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Campaign consultants
Electoral Studies (1982), 1, 355-362
© Butterworths 1982
Campaign Consultants GILLIAN PEELE
Lady MargaretHall, Oxford, England It has long been customary to view American elections as much as exercises in marketing strategy as opportunities for citizens to participate in the political process. Even if the somewhat cynical approach to voting and voters that is to be found in the political science literature o f the 1960s has now been modified by a younger generation o f scholars, it would be an unusual observer of the United States who could find its manner o f choosing political leaders entirely satisfactory2 Central to most systems o f d e m o c r a t i c g o v e r n m e n t is the political party but in America the period since 1968 has seen a decline in the role of party. The extent of the decline o f the party as a key institution in the American political process has perhaps been exaggerated; but what is clear is that a series o f developments from deliberate reforms like the Federal Election Campaign Act to improvements in computer technology have profoundly changed the American political landscape, z New political actors political consultants, Political Action Committees (PACs) and p o l l s t e r s - - n o w rival the parties and perform functions which the o r t h o d o x Democratic and Republican organizations hitherto monopolized. The fragmentation o f American political life has been intensified by the increasing sophistication o f the techniques o f electioneering. The intricacies o f polling, tracking and computerized direct mail, as well as the problems associated with the use of the media, demand specialist knowledge; those who have it are well placed to influence candidates not merely on the details of how to package himself to the electoral constituency but also on broad policy issues as well. Until very recently the new middle men o f politics--the political c o n s u l t a n t s - had received very little serious academic attention, although they had received a certain amount o f journalistic c o v e r a g e ) Now, however, there is a major study o f how political consultants interact with candidates and the various services which they p e r f o r m ) Yet much work still remains to be done in this area both because the situation is one which is rapidly changing and because the role of political consultants poses serious questions o f accountability and control. In this essay I want to focus on an area where the worlds o f political consultants, active politicians and ideological strategists meet and indeed merge. The 'new right' has made mastery o f electioneering one of its primary tenets and individuals such as Richard Viguerie, the right o f centre direct mail entrepreneur, and Paul Weyrich w h o heads a variety o f study groups and PACs, are examples of individuals who not only supply services to candidates but who are outspoken in their wish to transform the American political system. In general terms it is one o f the peculiarities o f modern election technology that the Republican Party and the Right as a whole has been able to take advantage o f it in a way which has so far eluded the Democrats and the liberals. Much has been made of the superior organizational position of the Republicans in 1980 but as Larry Sabato has commented: ' . . . the technological
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and organizational gap between the two parties is certainly wider now than it has ever been, but there are indications that Republicans have been more willing and able than Democrats to experiment with new techniques during the entire age of political consultantship. 's And the same author goes on to speculate that the Democratic defeats o f 1980 'may well shake the party out o f its lethargy and spur it on to modernization'. ~ Perhaps the 1982 mid-term elections will reveal that a move has in fact been made in the direction o f modernization; but at the moment it has to be admitted that the Right has gained a superior position with respect to election arts and that it will take some time before that superiority is eroded. The most dramatic use of new election techniques has perhaps been made not by the formal Republican Party but by a section o f the American political constellation known as the 'new right'. Its organizations, electoral tactics and strategies throw into sharp relief the changed contours o f American politics and underline the way in which the quality o f American political debate, the direction of funding and the relationship between a candidate and his party can all be affected by a few alterations in the rules governing elections. In particular it should be remembered that the Supreme Court decision in Buckley v. Valeo had a profound effect on the propensity o f pressure groups to intervene in election campaigns since it precluded the imposition of campaign expenditure limits on individuals or PACs where they were not connected with the formal organization of a candidate. 7 This so-called 'independent expenditure loophole' makes it almost inevitable that there will be a major expansion of direct pressure group involvement in campaigns. As parties find it difficult to recruit activists, voluntary help may be provided by other organizations such as the Right to Life M o v e m e n t or the Moral Majority. As Sabato suggests, other forms of theoretically independent aid may include polling for a favoured candidate, independent telephone banks to identify a candidate's voters and independent direct mail packages. The problem o f such a situation is that at the end o f the day the candidate will find himself in debt to a plethora o f different groups if he wins and they can claim, however bizarrely, that they contributed to the victory. Equally a candidate may find his campaign seriously affected by the activities of organizations over which he has no control but which can be used by an opponent to associate the candidate's line with that o f the independent organization. The tactics o f the Anybody But Church Committee in Idaho may or may not have met with Steve Symm's approval; but its activities allowed Church to try, albeit unsuccessfully, to brand Symms as an extreme right-winger, s Before examining some o f the features of the 'new right' which have made it well suited to exploit the changed electoral environment of the 1970s and 1980s it might be advantageous to clarify what is meant by the term 'new right'. For, although the phrase 'new right' has passed into America's political vocabulary and there is an intuitive appreciation of its meaning, it is sufficiently imprecise to cause doubt and uncertainty in some contexts. Clearly there are individuals such as Howard Phillips of Conservative Caucus, Paul Weyrich of the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress and Richard Viguerie whom any observer would identify as 'new right' and who would so identify themselves. Equally there are organizations such as Terry Dolan's National Conservative Political Action Committee, Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, Gun Owners of America and the American Legislative Exchange Councilwhich would be seen by most commentators as parts o f the 'new right'. But while there is an important set of links and contacts between these groups and individuals as well as a network o f interlocking directorates, the 'new right' is probably best defined in
