Category: Todd Morrison
Maine Aide Climbs Senate Ranks
WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 – It was the painful electoral defeat of Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota that most recently changed Gary Myrick’s fortunes in the nation’s capital.
“That was hard, very hard,” said the 37-year-old Guilford native, who used to work for Daschle. “The election in general was hard. But you have to move forward. You have to play the hand you’re dealt.”
On election night, Myrick watched the returns with the man he has worked for during the last two years as his closest adviser on the Senate floor, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada.
Following Daschle’s defeat, Reid was elected by his fellow Democratic senators to become the party’s leader in that chamber. As Reid’s star has risen in American politics, so too has that of Myrick’s, who has been made second-in-command to the new Senate leader.
“He basically grew up in the cloakroom,” said Susan McCue, Reid’s chief of staff, about the room just off of the Senate floor where intense negotiations over legislation often take place.
” For the past two years they’ve worked seamlessly together on the floor. [Reid has] been dependent on Gary as his right-hand man to help him through the many complicated negotiations that take behind the scenes,” McCue said.
53-year-old Marty Paone, who oversees the entire Democratic floor staff and was Myrick’s boss when the latter was the floor counsel, said Myrick has risen to the top because of his ability to keep cool under tense situations and build as well as maintain political relationships.
“You have to get along,” Paone said. “Your enemy today may be your friend tomorrow.”
As Reid’s closest adviser on the Senate floor, Myrick has negotiated with Republicans on thousands of bills. But ever since Democrats became the minority, Myrick has had to help his party play smart defense, sometimes using filibusters when needed.
The sense of fair play and bipartisanship that Myrick and his Republican counterparts talk about will be sorely tested if Republicans proceed with a tricky procedural move intended to prevent Democrats from using filibusters to delay or block confirmation of federal judges.
It is one area that Myrick refuses to discuss, saying only, “I’m worried about the institution.”
Myrick, who is soft-spoken like his current boss, stands at about 5’10” tall. He is bald on top, and the hair on the sides of his head is closely cropped. If you talk to him long enough, the dry sense of humor for which he’s famous seeps through, evidenced by his talk about the car he drives: a blue 1989 Mercedes whale of a car that he bought from a friend and that his friends sometimes rib him about.
“There are some warning lights. It’s like a Christmas tree,” he said, laughing about the car’s mechanical problems. “I’d keep it forever, but my wife has had enough.”
Myrick, who is married now and has a 3-year-old son named Henry, was never into college or high school politics when he was growing up. Even so, Myrick abruptly left the University of Maine in 1989 before his senior semester to work for the Maine legislature as a page. It was not so much for politics as it was a way to bolster his odds of getting into law school.
“They’ve always been OK,” he said of his grades, “but they’ve never been stellar. “So I knew I had to work hard.”
That summer he worked at the Mobil gas station by his house, the same one he worked at in high school to earn enough money to buy his first car, a 1966 Mercury Comet, which he bought for $200. “It had low miles but a lot of rust,” he said.
By Labor Day, he was heading down to Washington as an intern for one of the nation’s foremost political icons, Maine Sen. George Mitchell, the Senate Majority Leader, traveling with a Mitchell staffer who was driving Maine Sen. Edmund Muskie’s car down to the capital.
At the end of his internship he came back to the state legislature for another term while finishing college thanks to independent study. Later that spring he took a staff assistant job in Sen. Mitchell’s legislative office. This time it was for good.
He would eventually move to Mitchell’s leadership office, and then on to his cloakroom staff. While working there, Myrick got into to law school, enrolling in a four-year night program at American University.
It was a degree that that Myrick always thought he would use back in Maine, an idea he hasn’t ruled out.
Soon after Mitchell left the Senate in 1995, Myrick graduated from law school. He was promoted to the Senate floor staff by Daschle, who became the Senate’s new majority leader, and would work there until he became Reid’s floor counsel.
