Political Strategy 101

This short piece is an introduction to political pragmatism intended for ideologues and newbies interested in fighting the good fight up here in Northwest Indiana. An ideology is a personal or group view of how we wished the world worked. Realism, on the other hand, is recognizing, grasping and admitting how the world actually works. Any good pragmatist has an ideological way in which he wishes to govern but uses pragmatic means to get to that destination (office, power etc). We have figures in history as well as a few today that give us an indication of how pragmatic thinking and strategizing works. Famous names include (but are not limited to): Niccolo Machiavelli, Saul D. Alinsky, Sun Tzu, Napoleon Bonaparte and more recently, Barack Obama.

Strategy, whether in sports, business or even war, is about the efficient use of resources – minimizing inputs to maximize outputs. Political campaigning is no different. In sports, a coach does not spread out his defense evenly so that a star player on the opposing team can score easily. Instead, he forces that player into situations where he will be double teamed while the weak opponent is often left open. In war, a general does not evenly distribute his forces, artillery and rations evenly across the battlefield. Instead, he analyses the geography, finding weaknesses in the enemy’s line. It is that hole he wishes to exploit by concentrating his resources in an effort to achieve victory. A business does not spread out its resources, such as engineers and R&D funding towards all projects in the pipeline. Instead, the company analyzes the various competitors and their position in the various markets. A good example is Apple, with their presence in computers (iMac), MP3 Players (iTouch), phones (iPhone) and e-readers (iPad). The company will look to position itself where it can gain the best market share and obtain the highest return on investment for its shareholders. In politics, limited resources include volunteers (paid or non-paid) and money, which is used for mailings, yard signs, phone banks and door knockers. You don’t have to win all of the battles to win the war. One needs to be efficient with their resources if they want to claim real victory. Does it make sense for a political party to host a fundraiser only to redistribute the contributions evenly among candidates regardless of whether they are running for County Council or U.S. Senate? Absolutely not! This is why we must pick our battles wisely because if we don’t, we can easily lose the war.

Does anyone remember when the districts were redrawn nearly a decade ago by the Democrats in the Indiana Statehouse? Thanks to them we have House, Senate and Congressional Districts that are so gerrymandered; a legislator can represent someone from one hundred miles away but not their neighbor next door. Every two years, political data is accumulated after the election and studied - all the way down to the precinct level. For the most part, districts have been drawn to favor Democrats, however, as populations shift, the districts may become less useful to those who drew them. When we look at Indiana’s First Congressional District there is no doubt that it was drawn to serve politicians, not people. District 1 extends so far south, it ends just a little more than ten miles from Purdue’s main campus. However, nearly half of highway 49 through Valparaiso somehow managed to find itself in Congressional District 2. How is that for keeping communities of interest together? Forget LaPorte, Michigan City or even South Bend. It’s not like any of these communities use the same rail lines or highways. (note sarcasm)

What Republicans in the first district have to realize is that the seat is virtually un-winnable. First, the district is gerrymandered in such a way that Democrats have a strong advantage given historical voter turnout. Second, Pete has nearly 26 years of name recognition – this costs significant amounts of money for a new face to create. Given the current political climate in Washington though, Visclosky is more vulnerable than ever before. Because of this, we have a large field of (Republican) primary candidates. Although these candidates are all nice, well mannered and well intentioned people, they do not have the funding needed to run a competitive race against Visclosky. Just because his town halls are filled with angry people does not mean they represent the majority of the voting population. The local, state and national party will not fund a candidate because even they know this is a worthless endeavor, unless your purpose is to create name recognition for some other political aspiration. Given the number of wealthy, well known and well respected politically active Republicans in the region, why doesn’t one of them run against Pete this fall? Easy question! Owner of this blog, Steve Dalton, thought that attorney, Dan Dumezich should have ran for the seat after backing out from the U.S. Senate race last fall. Could Dan beat Pete? This author thinks so given his ability to fund-raise along with a voting record conservatives would enjoy. So why not?

It that simple – this is a battle that could lose the war for Republicans in both Lake and Porter County. If any hardball player decided to jump into the ring with Pete, they would be spending millions right off the bat creating name recognition. Secondly, Pete has strong relationships with many Republican business owners who would not change their loyalty based on party affiliation. The kicker is here – if Pete felt the pressure of a real competitor, he could drop millions upon millions of dollars in this race to get Democrats from all walks of life out to vote. Who would this hurt? Every single Republican candidate from local county races along with State Representative & Senate seats. Think about how many good, honest and hard working Republicans got booted from office because a single name (Obama) at the top of the ticket spurred the need for more straight ticket voting. We certainly don’t need any of that again although it will be here in 2012. We’re better off picking our battles like Mayors, City Council, County Council, State Rep and Senate seats. First off, they’re a lot cheaper to win and second, all politics is local. Build a power base from the ground up and you will have a much more fluid organization, just like Obama.

At the end of the day, politics is a game. Those who study the game and patiently observe by the sidelines will eventually become astute players. There are a lot of independent motives and objectives in the game which is why it is important to never show all of your cards. A good general knows how to be efficient and effective with his resources while also forcing the enemy to waste theirs. That is how you win a war.