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terms of its style and orientation towards contemporary American politics. Despite its tendency to yearn for the days of a simpler America, it appears more than ready to adapt to the pressures o f the contemporary electoral scene and to welcome the opportunities presented by the looser party system of the post-1968 years. The 'new right' is not therefore a formal m o v e m e n t or organization and it is not even to be distinguished by a cut-and-dried ideology. However, it does have some distinctive features which merit discussion here since they are intimately related to developments in election technology and in the wider party system. The first feature of the 'new right' which marks it out as distinctive at least in the history of American conservatism is its determination to succeed. Clinton Rossiter dubbed the conservative creed in the United States the 'thankless persuasion' but by concentrating on the minutiae of electoral organization today's right-wing strategists hope to transform American public policy and to see candidates of their ideological colour winning elections. Debate continues about the extent o f the 'new right' influence in the 1980 elections and it may well be that the impact of groups such as the Moral Majority has been grossly exaggerated. However, one measure of the perceived influence of the 'new right' is to be found in the variety of groups formed to counter its influence. N o r m a n Lear has been active in p r o m o t i n g a group k n o w n as Peoplefor the American Way which is designed to resist the involvement of religion and right-of-centre politics. One o f Birch Bayh's aides Robert Blaemire - - h a s founded the Committeefor American Principlesto mobilize opposition to what were seen as negative tactics used by the 'new right' in Indiana where in 1980 Dan Quayle ultimately defeated the incumbent senator. 9 And former Senator George M c G o v e r n has himself founded a group--Americans for Common Sense--dedicated to counteracting the 'new right' forces which contributed to his defeat in South Dakota. A new m o o d has been created on the Right o f American politics which, while it may be transitory, has put liberalism on the defensive and proved useful both in electioneering and in fund-raising. The aggressive style o f the 'new right' is a feature which is closely connected with its second characteristic--attention to the detail o f election laws, campaigning techniques and fund-raising methods. Mention has already been made of Richard Viguerie whose specialist role as direct mail consultant and 'new right' activist makes him a highly visible member of the political consultancy corps. Yet Viguerie's preference for right wing causes and clients is not peculiar to his firm. Stephen Winchell Associates has been central to the Republican National Committee's use o f direct mail to transform itself into a party o f small donors rather than o f ' f a t cats'] ° As Sabato points out the campaign brought the Republican Party from 'near bankruptcy' in 1975 to a financial position 'unrivalled in its history'.t1 In 1979 Winchell Associates helped to raise $20 million dollars for the Republican Party and has constructed its own highly treasured list o f donors which forms the basis o f any solicitation. The Winchell firm, although Republican in orientation, was willing to take the national Republican Party as a client when Viguerie himself refused to do so because o f the latter's wish to see a fundamental realignment in American politics. 12 Bruce Eberle Associates is similarly active on the Right of American politics and was the consultancy firm used by Ronald Reagan in his 1976 presidential nomination bid as well as pressure groups that have m u s h r o o m e d in opposition to initiatives such as the Salt-11 Treaty. At the state level also these firms are important. Stephen Winchell handles a large amount o f law and order work in California, while Butcher-Forde was instrumental in securing the passage of
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Proposition 13. One strange aspect of the political consultant-client relationship is indeed highlighted by Sabato in relation to that contract between H o w a r d Jarvis and Butcher-Forde for, as he points out, the contract was obtained on the initiative of the consulting firm. Political consulting firms can and do solicit for custom and it is a short step f r o m that solicitation to the encouragement of primary bids and the extension o f referendum campaigns. Moreover, as Sabato suggests in his concluding chapter, once a political consultant has helped a g o v e r n o r or m a y o r to win an election the consultant will frequently expect state or local g o v e r n m e n t contracts in return. 13 Direct mail occupies a special position in the arsenal of new election techniques. It was not o f course invented by either the 'new right' or Richard Viguerie, although Sabato admits that when it comes to the use o f the 'poisoned pen of politics' the Right has a very marked advantage over their liberal opponents w h o have not begun 'to match the product quality and technology o f Viguerie's direct mail'. TM Richard Viguerie himself has frequently c o m m e n t e d on h o w he was determined to become the best direct mail fund-raiser in America and his perception as early as 1965 that what the Right lacked was ' s o m e o n e who could take ideas, the writings and the books and market them to the people'. ~s The increased speed and sophistication o f c o m p u t e r technology means that all the wonders of w o r d processors are available to produce packages which make their communication from the candidate look personalized rather than mass produced and some even circumvent the need for manual preparation of the package at any stage. There is no need to provide a detailed description of exactly how direct mail works here. 16What is important to emphasize is the extent to which it is a technique that is almost tailor-made for the needs of the ' n e w right'. In particular it provides a simple method o f reaching that g r o u p which Republicans and many on the Right have always regarded as their special c o n s t i t u e n c y - - t h e so-called 'silent majority', iv It is, in short, a way of mobilizing and activating sections of American society which might not normally join pressure groups or become party activists but whose resentments, fears and concerns can be tapped for political purposes. On one level of democratic theory such a method of political mobilization as direct mail spreads participation and ensures that the values and opinions of non-~lite groups are taken into account by decision makers. On another level, however, it is obvious that the way in which this process works involves the simplification o f political debates and divisions to the point o f distortion. Certainly m u c h o f the material used by direct mail entrepreneurs is crude and combines a degree o f sensationalism with a strongly negative message. It is much easier to solicit support for the Right to Life eglovement because one can send out a package depicting gruesome images o f aborted foetuses than it is for defenders o f a liberal abortion law to draw" attention to the damage that can be done by an unwanted pregnancy. Direct mail enables a candidate, party or g r o u p to take its message straight to the voter without the need to channel it via the media; but the appeal has to be pitched in terms which will convince the reader immediately. E m o t i o n , as Sabato observes, is the secret ingredient used in varying doses by direct mail consultants to sell their candidate or cause. One aspect o f direct mail which makes it different from other forms o f political consultancy is that it is a technique well-suited to challengers and less useful to incumbents. In part this is because the critical and negative message is an easier one to posit via direct mail than the moderate or constructive viewpoint. But it is also the result o f an outlook a m o n g direct mail operatives which sharply distinguishes
