OHIO Congressional Candidates: Listen Up!

Dear Friends in Ohio (and Other States): About mid-July, this Ohio site will become much more specific to the Buckeye State, focusing not only on the McCain Campaign, but also congressional races. If I ever don't have a new post on here, I invite you to visit my Pennsylvania blog or my national blog. Please click on them now and bookmark for future reference. I hope readers everywhere will forward this advice to your congressional candidates. I'm not charging any candidate for anything right now, but I do want to share ideas that work -- especially as they relate to the critical area of fundraising.


Michael and Kathy (and others), with Rajan Vaish's guidance I can help with the Wikipedia page for Republican candidates. It can't be a campaign ad -- must be biographical, although it can contain quotes. Wikipedia's software picks up if the entry closely resembles something else online, which would include a candidate's bio on his campaign web site. When Michael gets on Wikipedia, it will start drawing people (perhaps dozens more per day) to his web site. Hits on the site are everything, because the more hits the more contributions he will get.

In time, every candidate should consider having a video appeal (for support and funds) on his or her site. Over the weekend, I sent one candidate a 200-word (about a minute-and-a-half) "model" for her web site. Candidates need to do more on the web site than to have a "here's me" page. They should (hopefully by video, but at least in text) ask visitors to DO some specific things.

The most important thing a visitor can do is to contribute. A close second is to recommend the candidate to as many friends as possible . . . and specifically to ask friends to visit the web site. It's sort of a "virtuous circle," because contributors are the most likely to recommend the candidate. They're also the most likely to contribute again.

One of the big questions in politics is this: What should the candidate ask (specifically) of people who say, 'What can I do to help" or "I want to help . . ." I will have some suggestions about this on my Pennsylvania blog. But it's important to remember that a good portion of those who do want to help will not be able to spend, say, a weekend at campaign headquarters.

These are tricky questions, in other words, but the candidate should always ask supporters to take one, two, or three actions. Don't ask them to do a fourth unless they come back and say they've already done the first three.

I suggested that when candidates meet with small groups, they should have a tin cup as a prop and mention -- humorously -- that they are getting good at asking people, even strangers, for money. Jesse Jackson used to pass around a bucket at his rallies, and it worked well.

In terms of what to say, all the PA challengers are approaching a similar message, stating: "Look, if you want change -- and everybody does -- you won't get it by sending the same people back to Congress." That is similar to the definition of insanity ("doing the same thing over and over and hoping for different results").

Obama, Clinton, and McCain go out and give the same speech (it apparently works) hundreds of times. After awhile, candidates get real good at delivering THE SPEECH. Of course, they should tweak "The Speech" as necessary.

I believe candidates should say the statements about change and insanity until they're almost literally blue in the face. It's a great campaign slogan, especially for people running (as they all are) against sitting Democrats. (I could come out with another slogan related to those "sitting Democrats," who truly are sitting a lot and acting very little.)

Pennsylvania blog is at: http://pennsylvaniaforjohnmccain.blogspot.com/
National blog is at: http://stevemaloneygop.blogspot.com/.

PA Candidate running in area near Ohio:
Melissa Hart at: http://peoplewithhart.com/.
Hillary Supporters 4 McCain is at: http://hillarysupportersformccain.blogspot.com/.