Campaign people are different from normal people. 

Don’t repeat the message til they tell you they’re sick of hearing it.  Repeat it til they tell you they’re going to throw up if they hear it even once more.  Then repeat it some more.

Let go of your ego and demand others do the same.  The best idea wins.  The best idea wins.  The best idea wins.

Every campaign is different, but the strategic sequence is always the same.  Terrain drives strategy, strategy drives tactics, tactics drive the timelines and the budgets.  Tactics and budgets without strategic engagement of the terrain are meaningless and amateur. 

When all else fails, try the truth.  It’s a lead-pipe cinch the other guy won’t.

When you get a clear chance to port-tack the fleet, do it.  Do it quick and you’ll likely get away with it. 

If you're in a meeting with unfamiliar people and you’re not in charge of the meeting, always try to be the last person who talks. 

Timing’s not everything, timing’s nothing.  Position is everything.  If you’re in the right place it will be the right time soon enough.

Always be skeptical of opinions, pasts, or spouses.  And charge more if you’re going to to deal with them. 

You gotta do what you’re good at.

Great campaigns aren’t about putting masks on, they’re about taking masks off.  Masks are for losers – they make you weak.

Never, ever lie but you don't have to tell people everything they ask and you're not in charge of how they understand the truth you've told them.    

Political advertising competes for a time-slice of voters’ attention.  They’re not going to give you enough time or attention to persuade them – engage them where they are. 

The most powerful thing you can tell the audience is what they already believe.  The next most powerful thing you can tell an audience is what you yourself believe.  The least powerful thing you can tell an audience is facts, figures, evidence, or third party data. 

In public communication it is sometimes necessary to take the audience into account.

You know more and care more about the issues than the voters.  Get over it.  Understand the voters’ agenda and engage them there.  The revolution’s over, they won, they’re in charge, and they own the place. 

Politics is the practice of influencing the consensus and authority in a community through relationships. 

Relationships trump everything.  They trump power, lust, greed, ambition, fear, and – incidentally – wisdom.  Relationships trump everything. 

Campaigns are just about people, offices, and stuff.  Elections are about voters – more specifically they are about the behavior of voters during a fixed period of time. 

Not everyone should vote.  Everyone should be sufficiently informed and everyone who's informed should vote. 

Electoral politics are stylized conversations between the promoters of an idea or candidacy and voters.  The conversational topic is the voters’ agenda and the scripting leads to consensus. 

Never “educate” voters.  It’s presumptuous and it’s not your job.  Your job is to make your case to voters and on Election Day they’ll educate you.

Words don’t work.  Pictures work.  Words only work when they create word pictures in the voters’ mind. 

Money doesn’t create power.  Money follows power.  Money always chases power – usually late and sloppily.  Money is the most fickle commodity in politics, when you have the offer right, the money shows up. 

Voters are like everybody else: they often like to have benevolent reasons to admit to doing what’s in their own interest. 

The quintessence of political communication is getting the audience to nod their heads up and down.  When they do that, say more of that.  When they’re start shaking their heads, go back to the head-nodding part. 

The quintessence of leadership communication is to keep people’s head nodding long enough to move them to a place they didn’t start out wanting to go.  Leadership occurs only when you move people who don’t have to listen to you to begin with, much less to agree with what you say.

Campaigns are skill-specific organisms: organize the tasks around the people, not the people around the tasks.

People will push themselves a lot farther than you can drag them.

Humor is the prime restorative of perspective – never find yourself without it.  If you’re not good at it, hire it, borrow it, befriend it, or – if all else fails – marry it. 

Take a day off.  Really. 

Never let them talk you into realistic goals: they’re for weenies.  Go big or go home.

Every organism known to nature will sooner or later expel a foreign substance.  If you’ve got a splinter in your campaign, sooner or later the system will work it out, so plan for that. 

Campaigning without polling is like driving with your eyes closed, only slightly more dangerous and considerably more public. 

The technology won’t work.  Have people in place to do what the robotics was supposed to do.  (Corollary: the more you spend on the technology, the less likely it is to work.)

The printer is always late and the mail is being delivered by people who probably don’t like you. 

Campaigns are not an inherently genteel enterprise.  They’re not like shaking hands, they’re more like snatching power out of the other guy’s hand. 

Never have decisions made by anything called an executive committee.  Let the executive committee coordinate. 

The only thing worse than a “bright young person” somebody wants to lend the campaign is a “bright young attorney” somebody wants to lend the campaign. 

