2008 Primaries, Fundraising, Leadership, Messaging • March 6th, 2008

The value of endorsements

by Chris Lato

No big shock – President Bush has endorsed John McCain for President.

This is how the game is played, even though the two have had a stormy relationship in the past, particularly in the 2000 campaign. The Bush team was accused of dirty tricks that helped knock McCain out of the race.

However, McCain soldiered on and even campaigned for Bush’s re-election in 2004. As an aside, I had the pleasure of being in McCain’s presence for a 2004 Bush event in Madison – we walked him from the Historical Museum to a speaking engagement and he handled the hecklers in style. He has a forceful, even intimidating presence, but he dutifully did everything that was asked of him without complaint.

Consider the value of endorsements. Much like yard signs, endorsements don’t vote. Some say they hold little to no value. I disagree, to a point.

An endorsement can help you raise money. That is clearly the key value of President Bush’s endorsement, whose popularity ratings have fallen but still holds sway over the GOP faithful. Let’s face it, the president can still squeeze a lot of coin out of a room full of party faithful. And with McCain lagging behind the Democrats in terms of fundraising, he will need to turn up the jets and start dialing for dollars.

The endorsement sends the obvious message – this candidate has my blessing and approval. For a newbie candidate looking to make his bones, an endorsement from a well-known public figure lends weight and credibility. It can open doors.

If the endorser with weight and credibility also agrees to open up his rolodex and help you find campaign dollars, then all the better. In fact, endorsers should be relied upon to help promote and raise money for the candidate – that is a value-added benefit of a key endorsement and should be taken advantage of.

Of course, endorsements have downsides. Again, the President’s approval numbers are down, and McCain runs the risk of getting some of that stink on him. Still, it is a calculated risk – and it’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario. If President Bush didn’t endorse McCain, then all the pundits would be writing about the deep divides in the GOP and why McCain won’t stand with the President from his own party, etc.

If an endorser has baggage, or is disliked by the grassroots, that can cause headaches too. For example, no candidate wants to be asked to justify why he’s being endorsed by someone who’s tainted by scandal.

Endorsements can also lend an air of superiority, even inevitability, to a campaign. I’m thinking of the current state Supreme Court race, in which most of the Sheriffs and DAs in Wisconsin are on-record endorsing Gableman. You may have no idea who Gableman is, and I’m betting the vast majority of people out there don’t. But those endorsements may impress some people enough to vote for the guy.

So, the bottom line: Endorsements can help. Just don’t think that endorsements alone will help you coast to an election victory, because they won’t. Fundraising, pounding the pavement, having a grassroots plan and sticking to it, having clearly defined messages, a coordinated communications plan, etc., etc. Without all of these elements, most campaigns are DOA.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 3:31 pm and is filed under 2008 Primaries, Fundraising, Leadership, Messaging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.