
it for quite a bit less,because the Media markets really
.
I mean really it depends on the, the television market, right,
the DMA that you're in and which, which sounds kind of outmoded
at the at this point, but cableand Specifically broadcast
(18:07):
advertising, right.
So you know advertising on thelow channels and I'm sure you
know a lot, of a lot of yourlisteners and I'm sure you've
been inundated at times with,like in the fall of the
presidential cycle or midtermcycle, add after add after add
after add.
Those are extremely expensivein a lot of these media markets
Again, especially like New York,la, miami, philadelphia, like
(18:31):
those are just expensive Places,but there are other markets
that aren't quite as expensive.
So you know you, three-quartersof a million dollars, you can,
you can run a pretty robustcampaign.
I mean, I've seen, again,successful campaigns run for
less.
Right then that even.
But again, again, you try towork backwards from like what
should we do in order to toensure the you know, victory in
(18:53):
this particular place?
I mean, the other question toagain, in those in those races
are is you know how many peopledo we have to actually persuade?
Like are we in a in a districtthat tilts one wire another?
Like do we have a built-inadvantage based on on the voter
registration Numbers in thatparticular district?
So that, so that depends Senateraces, you know, and so those,
(19:15):
those can get quite expensive.
So you're talking Anywhere fromyou know, two million plus
three million to like 10, 15, 20million in some contentious
places, I think yeah that youknow, georgia runoffs were
extraordinarily expensive.
I don't have an exact figure init, but I was, like you know,
tens of millions of dollars onthose races and and and the
(19:36):
thing that happens there.
Well, first of all, that waslike the only thing happening in
the country at this point.
So not every race is gonna getto that point.
But, but I mean again, you lookat a Senate race in a place
Like, let's say, rhode Islandversus California, like those
are two completely different.
I mean the size of those.
You know two states, I meanthey couldn't be more different.
Yeah, so I think that's so, sothat that's sort of the marker
(20:02):
is yeah, and it's getting moreexpensive to run these races
every single day.
Like broadcast TV, cable TV,it's, it's getting more
expensive.
Direct mail, believe it or not,huge things still in the camp,
actually very, very effectivemethod of communication.
But post-drates printing, youknow, paper like it was, it was
(20:24):
tough to get paper at certainpoints, like during the pandemic
, like actual real supply chainissues, because a lot, of, a lot
of mills kind of shut down.
So there was, there's not.
So things got a little bit moreexpensive and have kind of
stayed at that level.
So you know politics not immunefrom from inflation.
And then you know the CPMs onOn digital are getting more
(20:46):
expensive to insert in platform.
So it's it's definitely aninteresting, interesting thing,
but again, the budgets are gonnavary from from place to place.
But I would say those are goodmarkers and the thing that you
want to do again is like workbackwards from that.
What is a really robustcampaign, look like, like what
is a campaign that we'll feelgood about, and like winter Loot
.
The end of the day, we couldsay that we did everything that
(21:08):
we needed to do here, like what,what does that look like and
how much is that gonna cost?
And then working backwards fromthat.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Yeah, and and all the more reason to, you know, ask
for, ask for money from somepeople you know, because you
know not, I know lawyers are alot of lawyers out there that
make good money, probably notreally willing to spend millions
of dollars to to self fundtheir own campaign.
So Another question, and thisis something that I see a lot
(21:35):
you know you'll have a candidate, they'll burst on the scene,
they'll get a ton of attentionand then Almost inevitable that
a story will come out.
Someone has dug up somethingthat they tweeted like 12 years
ago or something at some sort oflike controversial, cancelable
sort of offense.
How do you Mitigate or reducethe chances of someone
(22:00):
Potentially digging up somethinglike that to that that could
wreck your entire campaign?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
That's a good question.
I think it's actually somethingthat a lot of candidates are,
or prospective candidates are,cognizant of.
That's sort of one of thebiggest fears of running for
office, which actually honestlykeeps quite a large number of
people out of the mix.
