Inside Campaigns: Elections through the Eyes of Political Professionals

"Inside Campaigns: Elections Through the Eyes of Political Professionals is essential reading not only for students interested in running campaigns and for journalism students who want to cover politics, but for campaign operatives generally and journalists who want to raise the level of their game. In fact, it’s good reading for everybody."
―Thomas B. Edsall, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism

"Much of our useful knowledge sits at the intersection of disciplines.  Inside Campaigns demonstrates that through a skillful combination of political science with management in a highly readable and practical format. A first for this field!"
―Leonard A. Schlesinger, Baker Foundation Professor-Harvard Business School, President Emeritus-Babson College

Inside Campaigns, Second Edition takes readers on a journey into the world of campaign managers. Powered by scores of interviews and surveys of political professionals, the book considers the purpose, potency, and poetry of modern political campaigns in the US. The expert author team draw from years of scholarly research and professional campaign experience to guide readers on a behind-the-scenes tour of the ways campaigns are managed, the strategies that are employed, the roles played by both staff and the candidates, and the affects election outcomes have on American democracy. Readers will develop an understanding of what campaigns do and why they matter, as well as gain practical skills for working in a campaign or advocating for a cause. 

New to the Second Edition: 

• A case study created from an in-depth interview with Bernie Sanders’ top digital decision-makers describes how the Sanders’ campaign used digital media to harness the energy of their highly motivated base supporters. This case shows students a real-life campaign decision-making situation, and demonstrates how campaigns use new digital media to drive traditional news media coverage.
  
  
• A unique joint interview with the top media buyers from the Clinton and Trump campaigns reveals how each campaign tracked the other’s advertising and adjusted their own advertising based on competitive tracking information. This interview illustrates to students how modern campaigns use media tracking technologies to monitor their opposition and spend tens of millions of dollars at the presidential level.
  
  
• A top Trump digital manager shares inside details of how the Republican National Committee moved quickly to help build out the Trump digital operations after it was clear that Trump would be the party’s presidential nominee. This insight helps students understand how the Trump campaign answered, "What do we tell them?" by testing messages online, including recycling Trump’s personal tweets in instant messages and emails.
  
  
• The differences between how the Clinton and Trump campaigns managed the news media are highlighted in a case study of one journalist’s experiences covering both campaigns. This case study helps the student build skills for becoming a "spinmeister" who handles day-to-day relationships with the news media. The authors’ research surprisingly reveals that, behind the scenes, Trump was much more available to reporters than Clinton, despite Trump’s continuous public attacks on the "fake news media."

William J. Feltus is senior vice-president at National Media Research Planning and Placement LLC, an advertising and media agency in Alexandria, Virginia, where he manages political, corporate, and not-for-profit clients. Mr. Feltus is recognized as an innovator in the application of media research data to political and public affairs marketing. Providing polling, communications, and advertising services, he has worked for eight presidential campaigns and for gubernatorial, Senate and Congressional clients in forty-four states. Feltus has been a press secretary in the U.S. Senate, deputy campaign manager of President George H. W. Bush’s unsuccessful 1992 re-election bid, and staff director of the U.S. Senate Republican Conference. He received his B.A. from Yale and his M.B.A. from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Feltus has been an adjunct instructor at Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University and the University of San Francisco.

Ken Goldstein is a professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco and founding Director of the USF in DC program. Goldstein earned his PhD at the University of Michigan and before joining the University of San Francisco, he was a professor of Political Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison. While at the University of Wisconsin, he won the Kellet Award for his career research accomplishments and the Chancellor’s Award for excellence in teaching.

His publications on political advertising, voter turnout, survey methodology, presidential elections, and news coverage have appeared in top line political science journals and major university presses as well as in refereed law and medical journals.

Goldstein combines his academic training with an ear for real politics and strategy as well as an impressive set of contacts and extensive professional experience in a variety of media, corporate, and political settings. Goldstein is currently a consultant for the ABC News elections unit and a member of their election night decision team. He has worked on network election night coverage in every U.S. federal election since 1988.  You can read here about some of what he does on election nights.

Goldstein’s reputation for unbiased and non-partisan analysis has made him a favorite source for politicians and the news media alike. He has appeared numerous times on Newshour, ABC World News Tonight, NBC NightlyNews, CBS Evening News, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, CNBC and CNN, and is a frequent contributor on National Public Radio. He is also quoted extensively in the country’s top newspapers. Goldstein also hosted a weekly interview show, “Office Hours” that was broadcast on the Big Ten Network.

Matthew Dallek (Ph.D., Columbia University) is an assistant professor of political management in the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, where he teaches courses on political leadership, the presidency, and Washington’s political culture. He is the author of The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan’s First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics (Oxford University Press, 2004) and the forthcoming Defenseless Under the Night: The Roosevelt Years and the Origins of Homeland Security (Oxford University Press, 2016). His articles and reviews have appeared in many scholarly and popular publications including the Forum, the Journal of Policy History, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and Politico. In addition, he has been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center for the American West. He served as a speechwriter for House minority leader Richard A. Gephardt as well as William E. Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.