Summary of Information from SPS US Meetings

Summary of Information from SPS US Meetings June 19-23, 2000

HISTORY OF AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES (BILL MAYER)
·        Mayer is Associate Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University (Boston).  He is a specialist in US parties.

·        The US Constitution was actually designed to prevent the formation of parties since the US “founding fathers” thought parties were evil, but practical necessity forced leaders to form parties anyway.

·        The original US parties in the 1830s and 1840s:

·        were very leader-centric and were not united by a common ideology

·        controlled the largest channels of communications (newspapers) of the day

·        were held together by patronage (riches taken from offices they controlled and distributed to leaders, members, favorites)

·        were very strong

·        By the start of the 20th century, several key things changed to weaken parties

·        Mass media became more professional and less partisan

·        New media appeared, notably radio and TV, which had no history of being partisan

·        Immigration was shut off in 1920s (early parties had large immigrant bases)

·        Voters became wealthier, more educated

·        Laws were enacted that weakened parties (often intentionally).  These included Civil Service Laws that deprived parties of patronage opportunities and state laws regulating parties strictly

·        As late as the 1970s, people were talking about US parties dying off.  In fact, until the 1960s, neither the Democratic National Committee nor the Republican National Committee had their own permanent headquarters because the parties were so weak.

·        But starting around the 1980s, US parties have enjoyed a resurgence due to several factors

·        The Democratic Party took action to strengthen its control over state-level party organizations in the early 1970s.  It declared that state party organizations would have to follow new rules in order to be able to send delegates to the convention that nominated the Democratic presidential candidate.  The Republicans soon followed suit, but less vigorously.

·        Parties started to make themselves into providers of campaign services and technologies, taking advantage of the increasing complexity of the political market and candidates’ need for help.  The Republican Party was the first to successfully make this move in the 1970s.

·        Supreme Court rulings freed parties from some of the most stringent state regulations

·        On US Fundraising Laws:

·        Individuals can give a maximum of $1000 to presidential candidates

·        Firms cannot contribute directly to presidential candidates, but can create a Political Action Committee, which can give up to $5000 to a presidential candidate

·        All contributions to presidential campaigns are publicly disclosed, but are not tax deductible.   

·        The Soft Money way to get around the law: Individuals and firms can donate money directly to a party (not to the candidate personally).  The party can then use this money on advertising on things indirectly related to the campaign.  For example, since Bush is against legalized abortion while Gore is for legalized it, the Republican Party can spend this soft money on a series of television advertisements saying that abortion is wrong (so long as they don’t explicitly say that people should therefore vote for Bush).

 

POLITICAL ORGANIZATION AND FUNDRAISING (CHARLIE BAKER)
·        Baker is a lawyer for Gore’s campaign and served in the same capacity for Clinton.  He was national field director for the Dukakis (Democratic) presidential campaign in 1988, when Dukakis lost to George Bush (senior). 

·        US parties enjoy the loyalties of large numbers of people.  About 80% of voters already know for whom they will vote because of who they are or how they were raised (i.e. in a Democratic or Republican family).  His key tasks are thus (1) get Democratically inclined people to vote and (2) convince the remaining 20% to vote for Democrats too.

·        Territorial structure of US parties

·        The “ward” is the lowest level, with between 2,000-50,000 voters.  Each ward has elected party officials

·        The “town committee” is the next level of organization up, then the city committee, state committee, and national committee

·        State party organizations are separate legal entities from the federal level party organization

·        Party fundraising

·        All levels of the party raise money

·        Both major US parties have raised around $150 million for the presidential campaign in 2000

·        The party does the same things in non-election years as in election years, but in election years it is more aggressive.

·        The federal party organization has a Financial Chair and a Treasurer who are in charge of the fundraising effort.  These are people with many ties in the business community.  They then recruit finance directors, who commit to raise a certain sum for the party, say, $100,000. 

·        Their reward is to support the party they believe in and to get invited to meetings with elected officials from the party (governors, mayors, etc) – this gives them a feeling of having special access to powerful leaders.

·        At the state level and below, it is very common to organize exclusive dinners that require a large donation to attend.  During election years, major Democratic Party leaders will attend these dinners in order to increase attendance.  We recently had one of these dinners:  $20,000 would get a donor dinner with the party leadership;  $1000 would get a donor invited to the reception before the dinner;  and $25 would get a person into the rally associated with the event.

·        Big companies increasingly give money to both parties.  In the past, most big companies would give to Republicans, but there was a change when some businesses were not happy with the Republicans that took control of the US Congress in 1994.

·        Donors will give more when they realize exactly where their money is going.

·        At the state level, the executive director typically is the financial director, although at the federal level there is a separate financial director.

·        Party activities between elections

·        Keeping the doors open, sending out mailings, holding meetings four times a year, holding debating sessions for potential candidates

·        The best parties set clear, concrete goals for themselves during the non-election years, such as preparing to win certain congressional seats.  This energizes people and gives them focus.

·        Building up data banks on voters

·        Senator Kennedy personally thanks each of his signature-collectors during a campaign.

 
POLITICAL FUNDRAISING (ALAN LEVENTHAL)
·        Leventhal is a Real Estate magnate, CEO of Beacon Capital Partners, one of Boston’s biggest firms. He has served as financial chair for the Dukakis (Democratic) presidential campaign in 1988;  New England campaign chair for Clinton;  financier of Clinton inauguration in 1992;  and worked for Bill Bradley (against Al Gore) in the Democratic Party primary elections in 2000.  He once did a little business in Russia in the early 1990s (beginning the redevelopment of Paveletsky Vokzal), but did not finish it and has not been back to Russia since.

·        Money drives the political system.  Clinton demonstrated this in 1996.  The system is very complex, but Clinton used every possible way to spend money.  He raised a huge amount of money, got on television early in the campaign in key media markets across the country, and devastated Bob Dole, the Republican candidate.  Money alone does not win, however – many very rich and high-spending candidates have lost.

·        In the US, there used to be open corruption (as in President Kennedy’s time in the 1960s), but now there are only minor abuses.

·        The biggest difference between elections now and elections 20-40 years ago is that people used to be able to write very large checks.  Today people can only donate a maximum of $1000 to a campaign.  This means that the key to fundraising now is organization.