It may not even be likesomething like a tweet, but it
(22:29):
might be something a familymember did at one point years
ago.
You personally have absolutelyno control over how things get
twisted.
It's a really tough thing anddoes have a suppressing effect
on the number of people that arewilling to run for office,
especially in local elections.
(22:51):
We've been through a coupleraces where it's like it got so
contentious.
I'm talking small town stuffhere.
Some of these small towns couldbe more vicious than the
national level, where kids arenot going to be invited to other
kids' birthday parties anymorebecause parents ended up on
either side of whatever localfight was happening.
Or the old grocery store snub.
(23:12):
You're in a vegetable aisle andyou try to wave to a neighbor
and they just give you the coldshoulder Because of stuff that
was dug up or some of that.
From a mechanical perspective,like a tactical perspective, one
of the things that we like todo right off the bat is number
one, and I think attorneys canprobably relate to this a little
(23:34):
bit is that you say, well, okay, tell me the full story, tell
me everything you know, like anyliabilities, any opportunities
that we might have here tomessage around your biography.
But you've got to be honestabout the liabilities.
Is there anything that you canthink of, even if it doesn't
feel like it was that big a dealto you at the time?
Just tell us about it.
(23:55):
Well, you and I both know andI'm sure a lot of your listeners
know like their clientsprobably don't always say it's
like but you're in the courtroom, he's like oh, by the way, I
did do that thing, I'm sorry.
Like, oh, I forgot to tell youabout this other thing.
So that does happen from timeto time.
But what we try to do tomitigate that, so it sort of
(24:16):
cuts both ways.
So there's a whole disciplinewithin politics called
opposition research.
So you put together what theycall oppo books that's the
terminology that we use.
So oppo books on youropposition, where you do all
sorts of research.
You dig through all the oldtweets, all the old Facebook
posts.
My space posts go way back inthe time machine.
(24:37):
Yeah, you go as far back as youcan, any sort of legal records.
You go through court cases,court filing, just really fine
tooth comb it's a prettyinvasive process on the
opposition to see if there'sanything there that would be
considered disqualifying foroffice.
(24:57):
You also do that for your owncandidate.
I mean you should right, that'sthe thing that you should do.
So that turns up some stuffSometimes that the candidate
themselves either like genuinelyforgot about and just like
didn't tell you, or they'll.
It'll turn up stuff that maybedidn't seem like a big deal, but
like after having done you knowhundreds of campaigns and on
(25:19):
our side you just see it andyou're like I know where this is
going, so you have to addressit.
So once you kind of know soagain, not perfect, because
stuff will come up during acampaign Like, even if you go
through everything with finetooth comb, sometimes you miss
stuff too, like as a consultantor a campaign manager.
So you kind of have to dealwith it to your point.
(25:41):
So how do you deal with it?
There are a number of differentways.
I mean it really depends onwhat it is.
So it could be something thatwas taken out of context.
I will say like there is thisreally sort of underappreciated
skill of making a genuineapology for something like if
it's worth it and sometimes likeyou don't feel like as a
candidate, you don't feel likeyou should have to mean it that
(26:04):
way and you know, having havingthat dialogue I think goes goes
a long way.
Like that apology just sayinglike look like I understand how
people that are taken in thatway and really kind of most
times trying to avoid the sortof like I'm sorry you were
offended apology, like I'm sorryif this is like it's your fault
(26:25):
for being offended, so I'msorry about that, not that I
like tweeted something superoffensive or you know, or did
something like ridiculous backback in the day.
So I think you know there'sthere's a little bit of an
apology.
There's also a way to kind ofinoculate yourself against these
sorts of things, to using alittle bit of humor.
(26:46):
So like this has really been akind of an interesting thing for
both younger and oldercandidates, right, because like
younger candidates right, I'mtalking like you know,
millennials are really even likeGen X on down.
You know, we kind of like grewup with the internet and like,
so, you know, just thinking in,you know, for my own personal
(27:10):
experience, right.
So like Facebook was juststarting to become a thing as I
was getting into college andlike I guarantee you that very
few college freshman sophomoresat that time or high school
seniors were thinking, ah, yeah,this is going to be on the
internet forever and one day I'mgoing to run for office and
maybe this post could cause mesome trouble down in what.
No one thought that way.
So it was sort of like thisdigital native thing You're
(27:32):
living there posting all sortsof crazy stuff and and then you
realize years later, oh,shouldn't have done that, right
so so that's kind of aninteresting thing.
And some of that is just likestuff that, like in college you
would seem like entirely normalor not offensive or not
problematic, but like as anadult you're like, wow, you know
(27:55):
, like doing a keg stand withyour shirt off maybe not the
best look for a Kennedy, so Imean that's a reality that you
know that you have to have todeal with is sort of like all
this stuff that's out there likedocumenting our lives from, you
know, the very early age.
At this point It'll beinteresting to see, like how Gen
Z, who really like, grew upwith it right, because, like I
(28:15):
still like I remember dial-upinternet, right, like that
horrible sound or someone picksup the phone and you get knocked
off, right, which honestly,like was a totally different
experience than what kids havetoday which is on their phones.
You know they have the abilityto access the internet, so it'll
be interesting to see wherethat goes.
But the other thing that you canuse is a little bit of humor in
(28:37):
diffusing some of thesesituations too, to inoculate
yourself so like don't takeyourself too seriously, like if
it's something silly, and youknow people are trying to make a
big deal out of it.
Then just use a little bit ofhumor, joke about yourself, be a
little self-effacing there'snothing wrong with that.
I think there's this perceptionin politics that you have to be
(28:58):
perceived at all times ascompletely infallible, this sort
of like you know perfect figure, and if you're not, then you
know you're not worth.
But I think people do connectwith other human beings and it
is human to to error, right likeit is.
It is actually a human traitthere.
So a little bit of humor works.
(29:18):
There was one example of thisthat this is like an
extraordinarily extreme,actually a really extreme
example of sort of inoculatingyourself.
But John Hickenlooper, who wasthe governor of Colorado and now
a US senator, you know he wasrunning for president and
essentially what he did was hepublished this book, like it was
(29:39):
an autobiography or memoir, butit really was like an oppo file
that he took and then publishedas a book on himself, like so
it was like all these like weirdlittle stories from his past,
like things that people wouldthink might be a little bit
offbeat or whatever, and he justlike put it out there and he
was like you know.
I am who I am and it works.
I mean, it's, it's, it's so.
(29:59):
It's just like if you, if youbring it to the table, it's
harder for your opponent to takethat and be like oh, you did
this horrible thing when you'rekind of being about so yeah, I
mean, that's, that's, that'swhat I would say.
Like those are the two bigthings.
For bigger stuff, you reallyhave to like go situation by
situation.
I mean there's like genuinelybad stuff that like you have to
consider, even as a consultant,have to consider like do we, do
(30:20):
we want to defend this?
And and I think you know,sometimes the answer is no, you,
it's really like indefensibleand you have to make a hard
choice at that point yeah, so acouple more questions here
before we wrap up.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
I know we're coming up on a major election year.
Obviously there's there'sdifferent elections going on
almost seemingly all the time.
When should someone what's kindof the sweet spot for starting
a campaign like how many monthsout before an election?
Speaker 3 (30:49):
yeah, I mean that's, that's another good, that's
another good question.
I there's no real sweet spot.
Like I said, the the cycle, thecampaign cycles have really
expanded now.
So you know, instead of being aone-year campaign or six-month
campaign, you're looking at likea two-year run land.
Some of things so for forcongress or even like governor.
(31:11):
You know there have been someexamples of people who are
running for governor who startedthree years ahead, right, just
kind of poking around andstarting to set up
infrastructure, starting toflesh out their ideas about what
they might want to do or whattheir message might be.
So, so it really depends on onresources, in bandwidth.
And then there are somecampaigns that are much on a
(31:34):
much shorter runway, just basedon on the calendar, the
electoral calendar.
So like, for example, ifthere's a retirement in in
congress and all of a suddenthere is a seat open and you
have three months to run acampaign, then you know you're
just considering it on the flyessentially.
So I would say like, the moretime the better, especially with
the fundraising stuff, because,like, as the campaign heats up
(31:57):
toward the end, as you getcloser to election day, it just
becomes your, your schedule,your calendar is going to become
even more hectic and it's goingto be harder to find that time
to do the fundraising.
So I would say, like, if you canstart that, you know a few
months, like for a, for a localcampaign, start five, six, seven
months out, and there are alsolike filing deadlines too that
you have to adhere to, so youhave to just make sure that
(32:18):
you're in.
So if you're filing, deadlineis in March, you know, for the
primary, which then will qualifyyou for the general election
ballot you know you definitelywant to start in January of that
year, or even like lateDecember.
Just start thinking about it,yeah, and thinking about, like,
how you're going to raise money.
But the more time you giveyourself to raise the money, the
better off you are, because ittakes the pressure off in the
(32:41):
final weeks where you're runningaround, you're doing rallies,
you're going to events, you'rebarely sleeping or you know
barely have time to eat, soyou're not going to want to be
on the phone.
You know dialing for dollars atthat point got it.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
So then, after an election is over win or lose uh,
what does someone have to dowith any leftover funds?
Or are there typically anyleftover funds after an election
to do?
People typically max out andeven kind of go into the red on
these sorts of things?
Speaker 3 (33:11):
You are.
You're touching on a topic thatthat we have a lot of
conversations about here at the,here at the office.
So, like, our generalDisposition here is like, if
you're in a competitive race,there's almost no excuse for not
spending to zero.
Like, why would you leave anydry powder in in the?
(33:32):
You really really have to.
You have to pull out all of thestops to win.
So you know, and you never wantit you the worst thing on the
worst feeling on election dayfor a candidate and a consultant
is sitting there and askingyourself what could we have?
Is there something more that wecould have done?
Or like actually knowingexactly what you could have done
(33:52):
potentially, yeah, you two havemade a difference.
Late there were.
There were a couple of electionsthat you know we were watching
a few years ago where, where thecandidates were separated by
four votes Wow, so think aboutthat.
Four votes in in an entirelegislative district.
So you're gonna sit there, anelection that can go.
What Could we have?
(34:13):
That four votes?
Like you can count that I meanyou can.
Like you can figure out whoDidn't vote for you, like almost
like you can almost figure outlike the people who didn't come
out like right off the top ofyour head.
So I think you always want to,in a competitive race, spend to
zero, like there is almost noexcuse for for not doing that
Other than this weird fixationwith like keeping keeping money
(34:35):
in the bank for whatever reason.
But like on election night ifyou lose and you still have a
million dollars in the bank,that that's like a real kick
yourself kind of situation.
Yeah, if it's not a competitiverace or or like the sort of
partisan Tilt of a district isis heavily in your favor, you
(34:56):
know, then you can leave somemoney in the bank.
I mean, there are a lot ofreasons to do that, so you know.
The first is that if you're inwhat would be considered a safe
district is your, your typicallyboth parties do it a little bit
differently, but you'retypically expected to pay into
whatever committee, likecampaign committee at large,
they have.
(35:16):
So like, for example, on thecongressional side you would pay
into the the, you know,democratic congressional
campaign committee or theRepublican version of that Pay
in dues.
So then that group can helpother vulnerable or competitive.
It will help in othercompetitive races where where's
yours is not so there you know,in that in that case, like
(35:37):
that's how you would, how youwould keep your, you know that's
how you would use your, utilizeyour campaign funding.
The other thing that people dotoo is which is interesting, is
like you see a lot ofretirements and Massive sums of
money and campaign accountsafterwards and you just kind of
wonder.
So you know, some people spendthat down slowly by giving to
(35:58):
other candidates or giving othercauses.
You're allowed in most placesto give, give that money to
charity.
I mean you can't pocket itright, like that's right number
one.
It's like you can't be like,okay, I'm done now and you know,
here's, here's my windfall atthe end of it.
So a lot of people do use thatfor For charity.
If you lose, there are a lot ofsituations to where people will
(36:22):
have run and especiallycompelling campaign.
So this, this happens a lotwhen you have a candidate
running against what you knowyour base voters would consider
like one of the like Marquisvillains right of the other
party and let's say you cameclose, like really close in In
an unexpected way in thatdistrict, then people are kind
(36:46):
of thinking you should takeanother shot next time and
they'll continue to fundraiseand then announce for for the
following election cycle.
So you can like roll that overin most cases as well.
So it kind of just depends onwhat you want to do afterwards.
But but you know, I would saylike again, competitive race
spends a zero.
Do not take anything for granted, you know.
And and you know one more pieceon that too is like early money
is always better than latemoney drives us nuts.
(37:07):
So yeah, I think that's a goodpoint.
You know you'll get a call likefour, three or four weeks
before election day.
It's like, oh well, you know,we just got, you know, another
two million dollars and what dowe do with this?
And you know, tv's booked rightlike most of the most of the
broadcast and and cable isbooked.
(37:28):
You know CPMs are through theroof on like, pre like for the
midterm cycle.
You know pre-roll, midroll, butCTV OTT, that those were all
maxed out like it was absolutelynuts.
And in direct mail, I mean, atthat point people are getting,
you know, ten pieces of directmail every day to their mailbox.
So, like, do you spend it?
(37:49):
Sure, you absolutely do.
You find a way to spend thatmoney, but it's always better if
you can get that in a littlebit earlier rather than Later,
because I mean there is a limitto like if you want to send more
mail, you know you can't dothat a week out.
You have to make sure that youhave everything ready to go
before that.
So yeah, you know you don't wantto be in a position where you
have, like this huge infusionlike just a few days before the
(38:10):
election and you're like whatare we gonna do with this?
So, so in that case, like, somepeople do get caught with with
money in the bank At that pointtoo, because you just cannot
effectively spend it at the end.
So I say early money if you canget it, and always emphasize
that to your donors.
It's like, you know, theearlier it is the higher
leverage we have here, the youknow later it is the lower
(38:30):
leverage we have.
But yeah, spend, spend is zero.
That's my, that's my thing.
I think you know maybe somepeople would disagree with me on
that, but you know, I justdon't see a reason to to leave
anything on the field.
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
So I mean, this has been really great, a ton of
great insight.
I know I've learned a lot fromthis, and so, before we wrap up
here, let people know how theycan get in touch with you, how
they can learn more about whatyou guys do.
Yeah, absolutely so you cancheck me out on LinkedIn.
Speaker 3 (38:59):
So that's Matt Creighton, k-r-a-y-t-o-n.
That's a odd spelling, so Ithink I might be the only Matt
Creighton on the internet that'sspelled that way, so very easy
to find.
You can also check out publicticks on on LinkedIn as well.
Those are the sort of two majorplatforms that were that we're
on at the moment and feel freeto, you know, check out our
website so you can always sendme an email.
I'm always happy to answerquestions and and go through go
(39:25):
through three things with withperspective candidates.
I know it can be kind of adaunting task.
And then there are a lot of,you know, questions that people
might have that are not easilyanswered just by googling.
So, yeah, always happy toanswer, answer a question if
someone's got it, or point themin the right direction too, so
happy to do that.
So I would say LinkedIn andcheck out our website.
Awesome, fantastic.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
Well, that's gonna wrap it up for us today.
If you have not done so yet,please leave a rating and review
.
Wherever you are listening tothe show.
It really does help us out andgets us out in front of more
people.
That's gonna do it.
Thanks, matt.
So much for joining us.
Thank you, thanks for listening.
To learn more, go tospotlightbrandingcom slash
(40:07):
center stage.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.