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them from pollsters and general consultants. In direct mail, it seems, the healthy balance sheet counts for a great deal more than winning and a direct mail consultant will not feel that his standing has been damaged if his client does not in fact achieve victory. Obviously it is desirable for the consultant to see direct mail making an evident electoral impact as may have happened, for example, in Daniel Crane's 1978 primary and general election victories in Illinois. TM But both the candidate or cause can acquire money and publicity without necessarily winning at the end o f the day and in some circumstances that is sufficient. Sabato suggests that direct mail consultants actually prefer challengers to incumbents as clients and o f course in the 1970s and early 1980s such a preference implies that they are going to prefer Republicans to Democrats: 'In most cases in conservative direct mail, the strategy must be a negative one directed at the incumbent. We like to go with c h a l l e n g e r s . . . With challengers you can really take out after an incumbent. '19 It may be that if the last decade had seen Democrats as overwhelmingly cast in the role o f challengers and the Republicans as incumbents, the direct mail industry would not have acquired the political prominence which it now has. But the fact that the Republicans and pressure groups like the Committee on the Present Danger and the Right to Work Committee were on the offensive has helped to blend the medium of direct mail with the message and tone o f the Right. z~ Direct mail is not the only development in the field o f election strategy nor the only unforeseen consequence o f the electoral reforms of the early 1970s. The development o f Political Action Committees to the point where they compete with the parties for funds has been a major contributing factor to the decentralizing of the party system. N o t all PACs, o f course, are ideological or even single issue PACs but where such PACs are active on the electoral scene a great deal o f time will be spent on the details o f electoral organization, campaign management and the intricacies o f tax and election law. 21 Thus a single issue group such as the Right to Life Movement devotes a substantial p r o p o r t i o n of its conference time to campaign tactics; and a body such as Paul Weyrich's Committee for the Survivalofa Free Congress specializes in providing training for selected candidates in the 'new ways o f winning elections'. Weyrich like Viguerie is ideologically exclusive and administers a seventy-part questionnaire to every candidate who approaches the group for assistance. = But his initiatives have introduced a new level of campaign sophistication to some sections o f the American political scene where hitherto there was little electoral mobilization. Thus in the 1980 primary season Paul Weyrich was b r o u g h t by Ed McAteer o f the Religious Roundtable to address a meeting of pastors at Atlanta and to advise on how they could organize their congregations in the election campaigns. 23 An aggressive attitude towards campaigning, an attention to the nuts and bolts of organization and a fascination with the political arts o f manipulation constitute defining features o f the 'new right' in America and significant general developments on the United States electoral scene. From the perspective of the party system it is worth mentioning that the 'new right' is in many respects hostile and antagonistic to the existing party system. Clearly a n u m b e r o f candidates who end up being supported by the 'new right' machines of Weyrich and his allies are Republican and the vast majority of politicians to w h o m the 'new right' label might be applied are in fact Republicans despite the attempts by 'new right' groups to find ideologically suitable Democrats to support. Yet the leading figures in the 'new right' owe no loyalty to the Republican Party as such. It is a brand o f radical conservatism which
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they wish to p r o m o t e and the Republican Party will be supported only when it is seen as the best instrument for advancing their particular set of values. Obviously party cohesion and loyalty has never been as great in the United States as in countries like Britain and there is a long tradition o f populist cum progressive opposition to the p o w e r o f formal party organization. Many leaders o f the 'new right' would explicitly identify with this tradition as would perhaps the elements in the Republican Party which while not 'new right'- are not comfortable with the patrician, Ivy League East Coast image of the G O P . The most extreme example of this mentality is perhaps Richard Viguerie whose desire for a fundamental realignment in American politics caused him to refuse taking the Republican Party on as a client; but Paul Weyrich's network of coalitions of single-issue groups is a similar manifestation of an innate distrust of parties and a preference for an altogether more fluid method of politics in the absence of a viable conservative party. Sabato's assessment of the role which the political consultants have played in accelerating party decline is measured: The 'personality cult' campaign and the general deterioration of the party system are perfectly acceptable to most political consultants. In fact, they themselves, along with their political wares have played a moderate part in personalizing and glamorizing American politics and in the continuing decline of party organization. While certainly not initiating the party's decline, they have nonetheless aided and abetted the slide, sometimes with malice aforethought. 24
It would nevertheless be a mistake to underestimate the extent to which some of the political consultants are committed to trying to change the shape of American party politics on intellectual as well as self-interested grounds. *