·        Fundraising is a business.  What makes Leventhal successful in fundraising is the same thing that makes him a successful businessman.  The key question is how to motivate people to give money.  All giving comes from self-interest.  But it is a mistake to assume that people only want a direct reward in return.  Instead, people give and get into fundraising because it makes them feel important.  “Successful fundraisers know how to manage the ego.”  Organization is critical, and the key is to find people who are highly motivated and interested in getting involved.  Leventhal prefers desire and energy to experience in choosing his people.  A political campaign is like a war, and it is very important that people believe in the cause.

·        Identifying likely donors:  Leventhal gave an example.  If a candidate were running for governor and asked him to raise money for him, Leventhal would start by finding out where he went to school, where he worked etc. and finding people with a connection to these places, reaching out to his past relationships.

·        American political fundraisers do not keep a share of raised funds for themselves.  They are motivated not by direct profit but by the feeling that they are doing a good thing.

·        Leventhal said that if he were raising money for a Duma candidate, he would set up a committee of about 20 friends and partners of the candidate and they would meet for breakfast.  He would tell them that a very important election is coming up that will affect the course of the country.  He would say that they must raise a certain sum of money and would then ask each person in the room to raise a certain amount of money.  He would announce that they would all meet again in one week, and that each person should bring more people to this meeting.  The key is to build on the candidate’s relationships, get these people into one room, and then see how much they really care about the candidate.  The most important thing is making people care about the candidate, about the issues, about the election.  People will give when their friends ask them to. 

 
FUNDRAISING, REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION (PETER BERLANDI)
·        Berlandi, now a leading political business consultant, began his life in politics by serving as campaign chairman for Frances Bellotti, who was elected Massachusetts Attorney General in 1981 with the largest margin of victory in state history.  Berlandi then switched to Republicans and was chief fundraiser for William Weld, who won election as governor in 1990 and was reelected in 1994 with the largest margin of victory since the 1800s.  This was an achievement since Weld was a Republican in a state where only 13% of registered voters are Republicans.  He has also worked as an advisor and fundraiser for the Republican Governors Association (the RGA).

·        The Republican Governors Association (RGA)

·        The RGA is an organization that supports incumbent Republican governors and works to get new Republicans elected in other states.

·        In 1991 there were just 16 Republican governors, while now there are 32.

·        An important fundraising technique is to gather about six governors and get them to call major financial donors who have benefited from Republican party policies and who are located in an important state where there is no Republican governor.  They would meet and each donor would be asked to raise and donate a large sum to the effort to get a Republican elected governor.  For example, in California we might ask each person to raise $10 million.  If we fly these six governors to California and held a fundraising event, we could raise $400,000 in a single evening.  And this would be happening across the whole country.

·        The RGA raises money separately from the rest of the Republican Party, but they work together more generally

·        Business benefit very directly from Republican Governors’ economic policies whereas they tend not to like Democratic Governors’ policies.

·        Massachusetts financial restrictions on governors’ campaigns:

·        Massachusetts law allows individual people to donate a maximum of $500 to a gubernatorial candidate

·        Companies are not allowed to give money to candidates

·        California has no restrictions on company donations to candidates (unlike Massachusetts)

·        Thus the profile of donors is different in every state since the rules are different.

 

CAMPAIGN POLLING/PR (JOHN MARTTILA)
·        Marttila is the President of Marttila Communications Group, which provides public opinion polling and campaign strategic advice for candidates.  Past candidates have included Senators Biden and Kerry, among a long list of other notable elected officials.  Marttila has also worked in Russia with Russian partners in the field of public opinion polling.

·        When he does polling for a political campaign, he first looks for a critical question that divides the electorate into one of two camps.  In Israel, for example, Marttila works on the Barak campaign and found this dividing issue to be the security of Israel – this was a winning issue divide for Barak.  In Russia, Marttila’s polls suggest that the key dividing issue is socialism versus market reform, with more people being in favor of market reform.

·        Marttila’s firm works only for the Democratic Party.  His firm not only conducts polls, but helps candidates produce their message and decide what kind of PR campaign to conduct.

 

MEETING WITH LOBBYISTS (HARRINGTON, DONOGHUE, MURPHY)
·        Kevin Harrington was President of the Massachusetts State Senate 1971-79 and the founding President of National Conference of State Legislatures 1976-79.  He is currently chairman of a major political lobbying firm, Issues Management.  Joseph Murphy is former Majority Leader in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and is now a political lobbyist. Roger Donoghue is founder and senior executive of a lobbying firm and was formerly Massachusetts Director of Government Relations for the National Federation of Independent Business.

·        In the US, lobbying has taken place for 130 years.  It began in the 1870s under President Ulysses Grant;  when he went into his hotel in the evening, people would stop him in the lobby to ask favors.  As this practice developed, it was unregulated and led to much abuse (corruption).  But about 50 years ago legislation was passed that made most of this corruption illegal.

·        There are three kinds of lobbyists:  single-issue lobbyists, industry lobbyists and contract lobbyists, known widely as “hired guns.”

·        Donoghue and Harrington are contract lobbyists.  They take one client at a time so that they don’t face conflicts of interest on key issues.

·        Harrington represents the German company Siemens and has run into cultural differences in lobbying practices.  In Germany, companies typically send their own people to government to try to influence policy, thus they were not prepared for our system where the company pays lobbyists to do this work for them. 

·        Top lobbyists who are former politicians are good at solving these problems because they know all of the people by name and know how government works.

·        Why are lobbyists necessary?  Newspapers have a great effect on elected officials and they often present only one side of the issue.  We provide information that gives the official a more complete picture.

·        Lobbyists view themselves as professional advocates and their influence comes from having the best information, not from bribing or corrupting officials.

·        An example from Murphy:  His corporation does nationwide grass-roots lobbying, and recently worked on the bill to grant permanent most-favored-nation trade status to China.  Proponents of free trade identified 30 members of Congress that were undecided on the issue.  Hired by the Business Roundtable (an industrial organization), Murphy’s firm organized campaigns for free trade with China in each of the 30 members’ districts.  They got local businesses to write articles in their local newspapers and got major local political donors to try to persuade their elected officials to approve free trade with China.  It worked.

·        Lobbyists in the US must disclose the names of their clients, how much they are being paid, and what issues they are hired to work on.  There are also limits on the amount of money individual lobbyists can donate to elected officials and to campaigns on a personal basis.  These regulations are good for lobbyists since they improve their reputation.

