PSA: Campaigns

Because we are a week away from the Primary and campaigns are preparing their who’s or what will get blamed or take credit for their victory or defeat, let’s review some basics to see through the spin:

Labor does not run candidate campaigns
They can run IE campaign on behalf of candidates and issues but they are not the “campaigns.” Those belong to the candidate, their consultants, and staff. Regardless of what the other side would have you believe, Labor does not dictate to candidates how to run their campaigns.

The Democratic Party does not run candidate campaigns
Here, the other side gives the Dems too much credit. The purpose of the local party is to assist, though volunteers and the media, their endorsed candidates and causes. They do not operate candidate campaigns nor to they, like Labor, order campaigns to bow to their wishes.

Consultants run candidate campaigns
Ever notice how the local press goes to the consultant first, then the campaign manager? These hired guns are called in to give the campaign the oversight, direction, and keep said campaigns on course. They can tell campaigns what to do and can clue them into resources that these campaigns would otherwise not have.

Candidates run campaigns
The final nail of accountability goes to the name at the top of the letterhead. It is seen as a reflection of their abilities in being able to hire (and fire) the right people and to get elected. Some campaigns operate more independently of their consultant than others, but it is up to the candidate and their manager, chosen to be the right hand, to decide what is the best course of action. At the end of the day, it is the candidate who accepts responsibility for what has happened no matter who was at fault.

Unless there was some boneheaded move by a staffer, consultant or volunteer that gets press time, these are the tiers of responsibility.

So when consultants start blaming the “party” or “labor”, just remember that neither of these two can run the shop for the campaign. That’s why there is a campaign manager and consultant in the first place.

San Diego Still Hates Clean Elections, Sues Bowen

Back in August, Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced that she was disallowing the majority of DRE voting machines made by Diebold and Sequoia. Part of her move in August was to require that 10% of votes in a close election (less than one half of one percent) be counted by hand. As a result of the potential "logistical nightmare" of having to count so many votes by hand, San Diego County has been pushing hard for people to vote by mail. But apparently that wasn't going quite well enough. So now the Deborah Seiler, the San Diego County Registrar of Voters, is suing Debra Bowen over the issue.

The suit claims that counting 10% of votes by hand would create delays and extra work (boo hoo) and threaten the registrar's ability to complete the tabulation during the 28-day canvass period after the February 5 election. San Diego County asserts that Secretary Bowen lacks the authority to mandate such a change without providing the funds to pay for it, although Bowen spokesperson Nicole Winger says the law "clearly" gives Bowen that authority.

So what, you may wonder, makes this a particularly big issue in San Diego County? Well, it could be that Ms. Seiler is a former Diebold saleswoman who participated in the sale of Diebold machines to San Diego in 2003? Her deputy is confirmed election corrupter Michael Vu, who presided over illegal practices during the 2004 Ohio elections. On top of that, once you start having to verify all these darn votes, you might have problems with letting volunteers take voting machines home overnight. Even though having random people be granted unfettered access to voting machines seems safe.

It's really gotta be embarrassing for folks like Deborah Seiler to be complaining about votes being counted. Given that her job is to count votes. Wait, you want me to potentially count more than 1% of the votes? Who do you think I am? The Registar of Voters or something?

Cross posted from Calitics