Reid, who is credited with being a parliamentary wiz on the floor, defers to Myrick for the credit.
“All the articles that have been written about how much I know about floor procedures, and I’m a master of the procedures of the Senate. Basically I owe all that to Gary,” Reid said. “There isn’t anything that I’ve done that we haven’t worked closely on.”
As Reid’s deputy chief of staff, Myrick’s focus will now shift to managing a much larger operation, from hiring, overseeing policy directives and yes, keeping an eye on the Senate floor.
Growing up, politics were a constant topic of discussion around the Myrick household. Gary’s father, Warren Myrick, was a library trustee and a member of Guilford’s planning board and was active with the county Democratic Party. He was “a joiner,” according to Gary’s sister, Elizabeth, who also now lives in the Washington area.
Gary Myrick also found special opportunities for his family to see Washington in ways most people never can.
Just a year or two into President Clinton’s second term, Myrick secured a ticket to the Senate gallery for his sister to see Clinton give his state of the Union address.
More recently, he brought his sister and parents to Daschle’s office balcony in the Capitol. Warren Myrick died last year from a neck injury, and the trip down to see his son would be his last. Gary’s mother remembers the occasion vividly.
“It was raining, but I didn’t care,” Carole Myrick said. “It was just wonderful.”
“Coming from Guilford, Maine, that’s a pretty amazing experience,” Elizabeth Myrick said. “That would be an amazing experience for anyone.”
“If things had been different,” said Gary’s brother, Jeffrey, who lives in Standish, the senior Myrick might have run for the state House. An interest in politics, Gary Myrick’s family members say, was something he and his father shared in particular.
David Schiappa, the equivalent to Myrick on the Republican side and who shares a common interest in home renovation with Myrick, praised his temperament and political skills, calling him a friend.
He said that his communication with Myrick is always good, even though they know they are playing for very different teams. “He’s an institutional guy,” Schiappa said. “I hope he sticks around for a while.”
Myrick stresses that in Guilford, where everyone knows everyone else, a person’s word is everything. In this regard, the U.S. Senate is not so different from his hometown.
He compared the day-to-day legislative contests with Republicans on the Senate floor to the vintage animated cartoon characters Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog.
After trying to outwit the other all day, the two would stop when the closing whistle blows, clock out and go home.
“The relationship we have with the Republican floor staff is just like that,” Myrick said. “They protect their rights, we protect our rights. Fight like hell during the day.
“As stressful as it is, you get to the end of the day and you still have the relationships because you’ve been honest. And you clock out, and you go home, and you start again the next day.”
Snowe to Begin Reelection in Coming Months
WASHINGTON, Dec. 10, 2004 - Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, will begin her reelection campaign in earnest in the coming months despite speculation by some that she may not run for reelection in 2006.
"I can tell you unequivocally that she is running again," said Snowe's chief of staff John Richter. Snowe herself was unavailable for comment.
Even so, Democrats and Republicans alike still point to Snowe's fundraising activities as reasons why the retirement rumor persists. Just after Snowe ran for reelection in 2000, she had approximately $447,000 in campaign funds in the bank.
Now, four years later, Snowe has less money in the bank, not more, with $391,000. "That's what hints toward retirement, frankly," said a Democratic strategist who closely follows Senate races nationwide but asked not to be identified. Her coffers should be filling, not emptying or even staying even, he said, especially given her political stature.
It's almost like she's "trying not to raise money," he said.
According to the same strategist, having such a low cash balance could leave her vulnerable to "self-funded" candidates or to candidates who could raise roughly that same amount with relatively little difficulty.
Maine Democratic Party chairwoman Dottie Melanson said that despite the speculation that Snowe would not run, in the end, the rumor "has not been substantiated at all." As a result, the party will begin thinking sometime in the early part of next year about possible Democratic challengers to run against her.