·        Do politicians receive anything directly in exchange for listening to lobbyists’ advice?  This becomes complex in the long run since personal connections and friendships sometimes help a candidate and a lobbyists’ friends can also give money to a candidate.  The intangible and important element is helping a politician understand that something is in their long-term political interests.  Lobbyists help elected officials understand not only the issue itself, but also the political consequences of taking one decision or another.  In reality there is always the opportunity for a quid pro quo – for example, a company can promise to keep jobs in a Congressman’s district if that Congressman votes the right way
·         

·        MASSACHUSETTS STATE LEGISLATURE (REP. HONAN, REP. BOSLEY)

·        Most candidates for local legislatures (i.e. councils in small towns) do not run on a party basis.

·        Local legislators must stand for reelection every two years.

·        In running for the state legislature, parties are not very important in Massachusetts since the Democrats are dominant.  Bosley, for example, has no opponent in this autumn’s elections and has not been opposed since 1990.  Bosley says that he has not received much support from his party and that the most important thing is to identify local issues that impact the particular district where the candidate is running.  He says that some of his colleagues in the state legislature have more competitive districts, however.

·        In Massachusetts, because the Democratic Party is dominant, most policy debate in the state legislature takes place within the Democratic Party (not between Democrats and Republicans).  This makes parties less important in Massachusetts than in states where there is more balance between the two major parties.

·        Bosley visited Pskov, Russia, two times to give lectures on economic development and Unemployment Insurance programs (because he authored legislation on these issues).

·        Bosley said that as an elected state legislator, he spends very little time fundraising, although he raises all of his funds himself without help from the party.  In fact, he says he and his colleagues in the legislature often raise funds for the party.  Since Bosley is a committee chair, he spends most of his time on legislative activity.  His staff spends its time mostly on constituent services (helping residents of his district with personal or other problems).

 

THE INTERNET AND CAMPAIGNS (TOM HOCKADAY)

·        Hockaday is the head of the firm Hockaday Donatelli Campaign Solutions, which specializes in the political use of the Internet.

·        There was a huge growth in the use of the Internet in American campaigns about 3-4 years ago, probably much as is happening in Russia now.

·        Hockaday’s firm is a communications and political consulting firm, not a technology firm.  This is important since the political use of the Internet should come from a political perspective, not a technological one.  The Internet needs to be a strategic element of a campaign, well-integrated into the overall campaign strategy.

·        There are 100 million Americans on the Internet now, with 333 million email boxes.  This reflects a 73% increase since 1999.  40% of American citizens now regularly use email.

·        Hockaday’s firm conducted a study of the political use of the internet in 1998.  It found that the average time that a person spends on a candidate’s website is 8-9 minutes.  This is much, much better than the 10-30 seconds that candidates can get on news programming.  Preliminary evidence now suggests that people are spending an average of 13 minutes on candidates’ websites in 2000, a 4-5 minute increase from 1998.  Moreover, 65-70% of Americans who are Internet users vote in elections, as opposed to just 50% of the US population overall who vote.  41% of Internet users say that they regularly attend meetings about town affairs and the like, as opposed to just 14% of the general public.  Likewise, 33% of Internet users say they have served in some committee or leadership position, as opposed to just 8% of the general public.  These are the most important people to reach.

·        Advantages of the Internet in campaigns:  speed, flexibility, cost.  These advantages will  only grow as the Internet gets more and more advanced.

·        Important considerations when using the Internet:

·        Be sure that your Internet site is integrated into the party’s or campaign’s overall strategy

·        A site is a visual medium:  a “look” and a “feel” are just as important as the concrete information contained.

·        The Internet is good for spreading negative information about opponents, but it is important to keep this on a site separate from the main candidate site, although you can provide a link.

·        It is important not only to provide information (i.e. your party program etc.), but also to provide more aggressive, active ways to get people involved in your party/campaign.  For example, try to get readers to give you their email addresses, since this means you can communicate with them for free and can get them to return to your site again and again.  Include things that make the reader want to come back to the site regularly – including changing the site regularly or allowing people to send “electronic postcards” etc. from your site.  You can also use the site to recruit volunteers – Hockaday’s sites have a “join the team” link on every page of some political sites.

·        Think of the site as a 2-way interaction, not just a way to give people information.

·        Your site can also be a medium for communicating with your activists, giving them instructions for how to respond to attacks from opponents and other things, asking them to email their friends and so on.

·        The Internet should be used to raise funds as much as possible because of the tremendous advantages it has in this sphere.

·        Hockaday recommends that the campaign team itself updates the websites (i.e. not Internet specialists), but it has to be someone on the campaign team who knows how to use the Internet.

·        The Internet has vast potential in fundraising.  It allows you to raise money with unprecedented ease and speed – and most importantly, you can get access to these funds immediately.  In principle, people just need to click on a button on your website and enter their account or credit card information and then the funds are in your account.  In addition, this kind of fundraising is virtually cost-free.  In most US political campaigns, 60-70% of funds raised must go to cover the expenses associated with fundraising itself.  For phone fundraising, this figure rises to 80-90%.  On the Internet, the only expenses of fundraising are those fees paid to credit card companies and these are always less than 10%.  In addition, we find that Internet donors tend to be younger and more generous.  The average donation on the Internet is $75-80.  The average donation by mail solicitation is only about $30. (These are Republican Party donors.)  The average direct mail donor is 68 years old.  The average Internet donor is 45 years old.  This is important:  if you get someone at age 45, you have a chance to keep them donating money for another 30 years.

