Let’s say you’re running for public office and get caught urinating and masturbating in public. Let’s also say that, after being caught, you say nothing for a weekend and plead no contest (a.k.a. the prosecution makes their case and wins because you’d rather not plead guilty and fight). Because your consultant, not you, is saying you want to remain in the race, how would you move your campaign forward?
Some would drop out. Other more media-centric types would call a press conference and kill the issue outright.
Not our Larry Remer, consultant to John Harley. His solution is to mail to the district that his candidate was “taking a leak.” So, if you missed it in the news, the mail will announce that a man seeking your vote was caught up in something that is less than becoming for a candidate.
Now, I don’t know it was Remer’s decision. I just assumed because he makes a killing from mail (ask any resident of District 8 about the deluge of mailings of THE SAME PIECE for days before the election) that he would defer to such a “soft” touch rather than go before the cameras and slay the dragon.
IMHO mail is of limited use. It’s costly for campaigns to do so mail should be done with a precise target on a precise issue that HELPS YOUR CANDIDATE. Reminding and / or informing them of what happened isn’t help in my book, unless you’re collecting the check.
Speaking of check, while Remer was away on Hartley duty, Marti got hit on the Hedgecock show. Where was her consultant on this one? Can we expect a mailing to explain away this issue also?
11 comments:
The first thing in a PR disaster is to admit guilt, if any, and move on. I think Hartley waiting a week before saying anything and the no contest plea were bad enough. The mailing can't help his cause unless you're already committed to him.
Good thing it was such a beautiful piece with the candidates name spelled righ...oh wait.
Want to make a correction to my comment above...the PDF the UT had on their site yesterday had "Hartly" on it. Corrected versions are now up there and Voice.
Why didn't Hartley speak for himself rather than use his consultant? He's toast in the third.
Remer is also doing Marti's camapaign?
Hey thanks for the great blog, I love this stuff. I've been paying a lot of attention to politics lately and it made me realize that Earth day is coming up. I don’t usually do much for Earth Day but with everyone going green these days, I thought I’d try to do my part.
I am trying to find easy, simple things I can do to help stop global warming (I don’t plan on buying a hybrid). Has anyone seen that EarthLab.com is promoting their Earth Day (month) challenge, with the goal to get 1 million people to take their carbon footprint test in April?... I took the test, it was easy and only took me about 2 minutes and I am planning on lowering my score with some of their tips.
I am looking for more easy fun stuff to do. If you know of any other sites worth my time let me know.
Lazy Larry.
Larry Remer is a joke. When was the last time this guy won a hard fought race? Someday the local Dems and Labor might wake up and not hire the guy anymore.
I have to say that the surprising thing is that Hartly stayed in the race at all... I hope the mailer is followed by an ad campaign... Sport for bloggers.
Seriously though, what else should the campaign consultant recomend to do? He's not going to say "time to drop out". That would be the end of his job.
The decision to stay in the race should be the candidate's no matter what the consultant thinks. Besides, I agree with "Socrates in Love" that mail was probably a waste of money in dealing with this crisis.
Remember, it was just any mailer, but a full color, Larry Remer Special! Because why would you call a press conference, when you can send out mail and bill your client! C'mon, Remer has to feed his family here. . .
Of course, Hartley should be smarter than that. If he really wanted to save his campaign, Hartley should have been out in front of this thing right from the start. Ultimately, the mailer was Hartley's decision.
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