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The strange synthesis o f political adviser and political activist which has arisen because o f the increased importance of consultants in America poses, as Sabato correctly perceives, several questions o f general significance for the functioning of American democracy. There are the obvious ethical problems which now need something with more credibility than the rather weak code of ethics of the American Association of Political Consultants. 25 There is the question of whether what Sabato calls 'cross-pollination' o f political campaigns has occurred as a result of a few major consultants handling a large n u m b e r of clients and as a result of the technology available to them being very similar. As Sabato emphasizes, however, this should not be exaggerated because an election in Maryland is still different from one in W y o m i n g and, it might be added, because in fact there are still e n o r m o u s variations in the skills, costs and applications of the new technology. Political consultants, media and direct mail are going to play an inevitable role in a state the size of California; they may p r o v e less important in Utah or Vermont. One by-product of the political consuhancy cult and the availability of new professional services for the candidate regardless of party may be that an additional element o f competition is introduced into the electoral process. Well chosen direct mail campaigns and careful campaign tactics based on precise polling data may turn an outsider into a victor and a minority part), standard bearer into the incumbent. Again it is important not to exaggerate. At the same time as scholars have been d o c u m e n t i n g the tendency for House elections to become less competitive, there
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has developed an awareness that the position of an incumbent senator is by no means as secure whether for reasons associated with national visibility or for reasons that have more to do with the difficulty of nurturing a Senate constituency. 26 New techniques such as direct mail can help a challenger raise and spend money in an effort to counter-balance the advantages enjoyed by an incumbent Congressman while intervention in campaigns by independent PACs also helps to modify the incumbency advantage. If campaigns may have become more h o m o g e n e o u s and more competitive as a result o f the influence exerted by political consultants, there is, according to Sabato, a tendency for them to have been narrowed by the development. The issues to be concentrated upon are the ones selected by the consultant not the electorate, the themes addressed not the great topics o f national importance but the ones where the o p p o n e n t is vulnerable. The blending o f technique and issue selection can to some extent be seen in the evolution o f a category of issues k n o w n as 'social issues' or 'family issues'--terms which are n o w almost a codeword on the right for abortion, opposition to gay rights, hostility to busing, affirmative action and E.R.A. and support for school prayer. This cluster o f issues is readily understood by the electorate and offers candidates who choose to exploit the issues by direct mail a rich source o f publicity. As with McCarthy's decision to take up the issue of communist subversion, these issues exist in American politics more because candidates need issues than because they constitute genuine problems. 27 The only difference between McCarthy's manipulation o f the communist issue and today's 'new right' manipulation of the 'family issue', however, is that to a very large extent the choice o f theme is dictated by the campaign consultants and the technology as much as by the candidate. Political consultants, PACs, direct mail and pollsters are not going to disappear from American politics although it is possible that the Supreme Court could revise its ruling on independent expenditures and that Congress might change the Federal Election Campaign Act. (It is equally possible that direct mail may lose its potency as a cynical nation is saturated by computerized solicitations.) However, until these major changes occur political scientists and students of elections would be wise to devote further effort to studying the new class o f political brokers.
Notes 1. For a recent revision o f the models o f the American voter see M. Fiorina, Retrospective Voting in American National Elections, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981). 2. For an overview o f the impact o f the reforms on the presidential election see James W. Ceaser, Reforming the Reforms, (Cambridge, Mass: Ballinger Publishing Co., 1982). 3. For example J. McGinniss's classic, The Selling of the President 1968, (New York: Pocket Books, 1968). 4. Larry J. Sabato, The Rise of Political Consultants: New Ways of Winning Elections, ( N e w York: Basic Books, 1981). 5. Sabato, Rise of Political Consultants p. 295 6. Sabato, Rise of Political Consultants p. 296. 7. 96 S.Ct. 612 (1976). 8. Symms w o n Idaho by just 1 per cent o f the total vote. I am grateful to M r A n d r e w Barton o f Lincoln College, Oxford for discussing this race in detail with me and for sharing his research on it with me. 9. I am greatly indebted to M r Blaemire for discussing the origins o f the Committee with me and for other information in connection with the Indiana Senate race.
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10. 1 am grateful to Ms M.E. Lewis of Simon Winchell Associates for help in my researches on this topic. 11. Sabato, Rise of Political Consultanls, p. 294. 12. Sabato, Rise of Political Consultants, p. 47. 13. Sabato, Rise of Political Consultants, p. 309. 14. Sabato, p. 223. 15. R.A. Viguerie, The New Right: We're Ready to Lead, (Falls Church, Virginia: The Viguerie Company, 1980), p. 28. 16. For a full discussion see Sabato, The Rise of Political Consultants, pp. 220ff. 267. This discussion is virtually the only extensive study of the subject. 17. For an interesting discussion of Republican attitudes see K. Phillips, The Emerging Republican Majority (New Rochelle, Arlington House, 1969) and the same authors 'Post Conservative America' in New York Review of Books, 13 May 1982. 18. See M. Barone, G. Ujifusa and D. Matthews, 7"he Almanac oj'Ameriean Politics, 1980, p. 274. 19. Sabato, The Rise of Political Consultants, p. 225. 20. The Committee on the Present Danger was opposed to President Carter's ~Breign policy and organized direct mail campaigns on the Salt initiative; the Right to Work Committee's direct mail campaign helped to defeat President Carter's common situs picketing bill. 21. The literature on these related topics is now substantial but a useful introduction is M. Malbin, Parties, interest Groups and Campaign Finance 1.aws, (Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1980). Also of use is R.J. Hrebenar and R. Scott, Interest Group Politics in America, (Englewood Cliffs, N J: prentice Hall, 1982). 22. Sabato, The Rise of Political Consultants, p. 27. 23. I am indebted to Mr R.J.L. London for this information. 24. Sabato, The Rise of Political Consultants, p. 286. 25. Sabato, The Rise of Political Consultants reprints the whole code on page 306. 26. For a discussion of these issues in relation to finance see Gary C. Jacobson, Monq), m Congressional Elections (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980). 27. See Thomas C. Reeves, The Life and Times o/Joe McCarthy, (London: Blond and Briggs, 1982) who quotes Earl Latham's distinction between the communist issue in the United States and the communist problem.
