In politics, you’re either on message or you’re losing. Let’s get to it.
Welcome to On Message, a weekly look at where the battle lines are drawn and who is winning the war of words.
This week… Dead Air.
Last week, we took a look at the first and (as far as I can tell) only TV spot on the air in the race for the U.S. Senate as the primary phase of the campaign gets into full swing.
Like most incumbents, Senator Mike Lee had a sizable war chest before the race began. He’s spending some on TV now and likely ready to spend more if the race demands it.
In the last week, Becky Edwards hasn’t added any videos to her website or social media and I, at least, have not seen any on TV. So we’ll get to her when there’s fresh material.
Ally Isom does have a three-minute spot on her website and it’s really well done. She uses the video as an introduction to who she is, tells about her family background, how she’s had to fight to get to where she, and family tragedies that have shaped her into the person she is today and the U.S. Senator she hopes to become.
This week, Isom also added three endorsement videos to her social media channels: one from Salt Lake County Council member, Aimee Winder Newton; one from Jeannette Bennet, a publisher in Utah County; and one from retired journalist, Ken Verdoia.
All three endorsement videos focus on the need for change and fresh ideas, but stop short of mentioning any specifics. And all three run just over one minute so they don’t appear to be designed for TV or pre-roll ads.
The biggest issue at the moment for each of the challengers’ campaigns isn’t really whether they can put together a good ad or land some influential endorsements… it’s whether or not they can get the message out enough to make any difference.
With under 50 days to go until the primary balloting closes and less than four weeks’ time until ballots are in the hands of voters, there isn’t much time for building name I.D. at this point anyway.
To make sure you are getting your message out to the full field of Republican GOP voters, you need to not just be on TV and on their assorted phone and tablet screens, you need to be there enough to saturate the market. Voters will need to hear your name and associate it with the race you are in at least seven times just to take notice – let alone be persuaded to cast a ballot for you.
Of course, the issue may very well be one of money. With limited resources, both challengers may not have enough cash on-hand to make a significant TV buy so they are going the social media route, which is a little challenging to track from the outside.
With such limited time remaining, Edwards and Isom need to be telling voters who they are, giving one solid, substantive reason they should replace Lee – and doing it over and over and over, everywhere you turn.
Everyday that goes by without that happening is a good day for the Lee campaign.
That’s it for this week.
More On Message in the next issue of the Utah Political Underground.
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