·        Example:  The McCain campaign (which hired Hockaday) for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 (McCain lost to Bush).  McCain’s use of the Internet was one reason why he became a strong challenger to Bush after starting with very low ratings.  He specifically targeted young voters, who are on the Internet in large numbers, and used his Internet site to bring his own image to this electorate.  McCain raised some $7 million on the Internet alone and had access to all this almost immediately.  One concrete event sums up the advantages.  McCain was originally not considered a strong rival to Bush, so he spent virtually all of his money to win one state primary election (New Hampshire, the first primary) so as to get attention as a potentially strong rival.  The problem was that almost all of the other states’ primaries were coming in the weeks ahead and he had spent all but $100,000 of his campaign funds, not even enough to take his campaign to the next state.  Thus McCain used the publicity from his New Hampshire primary election victory to encourage people to go to his website.  Through financial donations on his website, McCain raised $1 million in just 24 hours—and most importantly, he had access to this money immediately in his own bank account.  Thus when he moved to the next state, he had enough money to spend on campaign ads there.  The McCain campaign provides another good example of the uses of the Internet in campaigns:  later in the campaign, after McCain won the New Hampshire Primary and then lost South Carolina, he was campaigning in Michigan.  The Bush campaign issued an ad that distorted McCain’s position.  McCain emailed his 50,000 activists in the state to tell them to go to his website.  On his website, he had put a copy of the Bush ad plus a copy of a response ad that McCain said he wanted to put on TV.  The website asked his activists to:  (1) donate money to finance putting the response ad on TV in Michigan;  (2) send the response to the Bush ad to 10 friends and ask them to look at the website.  As a result, McCain raised $750,000 in just 24 hours and his email list of activists grew from 50,000 to 65,000.  He was thus able to get his response ad on TV in Michigan and he won this primary election.  This could never have happened with traditional fundraising techniques.

·        Websites presented by Hockaday include:  www.markearley.com, www.slade2000.com, www.allen2000.com, www.hillaryno.com

 
CONGRESSMAN MIKE CAPUANO (DEMOCRAT)
·        Capuano started in politics as a local official for 14 years, then was Mayor of Somerville, a suburb of Boston, for 10 years, and in 1998 ran and was elected for Congress.

·        Since Massachusetts has only one strong party, Capuano says he had very little party experience until he came to Washington.  In Massachusetts, there is much fighting between factions within the same party, and this experience helped him to adjust to the party competition in Washington.

·        Party discipline is lacking in the US Congress, but was strong in Massachusetts. This is a big problem in the Congress and leads to chaos.

·        Capuano says that he has never had the help of the party establishment in his political career.  He says that he is for party loyalty, not fealty – that is, not for obeying just for the sake of obeying, but for working with people to get things done.  For this reason, it is not a contradiction to support party loyalty while opposing the party establishment.

·        The federal party organization is essentially irrelevant to state-level politics but the state level organization does not know that the federal level is irrelevant.  Thus Capuano always tries to choose opposition to the state party establishment, not relying on the national party organization.

·        Capuano said that he always draws a distinction between politics and government.  Government is the what people care about:  that their trash gets picked up, streets get repaired, etc.  Party people tend to think too much about politics, that politics is everything.

·        The party that understands this, that government is more important than politics, will be the party that wins.

·        In the Congress, Capuano is eager to work with other Democrats to get things done, although he does not want to listen to those who are not elected.

·        The national Democratic Party organization has little power over him:  “The party didn’t get me elected, can’t get me reelected, and can’t get me unelected.”

·        Capuano thinks that he could get elected as an independent, but thinks that this would make it harder to get things done once he got into Congress, which relies on the party system.  He prefers to push the Democratic party in the direction he thinks is right.  He views the Democratic Party as the closest thing he can get to a family – there are different views within it, but it is a team.

·        In Congress, no law prevents an independent from becoming chair of a committee, but politics makes this impossible.

·        Capuano will have no opponent in his November re-election.

·        Capuano ran for the leadership of the Congressional Freshman Class since he wanted to find a way in which a junior legislator could distinguish himself, and these ways are very few (especially given that the Democrats are now the minority party in Congress).  The fact that he won shows that he has the respect of his colleagues, increasing his influence.  There are a total of 23 freshman Democrats.  The Association of Freshman Democrats actually does very little – it just meets occasionally.

 

CONGRESSMAN CURT WELDON (REPUBLICAN)
·        The Republican Party agrees on a philosophy close to that of SPS (free markets, small government, etc.) but there are large disagreements within the party on some issues.  Weldon disagrees with others in his party by wanting to provide workers with more protection and with wanting to protect the environment more vigorously.

·        Party Organizations Promoting Congressional Campaigns.  Each federal party has a committee for work with Congresspeople of its own party and for electing more party members to Congress.  The Republican Party organization, for example, has just published a book outlining all issues for Republican campaigns in the year 2000.  It covers virtually all likely issues, Republican positions on these issues, and suggestions for how to criticize democrats on these issues.  The book is about five centimeters thick.  Weldon himself does not have serious competition in his reelection effort in December, so he, like others who have little competition, works to help elect other Republican congresspeople (Weldon has been elected 7 times).  This year, Weldon has promised to raise $10 million for the support of Republican candidates for Congress.  This is a very large sum and is very unusual for a Republican member of Congress, but Weldon says that this will help him get a committee chair in the next Congress.  This money will go to many different Congressional Republican candidates.  Weldon also goes to other districts to campaign for Republicans—he will visit 50 districts this year to campaign.

·        Party discipline.  There is a constant battle to get members of Congress to vote the way their party wants.  Weldon says that being a Republican helps him win, but when he runs he gets many Democratic votes, so he goes after the votes of both parties.  This has both good and bad consequences.  It makes it harder for people in parties to work together to get things done, but it also helps a member of Congress to build a broader base by attracting people with different views.  Weldon thinks that unless you have a very clear mandate to do something specific, you need to be open to different points of view.  Once you have a large share of support, then you are in a position to push leaders to lead and to push for your main objectives, he said.  The Republicans currently have only a 6-vote margin over the Democrats in the House of Representatives, which means that Republicans will be probably building a coalition with conservative Democrats so as to win more seats and not to lose their majority in the House.

·        The US, like Russia, also has problems with members of Congress representing only the narrow interests of their districts at the expense of the common good, but this is part of democracy.  And democracy is good in that it allows you to keep striving to improve things.

·        Weldon’s advice:

·        Identify people that are already widely regarded as leaders in society and attract them to run as SPS candidates—people like the heads of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and sports heroes—because they already have popularity. 

·        Start youth movements to bring people into SPS, especially in high school and college.  The Republican Party has exchange programs that SPS can participate in jointly with our party youth organization—the Young Republicans.