Snowe will have to raise more than $2 million in the next two years to get to her 2000 fundraising level of $2.5 million. That's an average $2,700 to raise per day. Toward that goal, Snowe recently hired a campaign fundraiser.
Professor Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Colby College, said, "That's not a lot to start with," but others contend that it may be enough because media buys in Maine tend to be inexpensive and Snowe already has high name recognition.
Rep. Tom Allen, the state's senior congressman, has almost as much money as Snowe, with $361,000 in the bank despite having just finished an election campaign.
Stuart Rothenberg, a political analyst for CNN and author of the Rothenberg Political Report, said Snowe was close to reaching the status of "political icon in the state" and had few liabilities other than her being from a state where Republicans typically face a harder time than Democrats.
"She's a red-party politician in a blue state," he said. Nonetheless, he said. Snowe's reputation for independence and her long political career made serious opposition unlikely. "She's seen to be in a very solid position for reelection," he said.
Rothenberg said a Democratic operative told him he hoped Democrats would mount some serious opposition, not to defeat Snowe - which the operative did not think could be done -- but "as a way of getting the party energized" to make a serious bid to defeat Sen. Susan Collins, in 2008, which was more of a "four-year plan," Rothenberg said.
Assuming that Snowe runs, someone will have to run against her, and Melanson insisted that the Democrats will be putting up a serious challenger.
Amy Fried, a political science professor at the University of Maine, echoed what many said in interviews - that Democrats will be hard pressed to find someone with enough influence to take Snowe on.
"I think it's going to be hard to attract many strong candidates," said Fried, adding that nobody seems to be jockeying for the position - at least not yet.
In her first reelection effort in 2000, Snowe defeated state Senate President Mark Lawrence, by 69-31 percent. She was first elected to the Senate in 1994..
If Snowe were to decide not to run, her Senate seat would instantly be thrown into contention, with the state's top Democrats - Reps. Allen and Michael Michaud and Gov. John Baldacci - the most logical contenders.
None of them has publicly expressed interest in the job, and the offices of both Allen and Michaud declined comment.
Monica Castellanos, Michaud's press secretary, said Michaud hadn't given the race any thought and was preparing for the new Congress that begins in January. "We're focused on doing the job he was elected to do just last month," she said.
Intelligence Bill Passes Senate
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2004 - At times it seemed the intelligence reform bill was destined to fail.
"This was the most difficult bill to bring from conception to birth that I can imagine being involved with," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the bill's sponsor. "That makes the bill doubly satisfying."
After months of intense public and private lobbying, Sen. Collins spoke after the Senate passed the legislation 89-2 and thanked the families of the September 11 terror attack victims as well the bill's supporters in the House and Senate.
"I think one of the bleakest moments was back on Nov. 20, when the four of us had negotiated a very hard fought agreement, and then the Speaker, in deference to two chairmen - and I certainly understand his decision - decided not to proceed with the floor vote," she said. "But that turned out to be just a bump in the road."
Collins sponsored the bill in the Senate with Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. The two key negotiators in the House were Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., and Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif.
Contending that the bipartisan vote in both the House and the Senate means that Congress believes that the reforms will make the country safer, Collins went on to thank her counterparts in both the House and the Senate "for never giving up, for persevering, even when the negotiations were extremely difficult."
Lieberman also breathed a sigh of relief. "This was the most sustained, in many ways most difficult, I know it was the most important legislative experience I've ever had," he said. "I'm just grateful it ended in success."
The bill now goes to the President's desk for his signature.
Senate Centrists Till Middle Ground
WASHINGTON, Nov. 28, 2004 - On Tuesday, the first day of the post-election lame-duck session, a small group of senators met behind closed doors to talk about legislating from a shrinking piece of real estate: the political middle in Congress.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, the co-chairwoman of the group that calls itself the Senate Centrists Coalition, convened the meeting to lay out an agenda and to identify issues on which Republicans and Democrats might find common ground.
