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Why Consultants?

by Hank Sheinkopf

23 October 00

When I first became a political consultant, there were only a few of them in New York, and the profession, still relatively new, was viewed by many as unnecessary and too costly. Now, every campaign, no matter what the level, hires consultants -- and some people still see us as unnecessary and too costly

What is a political consultant anyway? What do they do, why do we need them?

It never entered my brain to become one. The first time I got paid to do politics was in 1969. I was a unionized restaurant worker, going to the City of University of New York, because it was then free and the only way I could ever have gone to college. On the way to the union shape-up to get some work one day, a fellow student stopped me and asked if I'd like to pick up a few extra bucks. I said sure. So I went to work in a campaign. That's how I got started.

The profession itself really only began in 1948. The first campaign run by consultants, or at least noticed as a consultant-driven campaign, wasn't a candidate-related effort at all. It was the successful campaign to kill President Truman's health care reform bid. The campaign run by the California husband and wife consulting team whose firm was named Whitaker and Baxter.These consultants targeted local druggists, then a neighborhood and local fixture. They used direct mail and local pressure. The result? We're still waiting for health care reform.

A man named Joe Napolitan, now 71, coined the term "political consultant." Joe, who is still practicing, is best-known for his work on Vice President Hubert Humphrey's 1968 campaign against Richard Nixon; he is credited as the architect of Humphrey's rapid rise in the polls during the last few weeks of the race. Napolitan was also the general strategist who oversaw America's first intensive television campaign, for Pennsylvania Governor Milton Schapp in the late 1970's. Joe Napolitan broke ground doing governors races in Hawaii, Puerto Rico and even Alaska. He has worked for the British Labor Party, French President Valerie Giscard D'Estang, several Venezuelan presidents, Costa Rica's Oscar Arias, and scores of others throughout the globe.

The consultant world Napolitan spawned has grown, and grown. Not only have the number of consultants grown exponentially, but also so has the amount of business. What some may consider a local business, or a regional business, now finds consultants from many states working throughout the nation, and the world.

For example, our firm, Sheinkopf Communications, during a single year may work in as many as 20 different states on campaigns from the local government level through state-wide and even national efforts.

Consultants not only now have national and international reach, but they specialize. There are pollsters (experts in measuring public opinion on issues and candidates), direct mail consultants, general strategists, media consultants, media placement specialists, phone contact consultants, voter list vendors, and now we even find consultants who have become in experts in the new media and its adaptability to elections.

There are consultants who specialize in candidates, and consultants who only work on referenda and non-partisan issues, marketing solely to those states that allow initiative and referenda. There are consultants who do grass roots campaign -- primarily working for corporations -- and professional organizers who can turn out the vote when and if you need it.

Napolitan's world has grown. And the growth seems to be non-stoppable, simply because the demand for services has grown as well.

Few campaigns at any level would venture into political combat without a poll. After all, why gamble with hard-to-raise campaign funds without a strategic goal? So, polling has become a must. Direct mail? The best means of communication in smaller races has to meet standards in art, design, copywriting, and targeting. Phones? Voters have to be pulled out, and the right voters have to be alerted to turn out, or their candidates might not make it. Media? Pervasive, and a great source of revenue for television stations and radio operations throughout the nation. And of course the term "opposition researchers" creates fear. But if you've done something you don't want the voters to know about, why run? If your record as a public official is exposed in a way you don't like, fight back. You did it, you live it. Don't blame the consultants. Blame yourself. After all, doesn't the public have a right to know?

Why consultants? Much of the creative work for political campaigns in the infancy of modern politics was done by advertising agencies. But the billings were too much, and the turnover time for delivery of product took too long for campaigns. So media specialists were born. They could produce it faster, cheaper, and within limited campaign budgets.

There is little doubt as well that newspaper reporters, and other early creators of public opinion, look to the hiring of consultants to determine the seriousness of campaigns. And the free press has played a major defining role in the creation of consultant stardom, and mystique.

Why don't people like consultants? Consultants make money, more than most of the people who complain about them. But anyone who wants to live in hotel rooms and travel up to 300,000 miles a year, be away from family, roots and home for extended periods, as I've done for most of the last 20 years, would understand that we earn money the hard way. And if we fail, our competitors, other consultants, will let everyone know.

We are criticized for the increasing costs of campaigns. But we're not the people who set the postage rates, the costs per phone call, the costs of computer time, the costs of television and radio time buys. Why aren't advertising agencies blamed? Or even the post office for what they charge. Consultants are easy targets.

We are a profession blamed for democracy's failures when in fact we are the people who have helped make democracy an international phenomenon. We are the people who help the voters turn out, who provide information--some of it comparative and negative--that most voters wouldn't have access to if the free media were their only source of information. We are the people who have exported democratic techniques to world hot spots. The result? Democracy is thriving. And with that desire world wide for elections have followed the techniques that provide information some might want hidden. But it is information that keeps democracy alive through the battle of ideas, and ideals.

Is it a perfect means to keep democracy alive? No. But democracy can only exist where there is a fight, when ideas and even personalities are discussed, maybe dissected.

So, next year in New York City when the entire City Council, the borough presidents, and all three citywide offices are up for grabs due to term limits, look for the consultants. They're the people getting paid to make sure voters get all the information they need. And it would be awfully tough to even think about an election without them.

That is the world Napolitan created. And though critics may complain, it is a world and a profession where, more often than not, decent people make a hard living, by making sure that elections are fought and not given away. In a country where the average American receives in excess of 20,000 advertising images daily, shouldn't we have specialists who direct people's attention to what matters most? Anyone got an alternative that average people will pay attention to?

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