{news} Initial Reflections on Running for Governor: The Challenges and Opportunities
clifford thornton
efficacy at msn.com
Tue Nov 28 09:46:26 EST 2006
Comments are welcome as this continues to be a work in progress that I
hope will help future candidates be more effective and help those
involved with independent politics figure out next steps.
You are welcome to share this with those who you think will be interested.
Thanks everyone for their work on the campaign.
*Initial Reflections on Running for Governor
The Challenges and Opportunities*
"I saw youth and young adults in the room standing, cheering, and
excited about Cliff Thornton. Why does he excite us? Because we feel like
someone is finally listening and courageous enough to build his campaign
around the will of the people with no influence from the corporations."
Derek Maxwell--Professor, Capitol Community Colloge
"If elections were decided on personality, Cliff Thornton -- the Green Party candidate for governor in Connecticut -- would win by a landslide. Why? Because he's got one. A personality, that is. He has a backbone to match."
"Perhaps because Thornton has nothing to lose and everything to gain, he can "afford" to tell the truth. But perhaps, in these deeply troubled times, telling the truth is no longer a political liability. Who knows? Maybe Americans really have had enough. Maybe they want to be adults again, maybe they're sick of the sheer wimpiness of the candidates (Republican and Democrat)."
This was from the Hartford Advocate entitled "Memo to all candidates of America: Grow a spine!
By Alan Bisbort."
These were the kind of comments made during my run for Governor in
Connecticut which made for a great experience. To be honest, I had fun.
There were many moments I will never forget -- the first ever commercial,
Students meeting us in Greenwich with a bag of money--then escorting
us to the gym where there were over three hundred people waiting, winning the
Griswold poll, continuous coverage on CTN every week for four months, etc, etc.
I met a lot of committed people who I am sure will be allies for many years.
My hope is that we can find a way to build an effective
independent political movement that will give real hope in the future --
by winning elections!
There were a lot of key lessons that I want to share so that future
candidates will have them before they run for office.
*Debates:* The lesson learned is that getting into the debates is only a first step,
making sure they are televised is equally important./ And, they must be
televised from gavel to gavel.
If the debate is not on TV the third party candidate's role is likely to
be ignored by the media. At least, that was my experience.(Storrs debate) It was
amazing to watch how blatant most of the corporate media was
excluding me from their coverage. The Hartford Courant may have been the
most aggressive -- headlines only mentioned my opponents,
photographs only showed my opponents and no substance of my positions
was given in most of their coverage. There were two major articles, one in
January and the most recent with Ralph N. It was a bold rewriting of reality.
A major challenge was the New London Day. They refused to include me in the
debates and as a result redefined the race as a two candidate race late
in the campaign. The New London Day applied the criteria of the Commission
on Presidential Debates to their determination. This criteria was
developed by the two status quo parties that created the Commission to
keep out alternative voices. The criteria is almost unreachable except
for celebrity or billionaire candidates -- 15% in five polls, and,
because the New London Day debate was televised and widely covered it
totally ruined any chance of turning this into a three-way race.
So our challenge is to keep the door open -- indeed open it wider -- and
get the debates of qualified candidates who have ballot access covered
fully on television.
*Media Coverage:* The role of the corporate media in the outcome of
elections is of utmost importance. We need to realize that when we
challenge the corporate parties they will have the corporate media as an
ally. This is a very big obstacle because third party candidates will
almost never have enough money to buy enough media time. They depend on the
media to do its job fairly to let the public know that we are running
and what we stand for. While we were able to get more coverage than most
third party candidates it was still very unbalanced in comparison to my
opponents, incomplete and unfair.
There are many examples, but once again the Hartford Courant stands out
as the worst among the worst! The Connecticut Post did five, six articles on the impact
of the Drug War and education on Connecticut politics. These included an A section front
page story and two B section front page stories.
When the New Haven Register covered my candidacy
they wrote about my key issues as early as January. The Register
even had the Dems and Repubs answering questions posed in
earlier articles by Greens. There were editorials and for the
most part the Register was fair in its coverage.