Never, ever screw up the money.  Don’t handle the money if you can possibly avoid it.  Make them hire a CPA or somebody responsible and sober with something to lose.

Know who the campaign’s lawyer is first. 

If you take time to read the literature on addiction - the tunnel vision, the lapsed relationships, the deferral of important tasks like medical care and hygiene, and the need for ever greater dosages - you'll understand better how political consultants like you are wired.

Campaigns are usually impossible tasks led through a profusion of perspectives by a wholly unsuitable organizer.  That’s the business we’re in.  Those who can't find themselves some patience have been known to drink some. 

In large governmental institutions like public education or transportation, the voters most concerned are more likely to be interested in the successful navigation of the system than in its strategic overhaul. 

“Shoot and move” is a safer tactic than “ready, aim, fire.”

“Adapt, overcome, continue the mission.”

Try very hard not to harm the civilians.  They have no way of knowing that some of us who have endured the thunder have learned to spit lightning. 

The successful political organizer often has a creativity boosted by a series of intermittent psychedelic flashbacks.  Know how your own triggers work. 

Organizing principle number one:  field staff meets in the bar. 

You’re not going to be consistently smart, try to be nice:  stupid and rude is a bad way to go through life. 

When you ask for input, be prepared for them to inquire, comment, reject, stamp, fume, fuss, and fret – simultaneously and randomly. 

Legislatures are a mess.  Avoid them.  If you can’t avoid them then concoct a single, simple thing that can momentarily unify them, exploit that, and then get the hell out of the way before you get hurt. 

If you have a high need for order in your personal life you probably cannot cope with the manic swirl of politics. 

Sometimes you gotta just go to the fair and see the bear.  Be prepared for the hand-to-hand stuff. 

Most of human misery can be explained by the phrase:  "the party got a little out-of-hand."  Everything else can be explained by the phrase:  “it seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Look for something that has the added advantage of being true.

No one ever values free campaign advice.  Ever. 

Your campaign acumen is in direct correlation to your fee structure: the more you charge the smarter you are. 

Campaigns are a bad time to try out a new song.  Play something you know.  Loud is good. 

Your job is to help your team steal the light.  Keep looking for the light. 

The civilians don’t understand that political consultants travel in packs.  They have no way of knowing how much communication overhead is involved in ad hoc team management and they will always think you’re just looking out for your friends. 

Things are going to go wrong, remember to watch out for what Jimmy Buffett calls the “gravity storms.” 

It's never too early to crawl from the wreckage.  If you’ve got a loser on your hands, weigh carefully the merits of departure. 

Firefighters are trained to work together, police officers usually aren't.  Do the math and govern yourself accordingly. 

Trying to tell a lawyer that he doesn't understand campaign politics is like trying to tell a doctor he isn't smart: even if it's demonstrably true he's  incapable of believing it.

If you're winning all of your campaigns you're not choosing your candidates aggressively enough.   

No candidate has ever gone through a first-time campaign and not come out a stronger, better version of himself or herself. 

In all of political campaign history the funniest romantic overture is "I'd get my teeth fixed for a girl like you."  The next funniest is "I'm gonna find out who she is and call her til the judge says stop.”

Leadership involves the dynamic balancing of compassionate respect with the impulse to impress one's will upon the situation.  It’s not for sissies. 

Make sure you know somebody who has a truck. 

Sometimes the best thing to do is hide the candidate.  The classic version of this strategy is to send him/her to the Bahamas for the duration. 

Adamancy, fervor, and loudness are more often signs of weakness than of strength.  

There's always somebody out there younger and quicker than you are; be smarter. 

Just because you're an accomplished sinner doesn't mean you can't be a passionate believer.  In fact, the one is a pretty good reason for the other.  

Spend some quiet time every morning and every night.  Stillness is the best friend you’ve got in a campaign – besides the Treasurer. 

Campaigns much more often fail from too many messages than from too many unanswered questions. 

If the voters don’t what want you’re offering you have to find something they want more than what they’ve got and tie your offer to that.  It’s easier than it sounds. 

Audacity is your friend, prudence is your enemy.  This isn’t an actuarial study, it’s sandlot basketball and all the other guys use their elbows. 

Never ever be mean.  You’ll either hate yourself or you weren’t raised properly. 

Truth works surprisingly well and unfortunately it’s almost always a fresh experience for voters and campaigners alike. 

Conduct yourself like a gentleman or lady.  You’re making a reputation every single day. 

People who appear on television never, ever know anything about what’s happening in the campaign.  In the rare instances that they do know they are honor-bound not to let on. 

