6 Rules for Managing a Scandal

Welcome back! It's been a whirlwind time at McLoughlin Media as we celebrate our 30th anniversary in April. Laura and I have been traveling from New York (media training); to L.A. (message development); to Montreal (media training); and Toronto (presentation skills). Earlier this week I was in beautiful St. Louis doing a seminar in crisis communications. So life has been busy.

Just yesterday, we completed the term for our course, 'Political Management and the Media' in the Clayton H. Riddell Masters of Political Management program at Carleton University. Once again, a great group of students who represent the political spectrum and who are an inspiration for the future of politics.

On April 7th Laura and I will be attending the Women in Communications and Technology Awards Gala at the Westin Hotel in Ottawa where Laura will be receiving the Communications Excellence Award. Congratulations Laura!

After that, Laura and I are back in L.A. where we are on a panel discussion at the Spring Meeting of the American Bar Association, April 11th, called "Scandal Scarred: Managing Your Clients Through a Political or Government Scandal.  We're looking forward to it.

Which brings me to my topic of this post....

Six Rules for Managing a Scandal
Over the past thirty years, we have consulted on behalf of clients in the political, corporate, government and non-profit sectors. Here are some rules for managing scandals.
1. Make sure your client doesn't become a joke. This week's outrage was that Mayor Ford had to stand up and change two votes - in which he had voted AGAINST Council congratulating Canada's Olympic and Para-Olympian teams, and AGAINST naming a street after Nelson Mandela. Jimmy Kimmell had another field day with that piece of news, and even Bill Clinton weighed in [ironic isn't it?] Interestingly enough, it looks like Rob Ford will probably avoid criminal charges for his actions, but will it save his political future? Right now, it's even odds that he could pull off a victory in October against John Tory and Olivia Chow, as they seem determined not to bring up the Mayor's ahem peccadillos.

Dimitri and Eve

2. Don't bring in people who are 'toxic' to manage other people.
The antics of Conservative MP Eve Adams and her fiancé, Conservative Party Executive Director Dimitri Soudas have tripped up Prime Minister Harper's efforts to shake loose last year's Senate 'Scandal'. Now that Mr. Soudas has been let go, there isn't anyone in his camp willing to defend him.

3. Turn the channel. Mr. Harper's strongest suit as Prime Minister was on show last week as his visit to Ukraine, Germany and the G7 in Brussels showed him to be resolute in his stance for justice and call to action on Putin's take-over of Crimea. However, when he arrived home to the swirling controversy over the Dimitri Soudas-Eve Adams side-show, he must have been furious that he couldn't spend one day basking in the success of his European trip.

Premier Redford Takes Her Leave

4. Style of leadership matters. The resignation of Alberta Premier Alison Redford underscores the importance of leading by listening and motivating - not by command and control. A government requires a team. It is not a one-person power machine. No matter the progress she was making in Alberta's economy and development, her style began to grate - first internally, and then with the public.


5. Understand and respect your own brand. Every successful government understands its brand - that is, it's promise to voters. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie still hasn't recovered the damage to his 'just folks, man of the people' brand as a result of the 'Bridge' scandal. In Canada, for three elections, the Conservative brand was powerfully and persuasively built, but it has eroded badly since the last election - on political reform, the military, veterans and even solid management. The Conservatives have only 18 months to re-discover their brand and get off the defensive.

6. Make sure your message hits the target. The government's 'Canada's Economic Advantage' campaign is long in the tooth and has lost its ability to move the dial. The party's 'He's in way over his head' personal attack ads on Justin Trudeau seem weirdly personal (clips of him removing his shirt) and not serious.  Justin Trudeau's F-bomb at a charity boxing match last week, followed by his cursing on television last night won't cause permanent damage. However, it does play into the counter-narrative that the Conservatives have proven so adept at creating - with former Liberal leaders Stephane Dion and Michael Ignatieff. Will lightning strike three times? Although Mr. Trudeau seems to have a teflon coating, the Conservatives are betting heavily that the attacks will start to stick.

So those are only some of the rules for managing a scandal. But they're a start!

Until next time......welcome to spring!

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5 Reasons Why Doubling Down Won't Work

Welcome back!
It's been such a busy New Year that I haven't got around to a 2014 blog post until now. Laura and I just got back from New Jersey - where we did a seminar, and then New York City where we took a few days to unwind. Among the highlights was when we took in the new Broadway play, 'All the Way' about the first year of Lyndon Baines Johnson's presidency as he pushes the Civil Rights Bill through Congress.                                                                                                                                    
Playing LBJ was the multi-talented Bryan Cranston whose tour-de-force performance brought the Neil Simon Theater audience to its feet. We had a chance to meet him after the show, and I was impressed by his great attitude and patience with all the fans. The Breaking Bad star told me how he loved working in Canada, and rhymed off all the cities where he had worked - Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver. There wasn't a hint of Walter White that emerged!

Gov. Christie Tries to Recover His Brand

While in the Tri-State area we were able to catch up on the travails of Gov. Chris Christie as he tries to recover from his Bridge issue. Although no one brought it up at a Town Hall meeting, the national media were all over it, looking for evidence that the issue had created permanent damage to his political brand - and thus his 2016 putative Presidential bid. Although two years is a lifetime in politics, he now has a mountain to climb in order to recover. What the allegedly deliberate traffic carnage revealed was a petty, partisan motive that was at odds with his brand of the truth-teller who wasn't going to let partisanship get in the way of helping his state. [Recall his bromance with President Obama in the post-Sandy recovery. A devastating critique by the New York Times' Maureen Dowd pretty well sums up his challenges. Which probably means...Jeb Bush will be testing the waters in a serious way.

Doubling Down....and out?

I have just finished reading Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's insightful new book Double Down, their account of the 2012 Presidential election campaign. It's the follow-up book to their smash hit, Game Change, which was a brilliant chronicle of the 2008 Presidential campaign.  Double down can be defined as, adopting a high-risk, high-reward strategy. Romney deployed it increasingly throughout the primaries and then in the Fall campaign - to increasingly disastrous results.
As the Romney campaign 'doubled down' on his Republican base, and President Obama did the same with his Democrat base [which is wider], some lessons can be learned that apply elsewhere.


5 Reasons why Doubling Down Won't Work
1. The public is increasingly fed up with 'politics as usual'. Although this has been a long time in coming, any political party or leader who smacks of playing the same old partisan games is offside with the voter. When people are looking for signs of principle and character, such games are a major turn-off.
2. It makes it hard to reach the uncommitted voter. Although it's vitally important to keep a political party's base onside the name of the game is the middle class voter who is worried about jobs and the economy. Doubling down on the base makes no effort to 'cross the chasm' to reach the uncommitted voter who is not politically invested.
3. The political zeitgeist is undergoing a profound change. Personal attacks and cheap shots have lost their 'appeal'. Although they can gain headlines, getting personal is reminiscent of school yard bullies. Although it doesn't automatically show up in polls, when the public sees someone who represents change, not only in policies, but in vision and tone, they leap to it. Witness Obama in 2008 and - for a limited time in 2012-13 - Gov. Chris Christie. North of the border, Justin Trudeau is betting that his 'non-partisan' messaging and actions such as his Senate initiative will position him as less partisan and more in tune with the political zeitgeist.

4. It's hard to project true leadership when you're busy attacking your opponents. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair has proven to be an effective 'prosecutor' of Prime Minister Harper on the Senate 'scandal' issue. Yet very few flock to a prosecutor as a visionary. That may partially explain the lack of 'lift' under Mulcair in the past year. This past week, