Politics 24/7/365

Do you think you work all the time?

Meet the frontline communicators in some of Arkansas’ premiere political races and you’ll soon learn that your 14-hour workday pales in comparison.

“Literally, you’re always on 24/7,” says Brad Howard, spokesman for Democrat Mike Ross’ gubernatorial campaign. Howard served as Ross’ communications director during his Congressional days and served a short stint as the spokesman for the Blue Dog Democrats, a coalition of conservative Democratic representatives in Washington, D.C.

He shares the story of being on a ski lift on vacation when news of the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Arizona) occurred in 2011. Giffords was a prominent member of the Blue Dog coalition.

From the top of the ski lift, Howard worked his smartphone to coordinate news and information in an effort to assess the situation and provide appropriate responses to media seeking comment from other members close to the Arizona Congresswoman.

“It just proves that you never know what’s going to happen when you work in political communications,” Howard said.

Among Republicans, Ryan James is one of the most visible political communications strategists in Arkansas. He came out of a TV background before landing on then-Cong. John Boozman’s campaign in 2006.

He made a big mark in the 2010 Congressional election of Republican Tim Griffin. James was on top of every statement and development in the campaign and was quick to issue responses and positions to the media that helped Griffin combat nearly every message Democrats threw at him.

“You’ve got to be on your game all the time,” said James, who oversaw communications for the GOP House caucus in the 2013 regular session and is currently working for Fourth District GOP Congressional candidate Bruce Westerman.

James notes that in the latter half of the last decade he detected the rise of blogs as the first source of news that might enter mainstream press feeds. This led to early offensive and defensive preparation for news stories that might develop.

With the rise of Twitter and Facebook and their rapid-fire responses, political communicators have even less time to prepare or respond to the news of the day.

“Now, instead of blog to news story – where you might have two or three hours heads up that a ‘real’ reporter may actually be calling you – now it’s seconds or minutes. The lead time has dramatically changed,” he said.

CONSTANT NEWS CYCLE
The traditional news cycle has been altered in unprecedented ways from years gone by.

No longer does an elected official study an issue, cast a thoughtful vote, come back to his or her constituents and spend weeks explaining why he or she voted a particular way.

In the old days – which weren’t that long ago – a Congressman might come home for recess and visit Rotary Clubs and local newspaper editors to discuss recent votes and where issues may be heading.

These days, if a vote isn’t known ahead of time, there will be a lightning flash of news sent instantly across social media platforms, by email, and in breaking news alerts before an official leaves the floor of Congress where the vote was cast.

Amy Schlesing, press secretary for incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor’s campaign, was formerly a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. She ran a blog for the paper while embedded with U.S. troops on the frontlines of the Iraq War In the early to middle of the 2000’s decade, news blogs were still in their infancy.

In today’s environment, she says the “velocity” of the news cycle is what’s most challenging. It requires aggregators of news – the press and the news consumer – to make sure that what they’re reading is complete.

“The struggle for journalists, as well as us, is to ensure that the context is there,” she says. “An immediate news blurb doesn’t have the context. To understand what’s happening, context is vital. It’s vital for the people who write the news and cover the news, it’s vital for the people who consume the news, and it’s vital for us who are trying to explain to folks what this means in the bigger picture, and context is the battle in my view.”

David Ray, former Arkansas GOP spokesman and communications director for Tom Cotton for Senate, cut his teeth in 2006 as a college intern in the war room of the Arnold Schwarzenegger for Governor campaign in California.

“It introduced me to the world of political communications and research and rapid response,” says Ray, a veteran of three Congressional campaigns and an Attorney General’s race.

Ray contends that Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report is as influential as Brian Williams with NBC Nightly News in the new political media landscape. It is difficult to be everywhere that people will get their news, he argues, because of the diversity that now exists between all of the different platforms – TV, radio, web, social media, etc.

“Where Americans get their news – it used to be very homogenous – and now it’s so diversified that it presents a host of different challenges that didn’t previously exist,” Ray said. “In a way, I think it’s good that we don’t have just a few gatekeepers of the information that the masses consume.”

NEWS PIE
The growing diversity of news sources referenced by Ray has been studied religiously by a variety of think tanks and pollsters.

According to a July 2013 Gallup poll, TV is still the dominant source where Americans get their news.

Roughly 55% get their news from television, but it is a fragmented combination of local, broadcast, and cable TV news sources. The Internet accounts for 21% of news sources, which includes web sites, Facebook and Twitter, according to the poll.

Print media drives about 9% of news consumption with radio accounting for 6% of the news.

A very interesting finding from the survey outlined where partisan identifiers mainly get their news.

“On a relative basis, Republicans are more likely than independents or Democrats to say their main source of news is television. At the same time, independents rely the most of the three groups on the Internet, while Democrats put the most emphasis on print,” the Gallup pollsters concluded.

The Pew Research Center’s 2013 State of the Media report showed that in 2012 total traffic to the top 25 news sites increased 7.2%. According to Pew, 39% of respondents got news online or from a mobile device “yesterday,” up from 34% in 2010, when the survey was last conducted.

“Accessing news is one of the most popular uses for the devices, enabling Americans to get news whenever they want and wherever they might be,” the report’s authors said. “An August 2012 Pew Research study found that fully 64% of tablet owners say they get news on their devices weekly; 37% reported they do so daily. The trend is nearly identical for smartphone owners – 62% said they consume news on their device weekly, and 36% do so daily.”

NEW RETAIL POLITICS
Holly Wilson is the new face of the Republican Party of Arkansas’ press efforts. She recently left Sen. John Boozman’s Washington, D.C. office and returned to Arkansas as the RPA communications director.

She begins her day checking her news feeds on her phone and computer through Twitter, email, and web sites before the sun rises. She’s also a huge Fox News fan and was inspired to go to law school after reviewing the resumes of some of Fox’s highest profile anchorwomen.

Wilson says she sees little to no difference in the pace of Arkansas politics versus the nation’s capital.

“Politics is rapid fire, rapid response” said Wilson. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how fast-paced Arkansas is. I went from the frying pan to the fryer almost. We’re certainly not behind the game in terms of political communications.”

Despite the clutter to cut through and the challenges of a stratified political megaphone, campaign partisans contend that the candidate and the message still mean the most.

“I think the message of the people who are running is what wins ultimately,” says Candace Martin, executive director and spokeswoman for the Democratic Party of Arkansas.

She says the retail politics Arkansas is famous for – candidates traveling the state, interacting with voters, and making a personal connection – are still at work through traditional campaign tactics and the new social media tools out there.

“Facebook wasn’t a political communications tool when I was in college (2006),” Martin said. “One thing that hasn’t changed about political communication is there’s nothing more valuable than having that one-on-one conversation. New media has enabled us to have another avenue to have one-on-one conversations with people.”

All six communicators interviewed for this article agreed with Martin’s assessment: a candidate’s message – not the communications apparatus – remains the key to winning an election.

“I think it’s important to not just think that political communications now is who’s got the best 140-character zinger,” says Ray. “There’s still a lot more involved than that.”

Brad Howard with the Ross campaign recalls the time Coca-Cola changed its formula and branded itself as “New Coke.”

The soft drink company spent millions to market its product, but in the end, consumers didn’t like the taste.

“You can have the best messaging campaign and platform in the world, but if voters don’t like the candidate, it’s never going to work,” Howard said.

Editor’s note: This article appears in the latest magazine edition of Talk Business Arkansas.