Content area
Full text
The Inside Story of the Hard-Fought Johnson vs. Pressler U.S. Senate Race in South Dakota
Only one U.S. Senate challenger defeated an incumbent in 1996. He was also the first to beat a Senate committee chairman in 12 years. And despite running in a state with a Republican majority where Bob Dole beat Bill Clinton, he was the first Democrat to oust a Republican Senator in six years. That's what Tim Johnson and the team he assembled accomplished on November 5.
Looking for the Differences
First, let's start with a few basic truths about elections. All campaigns are about differences. Those differences can be about policy, personality, values, experience, party, gender, race...you name it. Voters, however, take these differences and interpret them into character traits like smart, honest, effective or "cares about people like me." Ask any voter why they support a candidate. The reasons given are almost never "he/she voted for the ABM treaty" or "reformed welfare"; it's usually a list of character traits. Good campaigns decide what character traits they wish to own and which traits they wish to associate with their opponent. Thinking about an election this way forces a campaign to examine differences between candidates as voters do, rather than dissecting and communicating arcane issue differences only elites understand or care about.
It may be surprising, but virtually every major office incumbent who loses does so because of one crucial character trait: "cares about people like me." The electorate concludes the incumbent has lost touch and is not on their side. The validators for this alienation from the electorate normally happens for one of three reasons: 1) scandal, 2) issue differences or 3) incumbent arrogance. In the case of U.S. Senators, this arrogance normally shows up as having "gone Washington," and the abuse of the perks and privileges of office. Often candidates with serious ethical problems don't run again, like Senator Don Riegle or Senator Alan Cranston. Yet others like Governor Ed Deprete of Rhode Island, whom we helped defeat in 1990, lost because his administration was embroiled in a kickback scandal that destroyed the electorate's trust. In cases like these, the challenger, our candidate Bruce Sundlun, only had to appear to be a credible alternative to win. Other times,...