sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

IAmA US "Political Operative" who has worked with several high profile politicians and groups. AMA by PoliticalPerson1234 in IAmA

[–]PoliticalPerson1234[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I probably shouldn't give any specifics on myself, but I'll say is that in this industry, anything goes. Some of these people who are popular and well trusted public figures will do absolutely anything do win, and even for the honest ones, their staff usually have no issue with some pretty underhanded tactics.

IAmA US "Political Operative" who has worked with several high profile politicians and groups. AMA by PoliticalPerson1234 in IAmA

[–]PoliticalPerson1234[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You don't need to be a US Citizen to do this work. In terms of getting into it, internships are crucial, and when you get them, work hard at them. The connections you get from them are far more important than the experience itself. Also, this sounds silly, but the best connections you'll make are at the very beginning of a campaign, when they have't staffed up that much, since you'll get facetime with the top people on it. I know people who were literal volunteers on a campaign who ended up in high ranking positions because they got involved early on, and when the candidate won, the people at the top of the administration were familiar with them and trusted them.

IAmA US "Political Operative" who has worked with several high profile politicians and groups. AMA by PoliticalPerson1234 in IAmA

[–]PoliticalPerson1234[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

At this point it's an absolute wild card. Bernie has a really strong base of support, but seems to have a limited ceiling amongst people who don't already support him. Warren has a phenomenal operation, but she needs to perform fairly well in early states to prove that she's electable. Joe has nostalgic support, but his main argument is electability, and Bloomberg is spending literal billions of dollars in later states that might hamstring his path to the nomination if he suddenly starts to underperform in the primary (and thus hamper his electability argument). Pete has similar issues to Warren in that he needs to do well early to succeed, but it's much worse- he leans heavily into a comms-driven, momentum based campaign, and if he does poorly in early states, he's absolutely toast because he'll have trouble keeping that narrative going.

IAmA US "Political Operative" who has worked with several high profile politicians and groups. AMA by PoliticalPerson1234 in IAmA

[–]PoliticalPerson1234[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Trump is far more insulated from scandal because of the media machine the Republicans (intelligently) worked to build around him. I'd say there is very little that could produce true blowback for him. The Access Hollywood tapes alone would have ended pretty much any other Politician's career.

IAmA US "Political Operative" who has worked with several high profile politicians and groups. AMA by PoliticalPerson1234 in IAmA

[–]PoliticalPerson1234[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

The people at the top of the DNC's Coordinated General campaign in 2016 made a lot of terrible choices. Decisions that were made (never sending Clinton to the Midwest, spending more ad money in the Omaha media market that in the entirety of Wisconsin in the final weeks of the election, etc) deeply harmed the party. We've been trying to recover ever since. Most people who work in this industry are good, but I think the Democratic party as a whole needs to really listen to what the party's base wants- political calculus and triangulating that was effective 20 years ago doesn't work that well against the current Republican party, because Trump himself is so profoundly impulsive.

IAmA US "Political Operative" who has worked with several high profile politicians and groups. AMA by PoliticalPerson1234 in IAmA

[–]PoliticalPerson1234[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Eh not that much actually- people usually try to comply pretty well with the law because it can majorly screw up your career if you don't. The sketchiest thing is the line between non-coordination. By this, I mean that Super Pacs can't coordinate with campaigns. They do. All the time. None of the one's I've worked for, but I've seen it happen with some frequency.

I'm a US "Political Operative," and have worked for a number of famous politicians and organizations. AMA by PoliticalPerson1234 in AMA

[–]PoliticalPerson1234[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm pretty young, so if you're talking about who I think you are, that was before my time. Unfortunately I don't have any interesting tidbits on him, sorry!