Becker and Wilson: a Comtrast in Campaign Styles

If you had asked me two weeks ago who would come out of Yesterday's Primary, I would have told you Jenny Wilson and Dave Buhler. Jenny seemed to have the dominating lead in the polls, had a new ad on TV, and wasgoing strong.

Then, last Friday, Becker/Buhler/Wilson were in a three-way tie.

So, how did Becker go on to win by 11 points?

Volunteers.

From Day 1, Becker had built his campaign on doing the small and simple things, getting people out in neighborhoods, Getting himself out in neighborhoods, and utilizing small, simple, inexpensive, and yet effective methods to advertise. He had a strong group of supporters running around on Election Day. Becker's campaign was summed up by Glenden Brown over at One Utah:

I’ve been volunteering with this campaign since June - a lot of folks there last night have been volunteering since June. There were tears and cheers. There’s something about having been there for months, having walked precincts in July when it was 100 + degrees, having stood on street corners waving signs and seeing it pay off. The crowd you may have seen on TV or in the papers was cheering itself hoarse, clapping until everyone’s hands hurt. Once in a while, the right candidate comes along and Ralph Becker has been the right candidate - I have no idea how many people volunteered yesterday to do pollwatching, but everytime I was there I saw group of 15 or 20 people heading out to poll watch. Over the summer, I saw groups head out to walk precincts every time I was there - not just one or two people, but eight and ten people in a single evening or saturday morning.

Annother campaign that did a good job of this was the Buhler campaign. There was hardly an event in Salt Lake City that didn't have the Buhler people out in force with balloons, signs, and large life-sized cutouts of the candidate, and the candidate himself.

The two biggest spenders in the race this year are done campaigning. Christensen's Main Street office and lots of advertising didn't help him one bit. Likewise, Wilson's ad blitz just wasn't enough.

In the end, the grassroots were the real winner last night.

-Bob

[edit 9/13/07 0027: as a commenter mentioned, I wrote wilson when I meant Becker, and things didn't make sense, unless you were smart enough to read what I meant, not what I wrote....]

SLC Mayor's Race

I am going to maintain my nutrality in the race for Salt Lake City Mayor. It's a luxury I have. Other things in life have taken my attention these past many months, so I'm not as well-versed in the ins and outs of the race as I would hope to be. I probably would have been more so had I actually been able to vote next Tuesday.

That being said, here are some pros and cons for the major candidates from my point of view:

Ralph Becker

Pros: Good listener; outreach to blogging community.
Cons: The Legislature will miss him. Now that everyone knows his secret superhero identity, can he continue to be all that effective?

Jenny Wilson

Pros: Nice Person; Her sister's got an awesome neighbor if I do say so myself; Peter Corroon likes her, Rocky not so much.
Cons: Tries to run as her own person, even if her own person is Ted Wilson's daughter; For someone that hasn't yet completed a single term in office, already feels like a career politico.

Dave Buhler

Pros: Rocky hates him; good marketing team;, name reminds me of one of my favorite movies.
Cons: Reminds me of favorite bit character of that movie; Career part-time politico.

Keith Christensen

Pros: Bicycle Friendly
Cons: Rocky Friendly

-Bob

Impact Day 2007

My new job took me to Impact Day at the University of Utah. One disadvantage we had was the fact that we were moved indoors due to weather concerns.

Here are the photos:


The Candidates were out in force...

The College Democrats' Booth:

SLC Mayoral Candidates Jenny Wilson and Dave Buhler


Oh, and there was a special guest at Impact Day this year. I'll post pictures of the special guest later...