·        Fundraising:  Identify financial support bases to fund the party.  Start by identifying your top 4-5 issues and find groups that will support you in these position and get them to give you money.  Weldon said that he started off in politics as mayor of a small town, then he became county commissioner.  In these campaigns, he would raise money at $10-per-plate dinners—5$ would cover the expenses of dinner and $5 would go to his campaign.  He would also ask rich friends to ask their friends to help support him.  He stressed that money is not everything—when he first won for congress, he beat an unpopular opponent who spent twice as much by going to people’s doors and knocking—this is the best way, he said.  The key to winning, he said, is having it in your gut that you want to win and to do what it takes to get voters to support you.  He cited the example of six years ago where the most powerful person in Congress, the speaker, was defeated by a candidate who spent ten times less money.

·        Weldon proposed that SPS and the Republican Party work together, establishing a relationship.  A workshop could be arranged to discuss election techniques, for example.  If SPS is interested, it should write a letter to Weldon and he will give it to the Party Chairman and move forward with it.  In principle, Weldon said, the process of party-building is the same in all democracies even though the issues are different.  Things important everywhere include:  voter turnout, media relations, message formulation, fundraising and so on.

·        Weldon proposed inviting SPS to attend and observe the Republican Party Convention in late July because it is in his city, Philadelphia.

·        Weldon also proposed inviting young SPS leaders to the US as part of the Russian Leadership Program organized by the Library of Congress.  SPS should supply him with a list of young people in its faction for the Program to invite to the US.

·        Weldon also expressed willingness to organize a party-building program for SPS in conjunction with the International Republican Institute (IRI)—they would even bring in Democrats, he said.

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MARYLAND REPUBLICAN PARTY (PAUL ELLINGTON)

·        Ellington is the Executive Director of the Maryland Republican Party and is also an elected city councilman from the fourth largest municipality in Maryland.

·        The Republicans are a minority party in Maryland, where Democrats dominate.  In municipal legislatures, about 40% of elected officials are Republicans.  Baltimore, the biggest city in Maryland, is strongly Democratic.

·        State party structure:  Maryland has 24 Republican Party regional organizations, including 23 counties and Baltimore.  Each region has a central committee and each central committee has its own office (headquarters) and is self-sufficient financially.  Each central committee is autonomous – the state party organization is an umbrella organization.  The lowest level of party organization (under the regional level) is the precinct.  There are 5000 precincts in Maryland.  Each precinct has a party “captain,” who is unpaid and does a lot of work recruiting volunteers, coordinating local activities, encouraging people to vote on election day, etc. Captains work out of their own homes – they have no party offices.

·        The Regional Central Committees elect the Chair of the State Party and the state party officers.

·        In Maryland in 2000 the following elections will take place: US presidential elections, one senatorial election, and all 8 district congressional elections.  State elections will take place in 2002 (they take place every 4 years).

·        In the presidential race, the candidates raise their own funds during the primaries (that is, until the party convention formally nominates a candidate) and the party organization must stay neutral between candidates for the party nomination.  After the convention (when Bush will be formally nominated), the party headquarters will run the state’s presidential campaign.

·        The Maryland party organization is now starting to invest a lot in the Internet.  It is giving money for each regional organization to create its own website.

·        The evening prior to the meeting with SPS, Ellington organized a fundraising dinner for the Maryland Republican Party called the “Red, White and Blue Dinner” (the colors of the American flag, of course) that included 425 people.  They raised $83,000 at this one dinner, which was more than the $75,000 that had been planned.  It took place in a large ballroom at a hotel.  They have a small elite group of people called the “Trustees Circle” of people who donate $4,000 or more.  The Maryland Republicans organize such dinners twice per year.  The rest of the party’s fundraising is done by direct mailing, telephone solicitation, or relying on Trustees to convince others to give money.

·        33% of each dollar raised covers the expenses associated with fundraising (i.e. buying food at a dinner etc.).

·        The Maryland Republican Party has no party newspaper, but does have a monthly newsletter that it sends to about 5-6,000 subscribers (only Republicans).

·        State party activities:  The state-level party organization spends most of its time raising money for upcoming elections, finding good candidates to run against elected Democratic Party officials and training candidates.  Ellington personally spends much of his time recruiting people to run for office.  He starts by going to Republican-oriented social institutions, including Parent-Teachers Associations, Chambers of Commerce, the business community.  5% of the Republican elected state legislators are from the business community, and about 25% of the Republican members of the Annapolis city council are businesspeople.  Ellington says that he tries to find candidates from non-traditional backgrounds to show that the Republican Party is not your stereotypical party.

·        Party outreach:  The Maryland Party engages in a number of activities, including efforts to register voters in high schools and organizing Republican clubs in universities (also political debates in schools and universities).  Ellington aims to have a Republican organization in every Maryland college.  The Party sponsors events like picnics at football games etc.

 

MARYLAND DEMOCRATIC PARTY (MARY JO NEVILLE & STEPHANIE MELLINGER)

·        Neville is the vice-chair of the Maryland Democratic Party and Mellinger is the finance chair.  Mellinger used to work in a political consulting firm doing fundraising before joining the party headquarters. 

·        5 people work at the headquarters on a permanent basis.  The state party also has a Central Committee that consists of 300 people who are elected by county party organizations.

·        One of the party’s biggest activities is to register voters.  This is very important for Democrats in Maryland since most residents of the state are Democratic – thus the chances are good than new people registered will vote for the Democrats.  Law forbids Democratic activists from registering people to vote specifically to register as Democrats – when they are registering people to vote, they cannot even reveal their party affiliation.  But the Democrats are confident that high voter turnout helps them, not Republicans.

·        The state party organization also holds training sessions for activists and people who recruit candidates.  These sessions both enlarge the number of party activists and make activists more effective.

·        The Maryland Democratic Party’s organization is essentially the same as that of the Maryland Republican Party (i.e. with financially self-sufficient county party central committees etc.).  All party organizations at all levels raise their own money.  The county party organizations do not finance the central party organization either.

·        During election periods, the federal Democratic Party will give state organizations some money for the campaign, but this is not enough to run a campaign.

·        Finances: Federal law requires state party organizations to have three bank accounts:  (1) a federal account for senatorial and presidential campaigns;  (2) administrative account for day-to-day operating expenses (phones etc.) and party-building (training programs);  (3) state account for gubernatorial and state legislature campaigns.

·        Fundraising:  usually, the Maryland Democratic Party only makes general requests for money.  They just essentially say “we want money to elect good people” rather than asking for money for specific things (i.e. for a specific candidate, for new computers in the offices etc.), although sometimes they will make exceptions.  Sometimes they will try to show potential donors what their money means by saying something like:  “if you donate $100, we could buy X quantity of campaign posters.”  Much of the challenge of fundraising is choosing people to ask for money – you need to target their interests.