© Butterworths 1982
Campaign Consultants GILLIAN PEELE
Lady MargaretHall, Oxford, England It has long been customary to view American elections as much as exercises in marketing strategy as opportunities for citizens to participate in the political process. Even if the somewhat cynical approach to voting and voters that is to be found in the political science literature o f the 1960s has now been modified by a younger generation o f scholars, it would be an unusual observer of the United States who could find its manner o f choosing political leaders entirely satisfactory2 Central to most systems o f d e m o c r a t i c g o v e r n m e n t is the political party but in America the period since 1968 has seen a decline in the role of party. The extent of the decline o f the party as a key institution in the American political process has perhaps been exaggerated; but what is clear is that a series o f developments from deliberate reforms like the Federal Election Campaign Act to improvements in computer technology have profoundly changed the American political landscape, z New political actors political consultants, Political Action Committees (PACs) and p o l l s t e r s - - n o w rival the parties and perform functions which the o r t h o d o x Democratic and Republican organizations hitherto monopolized. The fragmentation o f American political life has been intensified by the increasing sophistication o f the techniques o f electioneering. The intricacies o f polling, tracking and computerized direct mail, as well as the problems associated with the use of the media, demand specialist knowledge; those who have it are well placed to influence candidates not merely on the details of how to package himself to the electoral constituency but also on broad policy issues as well. Until very recently the new middle men o f politics--the political c o n s u l t a n t s - had received very little serious academic attention, although they had received a certain amount o f journalistic c o v e r a g e ) Now, however, there is a major study o f how political consultants interact with candidates and the various services which they p e r f o r m ) Yet much work still remains to be done in this area both because the situation is one which is rapidly changing and because the role of political consultants poses serious questions o f accountability and control. In this essay I want to focus on an area where the worlds o f political consultants, active politicians and ideological strategists meet and indeed merge. The 'new right' has made mastery o f electioneering one of its primary tenets and individuals such as Richard Viguerie, the right o f centre direct mail entrepreneur, and Paul Weyrich w h o heads a variety o f study groups and PACs, are examples of individuals who not only supply services to candidates but who are outspoken in their wish to transform the American political system. In general terms it is one o f the peculiarities o f modern election technology that the Republican Party and the Right as a whole has been able to take advantage o f it in a way which has so far eluded the Democrats and the liberals. Much has been made of the superior organizational position of the Republicans in 1980 but as Larry Sabato has commented: ' . . . the technological
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and organizational gap between the two parties is certainly wider now than it has ever been, but there are indications that Republicans have been more willing and able than Democrats to experiment with new techniques during the entire age of political consultantship. 's And the same author goes on to speculate that the Democratic defeats o f 1980 'may well shake the party out o f its lethargy and spur it on to modernization'. ~ Perhaps the 1982 mid-term elections will reveal that a move has in fact been made in the direction o f modernization; but at the moment it has to be admitted that the Right has gained a superior position with respect to election arts and that it will take some time before that superiority is eroded. The most dramatic use of new election techniques has perhaps been made not by the formal Republican Party but by a section o f the American political constellation known as the 'new right'. Its organizations, electoral tactics and strategies throw into sharp relief the changed contours o f American politics and underline the way in which the quality o f American political debate, the direction of funding and the relationship between a candidate and his party can all be affected by a few alterations in the rules governing elections. In particular it should be remembered that the Supreme Court decision in Buckley v. Valeo had a profound effect on the propensity o f pressure groups to intervene in election campaigns since it precluded the imposition of campaign expenditure limits on individuals or PACs where they were not connected with the formal organization of a candidate. 7 This so-called 'independent expenditure loophole' makes it almost inevitable that there will be a major expansion of direct pressure group involvement in campaigns. As parties find it difficult to recruit activists, voluntary help may be provided by other organizations such as the Right to Life M o v e m e n t or the Moral Majority. As Sabato suggests, other forms of theoretically independent aid may include polling for a favoured candidate, independent telephone banks to identify a candidate's voters and independent direct mail packages. The problem o f such a situation is that at the end o f the day the candidate will find himself in debt to a plethora o f different groups if he wins and they can claim, however bizarrely, that they contributed to the victory. Equally a candidate may find his campaign seriously affected by the activities of organizations over which he has no control but which can be used by an opponent to associate the candidate's line with that o f the independent organization. The tactics o f the Anybody But Church Committee in Idaho may or may not have met with Steve Symm's approval; but its activities allowed Church to try, albeit unsuccessfully, to brand Symms as an extreme right-winger, s Before examining some o f the features of the 'new right' which have made it well suited to exploit the changed electoral environment of the 1970s and 1980s it might be advantageous to clarify what is meant by the term 'new right'. For, although the phrase 'new right' has passed into America's political vocabulary and there is an intuitive appreciation of its meaning, it is sufficiently imprecise to cause doubt and uncertainty in some contexts. Clearly there are individuals such as Howard Phillips of Conservative Caucus, Paul Weyrich of the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress and Richard Viguerie whom any observer would identify as 'new right' and who would so identify themselves. Equally there are organizations such as Terry Dolan's National Conservative Political Action Committee, Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority, Gun Owners of America and the American Legislative Exchange Councilwhich would be seen by most commentators as parts o f the 'new right'. But while there is an important set of links and contacts between these groups and individuals as well as a network o f interlocking directorates, the 'new right' is probably best defined in
