Bainwol Blogs On Election Day
The following guest entry was written by Mitch Bainwol, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America. He previously worked for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and held other positions on Capitol Hill.
Election Day. There's nothing like it. Other than my wedding and the birth of our kids, my most memorable -- joyful and painful -- days have been these special Tuesdays when Americans go the polls to throw the bums out or keep the other bums from getting in. When you're managing a campaign or running a political committee, even though you're not the candidate, you feel like your life too is in the hands of the voters.
You always remember your first (campaign) the most -- and mine was Connie Mack's 1988 run to replace Lawton Chiles. Mack was called the loser on national TV by about 10:30 - but the pundits were wrong. A 35,000 vote gap at midnight narrowed to about 5000 early in the morning -- and then absentees kicked in to give Connie the win. ... A little recount exercise over eight days, and presto the race was over. Twelve years later, that recount record was broken by Bush/Gore.
In today's Blackberry, blog, YouTube, survey-centric world, the flow of information and analysis -- fact and fiction -- is radically different than the environment we faced in 1988, or in Mack's 1994 re-elect, or even in my two committee cycles (1998 and 2002). As the velocity of information increases, the ability of campaigns to control their own destiny diminishes.
If you're an outsider, that's probably for the good. If you're an insider -- whether a Republican or Democrat -- it's just one more big hurdle you face to drive message and try to find a way to make election day a success.
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