An example of television media was WFSB-TV in Hartford and channel 30. They did a
series of stories on various issues -- e.g., the environment, economy,
energy, Iraq -- comparing the Senate candidates. But, they decided to
only cover the two status quo party candidates. Their rationale -- they
applied the 15 percent standard that was used by The New London Day for inclusion in
debates. If we get WFSB, WCNH and Channel 30 to change it may have a broader effect on other
electronic media. I might mention that Channel 30 had me on twice, WFSB once, nothing for channel
8--only during the protest and a couple of other times.
I did pretty well regarding radio coverage. But even here there were
bias problems. WNPR -- the public radio station in Hartford -- did a
lot of stories on the Senate campaign. Sometimes they covered me but
too many times they didn't -- repeatedly defining the race as a two
candidate race. Complaints by my supporters definitely seemed to make a
difference. The Dankosky show did have me on twice, once during the
primary and once during the general election.
Candidates should not shy away from being very aggressive with the media
when they fail to cover you. They need to hear from you when they are
prejudiced as one thing about prejudice is that those who act based on
it are often unaware of it as it is deeply ingrained. They are part of
a corporate culture that has an attitude that they have adopted.
Further, it is important to meet face-to-face with the key people in the
media -- and come dressed for the job you want. This made a tremendous
difference in my campaign. After meeting with some key people I at least
got mentioned in the media.
Independent media is very important. It reaches key groups of people
and is growing in its reach. Further, it provides an opportunity to
show your views and activities on your website. We need to encourage
independent media, help expand it and add to its credibility. Every
year independent media is catching up to the shrinking circulation and
viewership of the corporate media. Soon the tipping point will be
reached and it will become an equal factor in communication. My hat
is off to the independent media of Connecticut. They continuously had
us in the news, TV, radio and print.
*Campaign management:* One of the big weaknesses of the third party
movement is the lack of experience in managing campaigns. This includes
a lack of campaign managers, fundraisers, press secretaries, volunteer
coordinators and other campaign staff. The third party movement
desperately needs an organization that trains people in these areas as
well as provides support to campaigns. In my case I had three dedicated
staff members who did excellent work but who each had very little
campaign experience. I'm sure they would agree that if we had one
experienced campaign manager to direct them we would have achieved much
greater levels of success as each of us (me and my staff) would have
done better with aggressive direction. This improvement also would have
positively affected the work of volunteers.
*Fundraising:* The biggest failure of my campaign -- out of things I
could control (I could not completely control the debates or media
coverage) was fundraising. I have worked in three significant movements
-- drug policy reform, the anti-war movement and democracy reform -- but
these movements (like most others) are infected with the two party
virus. They have no confidence in third parties and therefore most of
their participants do not fund them.
I was particularly disappointed in the drug policy reform movement where
I have had a fifteen year career. Although there were a few exceptions my
career-long allies, who I have no doubt respect my work, did not provide
major funding for this campaign. Many did not even make token
contributions as a sign of respect or friendship. Similarly the peace
and democracy movements provided insignificant funding.
Frankly, this is one reason that all these movements (and the union,
environmental and women's rights movements) are weaker than they should
be. They cow-tow to the Democratic Party even though the Democrats do
very little for them -- indeed often hurt their agenda. They give
support no matter what the Democratic candidate stands for, thus, they
are taken for granted. I'm not sure how to convince them that this is a
failed strategy but we need to keep trying. They will not make progress
on their issues until they get serious about electoral politics --
putting their agenda far ahead of loyalty to any political party.
Many in the Green Party that nominated me do not understand the
importance of money. While I did receive support from some members of
each party, generally speaking I was disappointed. The Greens in
particular seem very uncomfortable with money as they see it as a
corrupting influence no matter what the circumstances. We need to find
ways to convince members of party that funding their candidates
is THE top priority. There were times I went to Green Party meetings
and did not even leave with enough money to pay the gas bill! Sadly,
the media measures potential for success by how much money we raise,
more than by the strength of our ideas or the number of volunteers we
have. Money is critical and must be made the top priority. It should
not be feared but welcomed!
