Campaign Craft

Book excerpt: Shea and Burton present a lively, comprehensive exploration of cutting-edge political campaign management. They cover all aspects of present-day political campaigns, from understanding the context of a particular campaign, to fundraising tips, to strategic thinking and scores of winning voter contact techniques. With careful attention and hard work, even average citizens can oversee sophisticated, state-of-the-art political campaigns. Those who try will find no aid more valuable than this book. Bringing to bear both academic and professional experience, Shea and Burton present a lively, comprehensive exploration of cutting-edge political campaign management. They cover every aspect of present-day political campaigning, from understanding the context of a particular campaign (national trends, the media market, demographic research, etc.) to strategic thinking and specific voter contact techniques that work. These techniques include tactical use of fundraising, paid media, free media--including the Internet--and get-out-the-vote drives. Throughout the text, the authors present up-to-date analysis, peppered with examples from national, state, and local campaigns. Campaign Craft is a comprehensive guide to modern electioneering--a must read for candidates and political activists, scholars, researchers, and all those interested in knowing how to run modern, high-tech campaigns.