Monday, July 26, 2010

Conway's Stealth Strategy: Flying below radar has certain political disadvantages

Let the bloodhounds loose! It may be the only way to find Jack Conway, who, in his campaign against Rand Paul for Kentucky's second U. S. Senate seat, has yet to be sighted.

Conway has been running, but, as the Lexington Herald-Leader has pointed out, most of the running seems to be away from actual voters. While Paul is out pressing the flesh among electorate, Conway has been is apparently working "behind the scenes" building a "network."

He's a crafty one, that Jack.

One Conway hunter, Mandy Connell, host of WHAS's morning talk show, almost treed Conway last week, but the elusive candidate slipped away, failing to show up for her show, apparently to concentrate on "networking." Connell now says, however, that she has laid a trap for him this Wednesday, when he is rescheduled to show up.

I hope Connell has people there with camouflage khakis and tranquilizer darts to take the man into captivity, where he can be questioned at length.

The difference in coverage is striking:
In the last three months — April 22 through July 21 — major Kentucky newspapers, including the Lexington Herald-Leader and The Courier-Journal in Louisville, mentioned Paul 305 times in the first paragraphs of stories compared with 150 times for Conway.

... Among newspapers outside of Kentucky listed in the top 50 in circulation in Editor & Publisher Year Book, Paul’s name was in the first paragraphs of stories 196 times. Conway’s name appeared in opening paragraphs 12 times.
You could argue that some of Paul's publicity has been bad publicity, but given that Paul has postured himself as the anti-establishment candidate, you could easily argue that being hammered by the establishment simply contributes to the image he is trying to cultivate with voters.

Given the discrepancy in media coverage, you would think that, instead of taking cover whenever the media shows up, he would be out flagging down news trucks, showing off his newest press release.

But no. There's networking to do.

The only problem with flying below radar as a political strategy is that no one knows you're there.

1 comment:

Art said...

So, Martin, you seem to be suggesting that Conway is ducking the hard questions. That sounds to me like you are accusing him of behaving like Palin (as well as lesser luminaries like Sharron Angle). I would call that a really low blow.

For shame, for shame....