·        Fundraising law:  Federal law prevents firms from donating to Senate, House or Presidential campaigns directly – only individual people can make such donations.  State law allows both firms and individuals to donate to parties, but limits on the amount of these donations exist depending on the particular elected office involved.

·        Much of the Democratic Party’s efforts to sponsor events (for PR purposes) take place at lower levels (i.e. in neighborhoods or towns) since these events will be covered on Page 1 of local or town newspapers.

 

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE (TOM COLE)

·        Cole is the Executive Director of the Republican National Committee.

·        Structure:  The Republican National Committee (RNC) is the coordinating body of 50 state party organizations.  Each state party organization elects a chair and two delegates (one man and one woman) to serve in the RNC for a total of 165 members of the RNC.  There are 170 people in the staff of the RNC.  The RNC is divided into 10 separate divisions, such as communications, fundraising etc. [I sent you the diagram of Republican Party structure separately – please let me know if you need another copy – HH.] 

·        The main task of the RNC is to work on the presidential campaign.  Its five specific functions are:

1.     Do all the research on the opposition;

2.     Work to increase the turnout of Republican voters on election day.  Spending on this alone will be $27-30 million;

3.     Provide and broadcast issue advertisements on issues Republicans like (i.e. not directly related to campaigns);

4.     Organize the Republican National Convention.  This convention will have 60-100 million viewers every evening for four straight days, which makes it critically important in American politics.  It will cost about $50 million and has a staff of 140-150 working on this full-time.  Over 5,000 delegates and alternative delegates will attend, plus tens of thousands of activists and reporters (some 30-40,000 reporters will cover it).

5.     After the Convention, US presidential candidates spend only money from the state on their campaigns, although the federal parties are allowed to add $14 million of their own to cover expenses.

·        The RNC also helps other Republican campaigns, including senatorial and gubernatorial races.  In these races, the local party or the candidates themselves take the lead in organization, but the RNC helps out organizationally and financially.

·        The RNC has a very active “political education department” that teaches people how to run modern campaigns. 

·        The biggest RNC department is the Finance Department, with over 150 employees.  It conducts 200 different types of mailings each year involving 500,000 activists.  About 90% of all contributions are $100 or less, and these make up about 2/3 of the total dollars raised.  The RNC raises about $250,000 in large donations (of $1000 each).  These come mostly from big business.  The Finance Department has many different branches, each one specializing in different types of fundraising:  direct mail, telemarketing, etc.  The RNC has 50 phones in its basement making calls at all times, every day to raise money.  It receives 5-7,000 donations every day.  Activity is much higher during campaigns, of course.

·        State-level party organizations typically have just 4-5 professional staff, and large organizations can have up to 50.

·        Decisionmaking process for spending:  The staff under the direction of the Party Chair drafts the budget.  In a nonelection year the budget can be just $50 million, but in an election year it can be much higher – this year is the largest the RNC has ever had:  $205,000.  The chair then submits the draft budget to the RNC Budget Committee, which includes 12 members, representing different regions of the US, plus the finance chair and a few others.  The Budget committee examines the draft budget it detail and makes recommendations for changes, questions the staff about it and asks for more information.  The Budget Committee then submits the draft budget to all 165 members of the RNC, who vote on it.  What they decide, the RNC staff does. 

·        The RNC is audited every year both by its own auditors as well as by an independent agency.  The US Federal Election Commission also imposes extensive reporting requirements for party organizations.  Plus, each state also wants to know what the parties are doing.  Thus the RNC submits monthly reports with detailed spending accounts, including names, addresses, and jobs of all donors.

 

REPUBLICAN PARTY ORGANIZATION & ELECTORAL LAW (TOM JOSEFIAK)

·        Josefiak is the chief counsel to the Republican National Committee (RNC).  His job is to ensure that the Republican Party obeys all laws at the federal and state levels.  His special responsibility is to interpret laws.  Earlier, he was a member of the Federal Election Commission.  He worked in Russia in 1989 when the Federal Election Commission worked with the Soviet Union’s Central Election Commission to reform Soviet electoral law.  He has also worked in the Baltic states on party-building and conducting elections.

·        There are two sets of rules for the Republican Party adopted at the Convention by delegates:

1.     Rules for the Republican Convention:  these include rules for how the delegates are to be selected to attend.

2.     Rules for party operation:  these govern party activities between elections.

·        Overall party structure.  The Convention delegates are the governing body of the Republican Party.  When the convention is not in session, the RNC is the top authority in the party.  The RNC is not the headquarters that is located in Washington, DC – this headquarters is the administrative arm of the party (headed by Tom Cole).  The RNC is actually the federation of state Republican Party committees and has 165 members, including one man and one woman from each US state and territory as well as the chair of each state party organization.  The length of term of each state party chair varies depending on the rules of each state party organization.  Thus the Republican Party prides itself on being a party of the masses—a bottom-up party rather than a top-down one.  The RNC meets two times each year and it can set policy (although it cannot change Republican Party rules.

·        State-level Republican Party organizations nominate candidates by different methods.  Some have primaries while others allow the party leadership to nominate the party’s candidates.  Candidates generally do not feel bound to support the Republican Party platform—they only support their own platforms.

·        System of Enforcing Election Law: 

·        In the US, only the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has the right to file a suit against a candidate or party for violating election law.  Other people (including political opponents or average voters) can file a complaint to the FEC, but the FEC then has the right to decide whether to investigate and then whether to press charges.  If the FEC confirms that a violation has taken place, then the party very often agrees and the party and FEC negotiate an appropriate penalty and publish an admission of guilt.  If the FEC and party do not agree, then the FEC can sue the party.  If a citizen files a complaint to the FEC against a candidate or party and if the FEC then refuses to act, then the citizen can sue the FEC (not the violating candidate or party) for failing to enforce the law.  If the court agrees, it orders the FEC to reexamine the case, resulting in a fine and admission of guilt.  The history of court cases shows that judges tend to favor parties in such instances.