"The American people should know that there is an organization that's willing to govern by consensus on some key matters" that affect the country, Snowe said.
Though the group's agenda is just now being discussed, topics raised included fiscal discipline, tax reform and litigation reform. Social issues, which tend to be more divisive, were not raised.
In the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to close debate and vote on legislation, the 15 to 20 moderates the coalition hopes to recruit could potentially play an influential role.
Prof. Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, said the moderates' power doesn't lie necessarily in the influence they have over the Senate leadership. Rather, he said, the Republican leadership will depend on them to produce the votes to overcome filibusters. In the new Senate, the Republicans, with 55 seats, will be 5 votes short.
"They're outside of the normal leadership structure," Maisel said of the Senate centrists.
Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who is the coalition's new Democratic co-chairman now that Sen. John Breaux, D-Louisiana, is leaving, said the group would try to reach beyond the margins.
"We've got the ability to affect what happens," he said. "More to the point, we don't want to use our numbers to stop things from happening, we want to use our numbers to get some things done."
The goal is to facilitate, not frustrate," said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-NE, who is a vice-chairman of the group along with Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio.
Lieberman said the next step was to continue talking up the coalition among senators of both parties.
"We're going to survey our members. We're going to choose a couple of big, national needs and concerns and focus on those over the course of the 109th session," he said.
Breaux and fellow moderate Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina are both retiring from the Senate. Their seats have been won by conservative Republicans.Roughly 13 senators from both parties attended the coalition meeting Tuesday, though Snowe contended that scheduling commitments kept others away. She estimated that the numbers could grow to 20 or more. In the past, the numbers have fluctuated depending on the issue at hand. Moreover, the coalition this time extended an open invitation to all senators.
Sen. Susan Collins, who was busy with what she characterized as "intense negotiations" over the fate of the intelligence reform legislation in Congress, expressed her strong support for the coalition through a written statement and said she would remain involved.
Sen. John Chafee, R-Rhode Island, founded the group in 1995 with Breaux in the aftermath of the 1995 government shutdown.
His son, Lincoln Chafee, R-Rhode Island, who was at the Tuesday meeting and has at times publicly considered leaving the Republican Party, will continue to work in the coalition - but as a Republican.
"I'm solid," he said on the steps of the Capitol after the meeting, about whether he would eventually switch. "I'm up in '06, same as Olympia," he said about Maine's senior senator. If he were going to make a switch, he said, "I'd have made it."
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Maine Delegation Returns for Lame Duck
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2004 - Come January, all eyes will fall to the newly elected Congress, in which Republicans will have more muscle in both the House and the Senate, and where the much-lauded sentiments of bipartisanship will be put to the test.
But before that happens, the current Congress will return once more to take care of unfinished business - from keeping the government funded to revamping the nation's intelligence community.
Among the few items that Congress will have to take up is a measure extending the federal debt limit by about $690 billion dollars, an issue that Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, said he and fellow Democrats would emphasize as an example of how President Bush has handled the economy.
Speaking about the fact that Bush began his term with a budget surplus, Allen said, "They chose to squander that opportunity with two huge tax cuts."
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who expressed disappointment in having to return to Washington for a lame-duck session, said that both Congress and the President must do a better job of taking care of the government's bottom line.
"In January, the Congress working in concert with the Administration must actively engage in determining ways to reduce our budget deficits and debt by examining our spending and revenue priorities," she said. "Fiscal responsibility is something we all must live by - not just individuals, but our government as well."
The nine of the remaining 13 spending bills that will keep the government running after Nov. 20 - only bills relating to the military and homeland security have passed - will likely be rolled into one giant "omnibus" spending bill, or a few smaller comprehensive bills.
On the Senate side, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Snowe are pushing for several projects that would affect the Bangor area.
They include $2 million dollars for a Penobscot River salmon restoration project and $1 million for the University of Maine to study climate change, according to Collins' staff. Also proposed is a $250,000 allotment to buy land for a waterfront development project in Brewer.
Allen expressed frustration that the Republicans, who control the House, likely wouldn't let Democrats know what's in the final appropriations bill until the day before it's voted on.
It's a political reality that most people don't understand, he suggested. "That's not the process you read about in college," he said.
Congress also will likely be taking up the intelligence reform legislation, if House and Senate negotiators can reach a compromise.
Though Collins' version passed the Senate last month by a near unanimous vote, some House negotiators have been unwilling to back off their version, despite recent concessions from the Senate side.
Collins said on Tuesday that she had just found out that Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, had nixed the Senate's latest proposal.
"That's very disappointing," said Collins, who added that she had been in touch with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice who said the White House wanted a compromise, and had proposed new language in the hopes of finding compromise between the two bodies.
Other items remain undone - such as the President's energy bill and an overhaul of the nation's laws regarding class action lawsuits - and could be re-introduced in the next Congress.
Though lame-duck sessions deal with fairly routine leftover issues such as appropriations, treaties and other administrative tasks, Senate historian Donald Ritchie said that some of the more colorful examples of political theater have taken place in lame-duck sessions - like Bill Clinton's impeachment in 1998 .
The Department of Homeland Security was created during the last-lame duck session in 2002. Anti-communist zealot Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin was reprimanded by Congress in a December 1954 session.
Ritchie also said that lame-duck sessions can be used to one party's benefit - or not - depending on how advantageous it may be to wait until the new Congress arrives.
"People look over their shoulders," he said, and make plans "to cooperate or obstruct under the circumstances."
Maine Delegation Anticipates First Debate
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2004 -While thousands across Maine will turn on their televisions to watch the first presidential debate Thursday night, members of Maine's congressional delegation also will be camped out in front of warm TVs in the nation's capital.
Months of negative ads and accusations will come to a head in Coral Gables, Fla., when President Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry take the stage. "They'll both be pretty aggressive," said Democratic Rep. Thomas H. Allen. "I expect a frank debate."
The debate, which will take place at the University of Miami at 9 p.m.., will focus on foreign policy.
Allen said that this is Kerry's opportunity to contrast what Bush has said about the "war on terror" with what Allen called a much different reality. "They really took their eye off the Al Qaeda ball," he said. His advice for Bush: "Get real" and don't sugarcoat things.
Republican Sen. Susan M. Collins said that regardless of what happens, it will be a good opportunity for a spirited debate. But her money was on Bush.
"In the past, I've thought that George Bush came out the better in these debates," she said. "He surprised a lot of people four years ago when he bested Al Gore."
Despite the fact that both candidates are fighting over what appears to be a relatively small number of undecided voters, Republican Sen. Olympia J. Snowe said the debate still has great potential to change people's minds.
"Both candidates are going to be very conscious of the potential for being able to influence large segments of the voters," she said. "I think that something could easily change based on a comment, or an approach, or an attitude or demeanor - whatever might strike people."
Democratic Rep. Michael H. Michaud said that one criticism people have had of John Kerry is that he hasn't been forceful enough in responding to his critics. The first debate, he said, is his chance.
He should "be honest and upfront with the American people" and not be afraid to be aggressive about telling people where he's coming from, Michaud said.
Michael Barone, a political commentator for Fox news, said in an interview with the Bangor Daily News that the debate presents challenges for both candidates.
"You've got to sound human, not arrogant," he said. "You've got to attack, but you've got to be likeable. I think it's a tough requirement."
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Columbus Mayor Campaigns for Diabetes Testing
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2004 - Even before Michael B. Coleman was mayor of Columbus, he worked up to 14 hours a day. But he also smoked and ate too much -- and at the wrong times of the day. But around 1993, he noticed something was wrong. He was running out of steam by the middle of the day, and found it hard to get his work done.
"I didn't understand what was going on with me," said Coleman.
