The Morning After

Paulie Brading

On Wednesday morning candidates across the state will sit down in strategy teams to conduct a post mortem of their campaigns. Usually the day after an election brings a paradoxical mix of energy and exhaustion. All of the candidates have been in a state of uncommon intensity for a very long time. The results are in and reality seeps into each candidates pores. The winners are sitting with their team knowing "it's all politics, all the time" from May until November. The losers are sitting with their team examing their campaign, the slips, misteps, failure to persude voters and thier work ethic.

All of the candidates will be engaged in voter breakdown. Where did the candidate get gutted and where did the candidate do well? Who voted, who didn't vote? Precinct voting patterns , voter contact

reliability levels of voter ID, messaging and the ability to persude will be on the examination table. A different analysis looks at the contrasts between the winners and the losers. War chests will be carefully compared with breakdowns of media buys, campaign literature, numbers of doors knocked on, effectiveness of social media, events and phonebanking are all under investigation. Did money powerhouses emerge with corporations lining up behind some candidates or unions or small grassroots donations lining up behind others, a combination?

Voters will remember the candidates who campaigned with honor and inspired them and they will remember the candidate who engaged in every calculating method of sabotage they could use to tear down their opponent.

The Oregon Republican Party and the Oregon Democratic Party along with state Senate and House of Representative's PACs will decide which candidates will recieve more money and assistance. Organizations, corporations and unions will "enlighten" the winning candidates while sitting on hoards of dollars and door knockers at the ready to be deployed to champion their causes.

The six month planner is up on the winning candidates wall. The planner already has call time, events, and meetings with key supporters scribbled in with codes for who is responsible for what and when.

For now, we can observe the last hours of the primary campaign come to an end. On Wednesday it's another intense day for the winners. We can expect clear lines of contrast to be drawn between the candidates attempting to gain voter support. We'll see attempts to collapse all human interaction and most matters of public policy into little boxes. Somewhere between the extremes will be a candidate who sees a community, not a marketing campaign. She or he will reach beyond compressed events and (can you imagine?) give voters accuracy, facts and something besides an emotion-based tirade.

Congratualtions to all the candidates for participating in this election. Onward to November.

By Paulie Brading May 17, 2010