·        The FEC does not have the authority to invalidate elections.  Only state-level authorities can take this action.  Thus each individual state state’s laws provide grounds on which to challenge the results of an election.  Thus, if wanted to challenge the results of a presidential election, this would have to be done state-by-state.  For example, in the 1960 election between Nixon and Kennedy, the race was very close and Kennedy’s victory was ensured only when he won the state of Illinois by 100,000 votes.  This margin of victory came mainly from Chicago, controlled by the notoriously corrupt Mayor Richard Daly, a staunch Democrat, who was rumored to have fraudulently ensured that Kennedy won (i.e. many dead people reportedly “voted” and so on).  Republicans could have decided to challenge the results of the election in Illinois, and if they had won, this would have changed the outcome of the election—Nixon would have become president in 1960 instead of Kennedy.  For Senators of Congresspeople, a state can un-elect them, but this can essentially happen only with the approval of the Senate or Congress, and 99.99% of the time they will not even consider overturning the result of an election.

·        Unlike the Russian CEC, the American FEC only regulates financing and election law observance (and does not actually conduct the elections itself).

 

RNC FINANCE BRANCH (BEV SHEA & JANIS KNOPP)
·        Knopp handles telemarketing and direct mail while Shea manages fundraising for large donors ($15,000 and higher) for the RNC.

·        The average contribution to the RNC is $65.  For the year 2000, the RNC projects 550,000 donors.  This means that the results of such small contributions are in the millions.

·        The Republican Party solicits contributions of $1000 and under by mail and by phone.

·        The Republicans have a series of “clubs” that donors can join depending upon how much money they give.  The Clubs include:

1.     Majority Fund:  $15,000 (for $5,000 more one can become an Executive Member).  This club is for representatives of corporations or Political Action Committees (PACs – see below).

·        Quarterly dinner meetings

·        Priority invitations to annual RNC Gala

·        Monthly Issues Roundtables

·        Receiving RNC’s annual Chairman’s Report

·        Subscription to Rising Tide magazine

·        Membership in Capitol Hill Club

·        Executive members also get:  to be co-sponsor of annual Golf Tournament, to host one of the monthly Issues Roundtables (choosing topic and speaker), and to host a small Industry Dinner with 20-25 industry members.

2.     Republican Eagles (for individual members):  $15,000 (for $5,000 more, one can become a member of the Presidential Trust)

·        Exclusive events at Party Convention/Inauguration with former Presidents, the Republican presidential nominee, other party notables

·        Participation in RNC Issues Committees (which make recommendations for the party platform)

·        Club meetings every three months at resorts with Congressional leaders, Cabinet-level officials, governors

·        International trips to meet with business and government leaders in foreign countries (past trips have included Moscow along with many other world capitals)

·        Monthly conference calls with top Congressional leaders

·        Special party briefings (all press releases, talking points on key issues)

3.     Team 100:  $100,000

·        Club meetings every three months, including Issues Forums, with national party leaders (past guests have included Republican presidents, Majority Congressional leaders, governors and others).  These typically last for 2-3 days and about 100 people attend.  There will be an opening reception, then breakfast the next morning, followed by a variety of sessions to discuss issues (i.e. they will bring in tax experts to discuss legislation), and then there will be a lunch with a special speaker.  Afternoons will be open.  There is also usually a closing dinner.

·        Exclusive events at Republican Convention and RNC Gala with party leaders and Hollywood stars who support the Republicans (like Arnold Swartzenegger)

·        Regional small meetings with RNC leaders and elected officials

·        International trips to meet with business and government leaders in foreign countries (including Moscow in past)

·        Conference calls on a regular basis with Republican leaders

·        Special RNC communications on current legislative topics, including a special magazine (In the Loop)

·        Membership in the Capitol Hill Club

·        RNC staff provision of any requested information on politics, legislation etc.

·        All privileges of Republican Eagles and Majority Fund membership

4.     Republican Regents:  $250,000

·        Special private gatherings with presidential and vice-presidential nominee throughout the year

·        Head table seating and private VIP reception at RNC Gala Dinner with presidential nominee and special event with Senate Majority Leader

·        Exclusive treatment at Republican Convention (private sky-box, floor passes, event with presidential and vice-presidential nominee, political briefing with Senate Majority Leader and House Speaker, etc.)

·        Election-night event with presidential nominee and vice-presidential nominee

·        Special inauguration privileges

·        All privileges of Club 100, Republican Eagles and Majority Fund membership

·        PACs (Political Action Committees).  US campaign finance law prohibits corporations from donating directly to candidates’ campaigns.  Corporations found a way to get around this law by creating PACs.  A PAC is a private organization that receives donations—these donations come not from corporations but from individuals who work in corporations (or any other individual).  The leadership of the PAC (usually controlled by the corporation) decides where to spend this money.  Most importantly, this money can be used by the RNC on the presidential campaign.  In this way, firms have discovered how to circumvent the law and donate money directly to campaigns.  (Without PACs, the RNC can still take money directly from corporations, but the RNC cannot use this money directly on the campaign.)

·        Major donations from individuals are solicited by people’s peers, usually through small fundraising events held at people’s houses.  The biggest donations, i.e. those of around $150,000, almost always come from personal relationships between the fundraiser and the donor.

·        For the $250,000 donations, about 2/3 of these are personal donations and 1/3 are corporate.  Right now there are 87 donors who give this amount.

·        People donate such large amounts of money for different reasons.  Some just want Bush to win and want to be there to support him.  The larger the amount the donor gives, the less they tend to ask for something in exchange since they usually do not need anything.  There are no direct exchanges in return for large donations other than the things listed above, the most important of which is access to Republican decisionmakers (but the decisionmakers have no obligation to do what the donor wants).

·        The RNC does sometimes help state party organizations that need money, but this is rare.  The goal is to make the state organizations self-sufficient.  For organizations having trouble raising money, the RNC would be most likely to send them not money, but people to come visit them and help them raise money better.

·        Club members do not get special membership cards.

·        State law does not apply to the RNC.  For example, Florida limits individuals from giving more than $600 to a party, but this applies only to the state-level party organizations.  Thus an individual living in Florida could give as much as he or she wants to the RNC.

·        It is most rewarding to seek money from individuals (not corporations) since they give because they believe in the cause.  Corporations often give to both Democrats and Republicans.

 

 

REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION (CLINTON KEY)

·        Key was formerly a state party chairman for five years in the state of Oklahoma.  After that, he became chief of staff of Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating.