He eventually went to a doctor and found out he was diabetic, one of more than 13 million Americans who are diagnosed with the disease, according to the American Diabetes Association.
Coleman, who has quit smoking and has adopted a healthier lifestyle, said having the disease no longer slows him down. But he said that medication - and better testing - also has been critical to not letting the disease slow him down.
"I feel better than I ever have," said Coleman, who has type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. Type 1 diabetes is usually found in children and young adults.
That's the lesson he will be talking about when he kicks off a campaign encouraging diabetics to get the disease under better control in order to avoid more serious complications, which can include heart and kidney disease. Diabetes is also a heavy financial burden if not treated well - more than $130 billion is spent on diabetes-related complications.
The campaign, called "A1C<7%," is being sponsored by the United States Conference of Mayors and "Aim. Believe. Achieve," a collection of organizations tackling the growing problem of diabetes.
Coleman will speak at the official opening of the campaign Thursday in the nation's capital. Forty-nine mayors from across the country are promoting the campaign in their own cities.
Though there are national television and radio spots planned, more ads featuring individual mayors will run locally. While in Washington, Coleman will record the television spot that will run in the Columbus area and attend other events related to the diabetes campaign.
Experts associated with the campaign - as well as Coleman himself - stress the need for taking the A1C test, which takes into account a diabetic's blood-sugar level over a three month period, rather than on a daily basis, which can be more unreliable due to fluctuations. Under 7 refers to the percentage at which a person's blood-sugar level is under control.
Dr. James Gavin, a diabetes specialist with the Morehouse School of Medicine and on the steering committee of the campaign, said only about 60 percent of those with diabetes were getting the A1C test - but not always regularly. "Not enough people are getting it, and they're not getting it often enough," he said.
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Election Returns Are A Mixed Bag
WASHINGTON, Nov. 4, 2004 - The deep hues of red and blue that fell across the nation's electoral map late Tuesday and into Wednesday morning will mean vastly different things for members of Maine's congressional delegation when they return for the 109 th Congress in January.
While the exact balance of power in the Senate depends on the last votes to be counted in races nationwide, Maine's senators will have increasing power in the Senate, both because of their party's control and their ability to relate to Democrats and Republicans alike.
It appeared late Wednesday that the GOP would pick up four seats in the Senate, for a total of 55 seats. This will mean that both Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins will have more Republicans on the committees they chair. Snowe also said bills she and other Republicans sponsor will stand a better chance in the new Senate.
Though resistance to President Bush's agenda has weakened in both houses, Snowe said the President will still depend on bipartisan cooperation.
Unlike in the House, at least 60 votes are needed to end debate on a bill in the Senate. "You need 60 votes to get anything done," Snowe said. "He will still have to build some bridges."
As one expert put it, the need for moderate Republicans who can "cross the aisle" and work with Democrats will be critical, especially now that some of the more moderate Democrats - like John Breaux of Louisiana and Fritz Hollings of South Carolina -- have been replaced with more conservative Republicans.
"I don't think those five are going to be easy to find," said Sandy Maisel, who is the director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College, referring to the difference between the number of Republicans and the number needed to end debate.
Sen. Snowe chairs the Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship and Sen. Collins chairs the Governmental Affairs Committee. Neither were up for reelection.
Collins, who said that she was happy with the election results but had hoped Bush might carry Maine's Second District, stressed the need for compromise in both houses of Congress. She pointed to the intelligence reform bill, which she sponsored and which the Senate passed 96-2, as an example of bipartisan success.
"It can be done," she said, and added that she, like Snowe, would continue to bridge the two parties in the Senate. "It's a role I relish."
Democrats in the House fell farther into minority status, as the Republicans picked up as many as six seats for a total of 233 out of 435.
Rep. Thomas H. Allen, D-Maine, said he was pleased with his win over Republican Charlie Summers in the First District but disappointed with the way things went nationally. "The Northeast - from Maryland to Maine - is out of step with the national Republican Party right now."
