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Nov. 1, 2002

Are Campaigns Returning to Grassroots?

By J. Barlow Herget

RALEIGH - State Senator Eric Reeves, D-Wake, purchased thousands of dollars in television ads for his re-election bid here, but he also did what he did when he first ran for Raleigh City Council in 1993. He campaigned door to door.

Reeves, like every other state legislative candidate, ran in a newly drawn district this year. Says Reeves, "I wanted to introduce myself personally to new voters in my district."

Going door to door is classic "retail campaigning" and it is time consuming. Most political consultants will tell you that it’s a waste of time. Why spend three hours to meet 30 or 40 people a night when you can use that time raising money to reach 30,000 to 40,000 with television ads?

It’s a good question and few candidates, if they have the money, will substitute grass roots campaigning for television spots. Yet, candidates such as Reeves sense that changes in the television industry and TV technology have reduced that medium’s hold on prospective voters.

The large (and expensive) network television stations such as Raleigh’s WRAL (CBS), Durham’s WTVD (ABC) and Charlotte’s WCNC (NBC) no longer command 80 to 90 percent of the television audience the way they used to. Dozens more channels that use cable or satellite technology bleed off chunks of viewers. For example, to reach news junkies, you would advertise on channels such as CNN or Headline News. You reach a much smaller number of viewers but they tend to be frequent voters and the rates are far cheaper than Tom Brokaw’s evening news show.

The remote control is another piece of technology that has reduced the impact of the notorious 30-second TV spot. I am sure that I’m not alone when I click off a campaign advertisement as soon as I hear one of those now familiar, snarling voices accusing a decent candidate of vandalizing his mother’s grave.

In September, The New York Times’ Adam Nagourney looked at this issue. He wrote: "The once-overwhelming influence of television advertising on political campaigns is declining, Democratic and Republican leaders say, leading them to embrace aggressively old-fashioned campaign tools like telephone calls and door-knocking in this year’s Congressional elections."

The article noted that new digital recording technology would further let TV viewers filter out all advertising. Said U.S. Rep. Richard A. Gephardt, the Democratic Minority Leader in the U.S. House: "People cycle after cycle see these ads and they are just tuning them out."

Another report found that independent organizations such as the National Rifle Association and the League of Conservation Voters also have changed campaign tactics this year. Sharon Theimer of the Associated Press observed in October: "Some high profile groups have decided their money is best spent on grass-roots activities that target like-minded voters. They are contacting voters by mail, telephone and door-to-door visits." The NRA, for instance, has put its celebrity president Charlton Heston on a nationwide tour to meet voters.

Columnist Mary McGrory detailed U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin’s, D-IA, campaign for re-election as one combining "age-old shoe-leather tactics with state-of-the-art technology." A computer whiz on his staff is sending out "hundreds of workers (some paid, some volunteers) to every known Democratic household" with Palm Pilots and applications for absentee ballots.

This return to political basics is a response, I believe, to voters’ growing detachment from politics. North Carolina voter turnout in the non-presidential election years of 1994 and 1998 was about 42 percent, according to DataNet, the publication of University of North Carolina’s Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life. It will probably be the same this year.

Some of this detachment, according to research, is the result of attack-ad campaigns. There also is the very real detachment from candidates themselves who spend more and more time in the arms of wealthy contributors. John and Jane Q. Citizen are left watching TV.

The return to grass roots campaigning may turn out to be one more additional expense on top of increasing television costs. Any trend, however, that prompts political candidates to knock on your door and ask for your vote, is not a bad thing.

Barlow Herget is a writer and former member of the Raleigh City Council.