Frightened legislators most resemble hordes of excrement-flinging monkeys on amphetamines.  Don’t deal with them – call their contributors. 

When the polling client says “the voters just don’t know me” the appropriate response is “they know you, they just don’t like you.”

In strategic politics (especially national politics) – message strengths and vulnerabilities extend out from philosophical strengths and vulnerabilities of the various factions.  If they don’t have a philosophy, that then defines their strengths and vulnerabilities.

In a race between “the old guard” and “the new wave” bet on the money. 

If you're explaining you're losing. 

The print reporters are often lazy but poorly-dressed.  The broadcast reporters can be cute but clueless.  This is not a stereotype, it’s the business model.  Treasure the exceptions. 

You have to remember that while it’s not about you, if you don’t act like it’s about you they’ll trample you. 

Don't let the candidate drive. 

The hardest single thing to change in an election is an established pattern of turnout. 

Explaining decisions involves a different skill set from making decisions.  Not everyone can do both equally effectively. 

On election night, the most repeated phrase to the political consultant is “Great job, kid.  Now get lost.”

The people’s opinion might not be well-informed or courageous, but it becomes pretty damned official over time.

The one immutable law of all systems of political association is that over time all favors tend to get returned. 

All candidates lie to their friends and consultants about the skeletons in their closet.  Before the campaign is underway you must relentlessly threaten them with the prospect of their undisclosed skeletons dancing on their own damned lawn before the election is over.  They don't need to fear the skeleton - they need to fear you if you're surprised. 

Every single thing you say or do will sooner or later get around: there's no such thing as a secret. 

The single most dangerous moment in politics is when the candidate changes his or her mind.  Voters are understandably skeptical of this.  Handle with excessive care. 

Voters like winners.  Look like you’re winning. 

Some communities look more to their leadership for political guidance than do others, but avoid letting anybody become a gate-keeper to anybody else. 

The single most scarce campaign resource is somebody in a good damned mood. 

In politics – as in everything else – it’s better to make a friend and be a friend before you ask that friend for a favor. 

In campaigns, men act differently when women are around.  This is not universally a good thing. 

In campaigns, women act the same when men are around.  This is eternally inexplicable to men. 

Nice people get extra chances and lucky breaks.  If you’re not particularly nice, hang around with people who are. 

If you’re a male, never appear on camera within a week of getting a haircut or when you haven’t shaved in the last three hours. 

Women:  lose the big hoopy or dangly earrings when on camera. 

Most viewers are spooked out when you pause and stare into the camera before speaking – don’t do that.

Winning the argument inevitably gets in the way of winning the election.  The candidate and his supporters won't know the difference.  Not only do you have to know the difference, you must enforce your will. 

The campaign will never follow all of your advice, but if it isn't usually following your advice either they've got the wrong consultant or you've got the wrong campaign. 

The biggest rookie mistake is to assume that any group you don't know or belong to is monolithic. 

If you’re going to speak to the public – learn how to use your voice to carry the quality of the message.  Few speakers know how to use their either own voices, simple words, or declarative sentences.  Nearly none knows the dramatic power of silence in rhetoric.

Political campaigns always start with the base.  It’s fine to have people in the room who don’t believe that, but don’t let them talk very much. 

You only get one chance to stick your head up out of the foxhole the first time.  After that they get to shoot at you. 

It's very dangerous to "go dark" - you should usually delay the start of advertising (or any other tactic) until you know it can be sustained until Election Day. 

Politics often comes down to theater powered by geography.

Polling often comes down to art powered by science.

Never, ever release your polling data.  When a voter reads over his breakfast cereal that 62% of voters agree with something the very first thing he thinks is “... well, they didn’t ask me.”  Polling is for strategy, not for persuasion. 

The political consultants who like and trust the voters will – over time – win out over the other ones.

If you don't start out believing in multiple kinds of intelligence, campaign politics will convince you. 

Meetings with only white middle-aged males in attendance are usually boring and almost always weaker than meetings with some inclusion. 

Politics is about addition, not about division. 

Multiple message hits work.  Just leaving a door-hanger isn't nearly so effective as calling beforehand, leaving the door-hanger, calling afterward, and direct-mailing into the neighborhood to say thank you. 

A rainy day is the very best day to do the door-to-door.  The voter will never forget your soggy presence. 

Never underestimate the tactical benefit of kicking the trash can across the room to emphasize your point of view. 

Your word is the coin of the realm and intellectual honesty underwrites its value. 

Remember, it's only politics.