Rep. Michael H. Michaud, D-Maine, also easily won reelection in the Second District.
Allen went on to say that it would be just as hard - if not more so - getting Democratic-friendly bills on environmental and health care issues addressed in the new Congress.
"The House isn't going to be any more bipartisan" after an election in which they gained additional seats, Allen said. "That's for sure."
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Political Ads Sell Candidates as Commodity
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2004 - You will never find George Bush or John Kerry on a supermarket shelf next to the Tide, Pop-Tarts or Huggies. Even so, campaigns sell their candidates much as companies market their products, according to one expert.
Though modern political campaigns have borrowed heavily from Madison Avenue over the years - from direct mail to databases - campaigns have a few tricks up their sleeves that today's marketers could learn from, said David Mark, editor-in-chief of Campaigns and Elections magazine in Washington.
Mark said that though Howard Dean was credited with using the Internet to his benefit, he raised more than $10 million through creative, targeted, direct mail. "It's a time-tested strategy that has shown its durability."
Speaking to a crowd of marketing association members on Wednesday night, Mark also said political operatives have been extremely adept at leveraging commercials into wider media exposure. For example, he said the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" commercials, which initially ran in a very few numbers of states, were covered widely by the news media.
Super Bowl ads also have been used in the same way, said Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Policy at Colby College, in a telephone interview Thursday. Word of mouth about the ads reinforced the message, he said. "There's your parallel."
The problem with the Swift Boat ads - as well as others - is that the media only repeated the claims, without putting them into context, which just "plays to the strategies of the candidates," Maisel said.
Mark said that both the Bush and Kerry campaigns have been adept at creating ads in a matter of hours, exhibiting remarkable speed and flexibility. Advertisers, he said, could do the same to respond to consumer demands, based on "real-time marketing information."
Maisel, who teaches political science at Colby, said that advertising executives also were the first to perfect the technique of a candidate repeating an ad over and over again, pulling it, and then bringing it back later.
"It reinforces the old message," he said. "People think it's never been off the air."
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Group Claims Collins Excommunicated
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2004 - The head of a conservative Catholic group in California is contending that Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is Catholic, has been automatically excommunicated because of her views on abortion, which he says amounts to "heresy" within the church.
So far, however, the Diocese of Portland does not agree that Collins has excommunicated herself or would ever be formally declared by a bishop to be denied communion and other church rites.
Marc Balestrieri, the executive director of De Fide, which is based in Santa Monica, has concentrated his efforts on getting Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry declared a "heretic" because he supports abortion rights but is also targeting other Catholic politicians like Collins with similar views.
"She has a choice to be Catholic or not," Balestrieri said in a phone call from California on Wednesday. "How many Catholics have been led into error by those who profess the right to abortion?"
Besides Collins and Kerry, Balestrieri is also making similar suggestions about former New York Governor Mario Cuomo as well as Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).
Formal excommunication is considered to be an "extreme" form of censure within the Catholic Church wherein a person cannot participate in worship, or receive communion. However people can also informally excommunicate themselves through their own actions.
Balestrieri said that on Monday he filed a formal "denunciation and complaint" against Collins; the church has 30 days to respond.
Sue Bernard, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of Portland, said that Bishop Richard J. Malone does not believe Collins' views on abortion have led to an excommunication. She also said the Diocese has not formally excommunicated anyone since the 1920s.
"This Diocese checked with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and officials there agree this is not an accepted interpretation of heresy," Bernard said, adding that the Vatican also recently disagreed with Balestrieri.
Collins said in a statement that the abortion issue is of great importance to her but that there are times when she must distinguish between her personal views and those that she advocates as a member of the U.S .Senate.
"As a practicing Catholic, I respect the church's view that abortion is wrong. As a United States Senator, however, I will not make criminals of those women who do not agree with the Catholic Church's position on this difficult issue," she said.
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