In the end, spirit and passion won out over the big bucks.
Peter Brown poured millions of dollars into his campaign for Mayor. Unlike previous independently, wealthy candidates Bill White and Bob Lanier, he did not parlay his personal money to build more contributors. Brown has never liked fundraising. It is an unpleasant and difficult task. Why put yourself through that when you can just write the check?
Unfortunately for Brown, the simple execution of a textbook campaign plan did not translate into a broad base of supporters. Even when it felt like his support was surging with the total media blitz, most of the pundits thought the support was “soft”. There just weren’t enough real people backing the candidate.
Meanwhile, Parker and Locke parlayed their less funded efforts into people power. Parker has very passionate supporters and lots of them. Her social media numbers double her opponents. Her number of small dollar contributors far exceeds the other campaigns. And, trust me on this, people feel strongly about their candidate.
Locke had outstanding fundraising efforts. In a normal year, he would have been considered the “big bucks” guy. He had the majority of backing from the business community. Many criticized Locke for going on TV late but his campaign was insistent that they were most focused on their field organization. Appropriately so. It appears their field operation was successful. They quietly remained focused on their goal of turning out core voters and it worked very well.
Here’s a lesson for all those who complain about money in politics – Bottom line is that dollars donated often translate into support. When a person makes a donation to a campaign, they are emotionally invested. From a $5 contribution to a $5000 one, they have put sweat equity into that money. It is a commitment on their part to “invest” in that candidate because they believe in them.
In the end, Peter Brown learned that “money can’t buy me love”.
[...] Nancy Sims, PDiddie, Hair Balls and Campos weigh [...]
Right on target.
Much has been said about Morales being the only Conservative in the race for mayor and based on his numbers, it would seem he never connected to a degree that materialized better (fact that people were ’surprised’ at his showing should confirm that as intuitively obvious…).
Whatever happened to Michael Berry? He seemed to have disappeared despite obvious ambition and conservative leanings. Was there some sort of scandal that sent him underground?
Thanks,
Hubert
I enjoyed the Chron blog posting that showed the efficiency of the three campaigns in terms of $/vote – Annise – $32, Locke – $60, Brown – ~$120. Amazing. I am curious as to the historic trends in the $/vote math. I just astounds me that the self-avowed low-dollar campaign that Annise ran paid $32 for every vote she got.
[...] what he has to say, but I hope he remembers that writing your own check can’t substitute for raising money from actual donors. By all means, write the check if you can and you feel you must, but don’t forget to work the [...]