*Viability of Third Parties:* There are a lot of people who are
disgusted with the Democrats and Republicans but they do not see
anywhere else to go. For those of us who want to see peace, justice,
environmental transformation as well as a populist economic policy, we
have two choices (1) change either of the two established parties, or
(2) create an effective alternative to them.
Neither choice is easy. The established parties are very good at
absorbing insurgents who want to change their party from the inside.
They let them speak but the primary system is an excellent way to kill
off any insurgency. The primary is focused on the people committed to
the party and therefore the voters are more likely to support the choice
of the party leadership. I am not sure what exactly went on in Duffey's
bid for office so I can not make a clear consice comment or evaluation.
I am not sure if we had insurgents or not as I was concentrating on
my campaign and in particular our media thrust.
The third party option is also very challenging. The reasons above --
money, media, lack of campaign experience -- are all hurdles to
overcome. But, the biggest hurdle is the dedication of voters
associated with their own established party. In my race, The Democrats
did not want to risk getting the mayor elected so most who said they
would have voted for me did not. I would estimate that I got as many
Republican votes as Dems.
The "returning to their party" phenomenon is common in the last month of
almost every election with third party candidates unless they are
showing a chance of winning. Traditionally, half the vote for third
party candidates is lost in the last month. Polling showing a close
race is one of the factors, but my sense is that the more powerful
factor is the sense that "we can't win" is the overwhelming factor.
People want to be represented in government. They
feel like they are better represented when they vote for someone who
wins even if they don't agree with what s/he stands for than to vote for
someone they agree with. That leads me to (2) educating voters on the
power of voting for what you want. They need to see that they can
change the course of the government better by voting for what they want,
rather than voting for a winner who they disagree with. U.S. history is
replete with examples of such impact but Americans don't know this history.
I see two good signs in Connecticut. First, the African American community,
a key voting bloc making up 12% of the voting population, is tired of
being taken for granted by the Democrats and distrustful of the
Republicans even when they run an African American candidate. We need
to show them that joining with an independent alternative that includes
disenchanted blacks and whites, anti-war voters and independents is the
way for them to have the most electoral power. Three-way races will
increase minority power because we can win with as little as 34%. I
want to find ways to reach out to the African American community and
keep building among the other communities.
Secondly, support among independents is rising for the Green Party. We are
becoming the alternative for independents. My guess is this has nothing
to do with "Green" (in fact that may even be a detriment) but has more
to do with being tired of the two established parties, seeing their
corruption and their inability to be effective in response to the
peoples needs. There are going to be opportunities for the Greens
(or other third parties) to become the second party in some areas of the state.
Indeed, this seems to already be occurring in Willimantic.
Pulling people from the two parties requires a bridge. Calab Kleppner,
Green Party, New Haven has been raising the possibility of an
independent non-partisan voters league that would function as a way to
educate voters tired of the two parties and unite them behind
candidates. This could include supporting an independent candidate or a
candidate of a third party, or a real insurgent inside either of the two
parties. This kind of flexibility will make it easier for those not
quite ready to put the two parties behind them to consider the
possibility and perhaps show them that there is a viable third
alternative.
This is also consistent with a viewpoint expressed to me
by Libertarians, who expressed the view that we should
all find ways to keep working together but it is important that people
be able to keep their own independent identity with whomever political
party they prefer. If an independent non-partisan voter league was
developed in Connecticut successfully then the support of that league may
provide more credibility of candidates they got behind. This could also
have a very positive effect on media coverage and fundraising.
Clifford Wallace Thornton, Jr.
Efficacy
PO Box 1234
860 657 8438
Hartford, CT 06143
efficacy at msn.com<mailto:efficacy at msn.com>
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Working to end race and class drug war injustice, Efficacy is a non profit
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