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terms of its style and orientation towards contemporary American politics. Despite its tendency to yearn for the days of a simpler America, it appears more than ready to adapt to the pressures o f the contemporary electoral scene and to welcome the opportunities presented by the looser party system of the post-1968 years. The 'new right' is not therefore a formal m o v e m e n t or organization and it is not even to be distinguished by a cut-and-dried ideology. However, it does have some distinctive features which merit discussion here since they are intimately related to developments in election technology and in the wider party system. The first feature of the 'new right' which marks it out as distinctive at least in the history of American conservatism is its determination to succeed. Clinton Rossiter dubbed the conservative creed in the United States the 'thankless persuasion' but by concentrating on the minutiae of electoral organization today's right-wing strategists hope to transform American public policy and to see candidates of their ideological colour winning elections. Debate continues about the extent o f the 'new right' influence in the 1980 elections and it may well be that the impact of groups such as the Moral Majority has been grossly exaggerated. However, one measure of the perceived influence of the 'new right' is to be found in the variety of groups formed to counter its influence. N o r m a n Lear has been active in p r o m o t i n g a group k n o w n as Peoplefor the American Way which is designed to resist the involvement of religion and right-of-centre politics. One o f Birch Bayh's aides Robert Blaemire - - h a s founded the Committeefor American Principlesto mobilize opposition to what were seen as negative tactics used by the 'new right' in Indiana where in 1980 Dan Quayle ultimately defeated the incumbent senator. 9 And former Senator George M c G o v e r n has himself founded a group--Americans for Common Sense--dedicated to counteracting the 'new right' forces which contributed to his defeat in South Dakota. A new m o o d has been created on the Right o f American politics which, while it may be transitory, has put liberalism on the defensive and proved useful both in electioneering and in fund-raising. The aggressive style o f the 'new right' is a feature which is closely connected with its second characteristic--attention to the detail o f election laws, campaigning techniques and fund-raising methods. Mention has already been made of Richard Viguerie whose specialist role as direct mail consultant and 'new right' activist makes him a highly visible member of the political consultancy corps. Yet Viguerie's preference for right wing causes and clients is not peculiar to his firm. Stephen Winchell Associates has been central to the Republican National Committee's use o f direct mail to transform itself into a party o f small donors rather than o f ' f a t cats'] ° As Sabato points out the campaign brought the Republican Party from 'near bankruptcy' in 1975 to a financial position 'unrivalled in its history'.t1 In 1979 Winchell Associates helped to raise $20 million dollars for the Republican Party and has constructed its own highly treasured list o f donors which forms the basis o f any solicitation. The Winchell firm, although Republican in orientation, was willing to take the national Republican Party as a client when Viguerie himself refused to do so because o f the latter's wish to see a fundamental realignment in American politics. 12 Bruce Eberle Associates is similarly active on the Right of American politics and was the consultancy firm used by Ronald Reagan in his 1976 presidential nomination bid as well as pressure groups that have m u s h r o o m e d in opposition to initiatives such as the Salt-11 Treaty. At the state level also these firms are important. Stephen Winchell handles a large amount o f law and order work in California, while Butcher-Forde was instrumental in securing the passage of
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Proposition 13. One strange aspect of the political consultant-client relationship is indeed highlighted by Sabato in relation to that contract between H o w a r d Jarvis and Butcher-Forde for, as he points out, the contract was obtained on the initiative of the consulting firm. Political consulting firms can and do solicit for custom and it is a short step f r o m that solicitation to the encouragement of primary bids and the extension o f referendum campaigns. Moreover, as Sabato suggests in his concluding chapter, once a political consultant has helped a g o v e r n o r or m a y o r to win an election the consultant will frequently expect state or local g o v e r n m e n t contracts in return. 13 Direct mail occupies a special position in the arsenal of new election techniques. It was not o f course invented by either the 'new right' or Richard Viguerie, although Sabato admits that when it comes to the use o f the 'poisoned pen of politics' the Right has a very marked advantage over their liberal opponents w h o have not begun 'to match the product quality and technology o f Viguerie's direct mail'. TM Richard Viguerie himself has frequently c o m m e n t e d on h o w he was determined to become the best direct mail fund-raiser in America and his perception as early as 1965 that what the Right lacked was ' s o m e o n e who could take ideas, the writings and the books and market them to the people'. ~s The increased speed and sophistication o f c o m p u t e r technology means that all the wonders of w o r d processors are available to produce packages which make their communication from the candidate look personalized rather than mass produced and some even circumvent the need for manual preparation of the package at any stage. There is no need to provide a detailed description of exactly how direct mail works here. 16What is important to emphasize is the extent to which it is a technique that is almost tailor-made for the needs of the ' n e w right'. In particular it provides a simple method o f reaching that g r o u p which Republicans and many on the Right have always regarded as their special c o n s t i t u e n c y - - t h e so-called 'silent majority', iv It is, in short, a way of mobilizing and activating sections of American society which might not normally join pressure groups or become party activists but whose resentments, fears and concerns can be tapped for political purposes. On one level of democratic theory such a method of political mobilization as direct mail spreads participation and ensures that the values and opinions of non-~lite groups are taken into account by decision makers. On another level, however, it is obvious that the way in which this process works involves the simplification o f political debates and divisions to the point o f distortion. Certainly m u c h o f the material used by direct mail entrepreneurs is crude and combines a degree o f sensationalism with a strongly negative message. It is much easier to solicit support for the Right to Life eglovement because one can send out a package depicting gruesome images o f aborted foetuses than it is for defenders o f a liberal abortion law to draw" attention to the damage that can be done by an unwanted pregnancy. Direct mail enables a candidate, party or g r o u p to take its message straight to the voter without the need to channel it via the media; but the appeal has to be pitched in terms which will convince the reader immediately. E m o t i o n , as Sabato observes, is the secret ingredient used in varying doses by direct mail consultants to sell their candidate or cause. One aspect o f direct mail which makes it different from other forms o f political consultancy is that it is a technique well-suited to challengers and less useful to incumbents. In part this is because the critical and negative message is an easier one to posit via direct mail than the moderate or constructive viewpoint. But it is also the result o f an outlook a m o n g direct mail operatives which sharply distinguishes