·        The Republican Governors Association (RGA) is an association that includes all Republican governors I the US.  Out of 50 states, there are now about 30 Republican governors.

·        The main goal of the RGA is to share ideas between Republican Governors and to strengthen themselves by working together.

·        Specific activities of the RGA include:

1.     Fundraising

2.     Assisting governors’ campaigns

3.     Exchanging policy ideas between states based on good experiences of some Republican governors

4.     Coordinating communications efforts (issuing policy statements, press releases – often the press will print these without changing the words)

·        There also exist a Southern Governors Association, a Midwestern Governors Association and so on.  These are nonpartisan.  There is also a National Governors Association (NGA) that is also nonpartisan.  We think that the NGA is not a useful organization because it requires unanimity to do anything and this is very difficult to achieve.

·        The RGA would be very interested in discussing with SPS the possibility of working with SPS in creating a Russian association of pro-market, pro-democracy governors.

·        Campaigning techniques:  door-to-door campaigning is still by far the most effective form of campaigning in the US despite the technological revolution.  People feel that the candidate is really worthy if they take the time to talk to them.

 

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE (ROB ENGEL)

·        Engel is the Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).  His job is to give focus to the party organization both at the headquarters and nationwide.  His chief task is the immediate one of winning the presidency and winning back control of Congress. 

·        The DNC is effectively the “2000 General Election Presidential Campaign Organization.”  While the DNC alone does not run the campaign, it has 3 general responsibilities and 7 specific responsibilities:

·        General responsibilities

1.     General oversight over the state party organizations across the country

2.     Coordination with other national-level Democratic Party structures:

·        Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (now there are 45 Democratic Senators)

·        Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (out of 435 seats in the US House of Representatives, 214 are occupied by Democrats).  The DNC works on those races that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee identifies.

·        Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee for elections to state legislatures.  There are 7,400 state legislative districts in the country.  These are important to control since they decide where the boundaries of federal election districts are drawn (borders will be redrawn based on results of the year 2000 US Census).

·        Democratic Governors Association.  There are now just 17 Democratic governors, but the Democrats have a bright future here.

3.     Coordinating all of this into one campaign

·        Specific responsibilities

4.     Doing all research on all opposition candidates.  The focus is on public records like voting records and public statements.

5.     Stressing differences between the two major parties.  “Finding the cut.”  This means negative campaigning, stressing bad things about opponents.

6.     Getting out the vote, making sure that people (specially Democrats) vote on election day.  Many Democratic organizations do this and the DNC coordinates them.

7.     Making sure every donation to the Democratic Party is legal.  The DNC has a special “compliance division.”  This was created because of a fundraising controversy involving Gore and Clinton in 1996.

8.     Fundraising for all issue ads and ads linked to the Democratic platform.  In 1996, the DNC raised over $40 million on these ads.

9.     Spending directly on the Democratic Party presidential candidate (Gore).  Each of the two major parties has the legal right to spend $13.5 million directly for its own presidential candidate (this figure comes from a formula in US election law—as an example, the limit for national party organizations’ spending on congressional campaigns is $70,000).  This money must come from the party itself (which gets it through regular fundraising).

10.          Running the presidential party nomination process every four years.  This includes primaries in each state and the Democratic Convention.

·        There are two divisions in the DNC

1.     Division focused on winning the presidential race

2.     Division on party-building (building infrastructure in the states).  This division is downplayed during election years.

·        DNC relationship with state party structures: Each state party organization has a chair and a director of day-to-day operations (usually called the Executive Director).  The DNC prepares them for elections, collects money for them and invests this money in improving voter turnout.  The state party organizations are self-sufficient, but they often achieve this by giving only minimal support to Democratic candidates.  Some organizations, however, are excellent, having an infrastructure that endures.  The Maryland Democratic Party, whose offices you visited, is a bit below average in relation to the strength of Democratic parties in the large states.  This is primarily because Maryland is a very Democratic State and there is little need for a strong organization to win.  The strongest Democratic organizations are in state where there is a high degree of party competition.  The DNC helps these organizations to do the following things:

·        Fundraising.  Methods of help include:

·        Sending DNC representatives to speak at events

·        Providing VIP guests to attract people to fundraising events

·        Giving technical support, including helping them build party infrastructure

·        Helping them build voter files (databases of all voters in their states including such data as gender, date of birth, voting history (whether they voted, not for whom they voted), ethnicity.  This is useful for targeting voter groups.

·        At the national level, the DNC requires each state organization to gather certain information to include in a nationwide database.  The DNC provides 60-70% of the cost of building a voter file in localities.

·        Sending people to states either to train state party officials in party-building/campaigns or to work on state-level campaigns. 

·        Party-building work, focusing on state infrastructure, is the most neglected aspect of the DNC’s work—the DNC is too focused now on the campaign work to do much party-building.

·        There is a big problem with institutional memory in the DNC.  There is very high staff turnover, so virtually no one remains in place for longer than 2 years or so, meaning that people forget what has been done and what has worked and what has not worked.  There is no archiving system of successful advertisements etc.

·        Engel himself decides how funds get spent at all levels.  He regrets that he must say no more than yes.  For example, the Maryland Democratic Party keeps asking that Clinton visit them  But Clinton’s presence there would not change much since Maryland already tends to vote Democratic.

·        Clinton’s presence at a fundraiser guarantees that a large amount of money will be raised.

·        DNC leadership: As Executive Director of the DNC, Engel is appointed by the Democratic Party Chairman (Joe Andrew) and serves as long as the Chairman wants.  New chairmen almost always bring in new Executive Directors.  The next new Chairman will take office in February, 2001.  People do not want Engel’s job for very long since it is extremely hectic, but this creates problems in that people in this post never have much experience.  The real leader of the party is the President, although now the real leader is the Democratic presidential nominee, Gore.  Members of the Gore staff are now also on the DNC staff and the two staffs cooperate.  In non-election years when the President is not a Democrat the party chair serves this role.  The Democratic Party Chair meets with the President’s staff responsible for political operations every week.

·        State Democratic parties usually have the same problems.  Last year, for example, there were 36 new state party chairs (out of a total of 50, one in each state).

·        The DNC must not endorse any candidate for the Democratic nomination until the Democratic National Convention, when the party officially votes and chooses its presidential nominee.  At this point, the DNC can formally back the candidate and spend money on the campaign.