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them from pollsters and general consultants. In direct mail, it seems, the healthy balance sheet counts for a great deal more than winning and a direct mail consultant will not feel that his standing has been damaged if his client does not in fact achieve victory. Obviously it is desirable for the consultant to see direct mail making an evident electoral impact as may have happened, for example, in Daniel Crane's 1978 primary and general election victories in Illinois. TM But both the candidate or cause can acquire money and publicity without necessarily winning at the end o f the day and in some circumstances that is sufficient. Sabato suggests that direct mail consultants actually prefer challengers to incumbents as clients and o f course in the 1970s and early 1980s such a preference implies that they are going to prefer Republicans to Democrats: 'In most cases in conservative direct mail, the strategy must be a negative one directed at the incumbent. We like to go with c h a l l e n g e r s . . . With challengers you can really take out after an incumbent. '19 It may be that if the last decade had seen Democrats as overwhelmingly cast in the role o f challengers and the Republicans as incumbents, the direct mail industry would not have acquired the political prominence which it now has. But the fact that the Republicans and pressure groups like the Committee on the Present Danger and the Right to Work Committee were on the offensive has helped to blend the medium of direct mail with the message and tone o f the Right. z~ Direct mail is not the only development in the field o f election strategy nor the only unforeseen consequence o f the electoral reforms of the early 1970s. The development o f Political Action Committees to the point where they compete with the parties for funds has been a major contributing factor to the decentralizing of the party system. N o t all PACs, o f course, are ideological or even single issue PACs but where such PACs are active on the electoral scene a great deal o f time will be spent on the details o f electoral organization, campaign management and the intricacies o f tax and election law. 21 Thus a single issue group such as the Right to Life Movement devotes a substantial p r o p o r t i o n of its conference time to campaign tactics; and a body such as Paul Weyrich's Committee for the Survivalofa Free Congress specializes in providing training for selected candidates in the 'new ways o f winning elections'. Weyrich like Viguerie is ideologically exclusive and administers a seventy-part questionnaire to every candidate who approaches the group for assistance. = But his initiatives have introduced a new level of campaign sophistication to some sections o f the American political scene where hitherto there was little electoral mobilization. Thus in the 1980 primary season Paul Weyrich was b r o u g h t by Ed McAteer o f the Religious Roundtable to address a meeting of pastors at Atlanta and to advise on how they could organize their congregations in the election campaigns. 23 An aggressive attitude towards campaigning, an attention to the nuts and bolts of organization and a fascination with the political arts o f manipulation constitute defining features o f the 'new right' in America and significant general developments on the United States electoral scene. From the perspective of the party system it is worth mentioning that the 'new right' is in many respects hostile and antagonistic to the existing party system. Clearly a n u m b e r o f candidates who end up being supported by the 'new right' machines of Weyrich and his allies are Republican and the vast majority of politicians to w h o m the 'new right' label might be applied are in fact Republicans despite the attempts by 'new right' groups to find ideologically suitable Democrats to support. Yet the leading figures in the 'new right' owe no loyalty to the Republican Party as such. It is a brand o f radical conservatism which
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they wish to p r o m o t e and the Republican Party will be supported only when it is seen as the best instrument for advancing their particular set of values. Obviously party cohesion and loyalty has never been as great in the United States as in countries like Britain and there is a long tradition o f populist cum progressive opposition to the p o w e r o f formal party organization. Many leaders o f the 'new right' would explicitly identify with this tradition as would perhaps the elements in the Republican Party which while not 'new right'- are not comfortable with the patrician, Ivy League East Coast image of the G O P . The most extreme example of this mentality is perhaps Richard Viguerie whose desire for a fundamental realignment in American politics caused him to refuse taking the Republican Party on as a client; but Paul Weyrich's network of coalitions of single-issue groups is a similar manifestation of an innate distrust of parties and a preference for an altogether more fluid method of politics in the absence of a viable conservative party. Sabato's assessment of the role which the political consultants have played in accelerating party decline is measured: The 'personality cult' campaign and the general deterioration of the party system are perfectly acceptable to most political consultants. In fact, they themselves, along with their political wares have played a moderate part in personalizing and glamorizing American politics and in the continuing decline of party organization. While certainly not initiating the party's decline, they have nonetheless aided and abetted the slide, sometimes with malice aforethought. 24
It would nevertheless be a mistake to underestimate the extent to which some of the political consultants are committed to trying to change the shape of American party politics on intellectual as well as self-interested grounds. *
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The strange synthesis o f political adviser and political activist which has arisen because o f the increased importance of consultants in America poses, as Sabato correctly perceives, several questions o f general significance for the functioning of American democracy. There are the obvious ethical problems which now need something with more credibility than the rather weak code of ethics of the American Association of Political Consultants. 25 There is the question of whether what Sabato calls 'cross-pollination' o f political campaigns has occurred as a result of a few major consultants handling a large n u m b e r of clients and as a result of the technology available to them being very similar. As Sabato emphasizes, however, this should not be exaggerated because an election in Maryland is still different from one in W y o m i n g and, it might be added, because in fact there are still e n o r m o u s variations in the skills, costs and applications of the new technology. Political consultants, media and direct mail are going to play an inevitable role in a state the size of California; they may p r o v e less important in Utah or Vermont. One by-product of the political consuhancy cult and the availability of new professional services for the candidate regardless of party may be that an additional element o f competition is introduced into the electoral process. Well chosen direct mail campaigns and careful campaign tactics based on precise polling data may turn an outsider into a victor and a minority part), standard bearer into the incumbent. Again it is important not to exaggerate. At the same time as scholars have been d o c u m e n t i n g the tendency for House elections to become less competitive, there
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has developed an awareness that the position of an incumbent senator is by no means as secure whether for reasons associated with national visibility or for reasons that have more to do with the difficulty of nurturing a Senate constituency. 26 New techniques such as direct mail can help a challenger raise and spend money in an effort to counter-balance the advantages enjoyed by an incumbent Congressman while intervention in campaigns by independent PACs also helps to modify the incumbency advantage. If campaigns may have become more h o m o g e n e o u s and more competitive as a result o f the influence exerted by political consultants, there is, according to Sabato, a tendency for them to have been narrowed by the development. The issues to be concentrated upon are the ones selected by the consultant not the electorate, the themes addressed not the great topics o f national importance but the ones where the o p p o n e n t is vulnerable. The blending o f technique and issue selection can to some extent be seen in the evolution o f a category of issues k n o w n as 'social issues' or 'family issues'--terms which are n o w almost a codeword on the right for abortion, opposition to gay rights, hostility to busing, affirmative action and E.R.A. and support for school prayer. This cluster o f issues is readily understood by the electorate and offers candidates who choose to exploit the issues by direct mail a rich source o f publicity. As with McCarthy's decision to take up the issue of communist subversion, these issues exist in American politics more because candidates need issues than because they constitute genuine problems. 27 The only difference between McCarthy's manipulation o f the communist issue and today's 'new right' manipulation of the 'family issue', however, is that to a very large extent the choice o f theme is dictated by the campaign consultants and the technology as much as by the candidate. Political consultants, PACs, direct mail and pollsters are not going to disappear from American politics although it is possible that the Supreme Court could revise its ruling on independent expenditures and that Congress might change the Federal Election Campaign Act. (It is equally possible that direct mail may lose its potency as a cynical nation is saturated by computerized solicitations.) However, until these major changes occur political scientists and students of elections would be wise to devote further effort to studying the new class o f political brokers.
Notes 1. For a recent revision o f the models o f the American voter see M. Fiorina, Retrospective Voting in American National Elections, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981). 2. For an overview o f the impact o f the reforms on the presidential election see James W. Ceaser, Reforming the Reforms, (Cambridge, Mass: Ballinger Publishing Co., 1982). 3. For example J. McGinniss's classic, The Selling of the President 1968, (New York: Pocket Books, 1968). 4. Larry J. Sabato, The Rise of Political Consultants: New Ways of Winning Elections, ( N e w York: Basic Books, 1981). 5. Sabato, Rise of Political Consultants p. 295 6. Sabato, Rise of Political Consultants p. 296. 7. 96 S.Ct. 612 (1976). 8. Symms w o n Idaho by just 1 per cent o f the total vote. I am grateful to M r A n d r e w Barton o f Lincoln College, Oxford for discussing this race in detail with me and for sharing his research on it with me. 9. I am greatly indebted to M r Blaemire for discussing the origins o f the Committee with me and for other information in connection with the Indiana Senate race.
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10. 1 am grateful to Ms M.E. Lewis of Simon Winchell Associates for help in my researches on this topic. 11. Sabato, Rise of Political Consultanls, p. 294. 12. Sabato, Rise of Political Consultants, p. 47. 13. Sabato, Rise of Political Consultants, p. 309. 14. Sabato, p. 223. 15. R.A. Viguerie, The New Right: We're Ready to Lead, (Falls Church, Virginia: The Viguerie Company, 1980), p. 28. 16. For a full discussion see Sabato, The Rise of Political Consultants, pp. 220ff. 267. This discussion is virtually the only extensive study of the subject. 17. For an interesting discussion of Republican attitudes see K. Phillips, The Emerging Republican Majority (New Rochelle, Arlington House, 1969) and the same authors 'Post Conservative America' in New York Review of Books, 13 May 1982. 18. See M. Barone, G. Ujifusa and D. Matthews, 7"he Almanac oj'Ameriean Politics, 1980, p. 274. 19. Sabato, The Rise of Political Consultants, p. 225. 20. The Committee on the Present Danger was opposed to President Carter's ~Breign policy and organized direct mail campaigns on the Salt initiative; the Right to Work Committee's direct mail campaign helped to defeat President Carter's common situs picketing bill. 21. The literature on these related topics is now substantial but a useful introduction is M. Malbin, Parties, interest Groups and Campaign Finance 1.aws, (Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1980). Also of use is R.J. Hrebenar and R. Scott, Interest Group Politics in America, (Englewood Cliffs, N J: prentice Hall, 1982). 22. Sabato, The Rise of Political Consultants, p. 27. 23. I am indebted to Mr R.J.L. London for this information. 24. Sabato, The Rise of Political Consultants, p. 286. 25. Sabato, The Rise of Political Consultants reprints the whole code on page 306. 26. For a discussion of these issues in relation to finance see Gary C. Jacobson, Monq), m Congressional Elections (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980). 27. See Thomas C. Reeves, The Life and Times o/Joe McCarthy, (London: Blond and Briggs, 1982) who quotes Earl Latham's distinction between the communist issue in the United States and the communist problem.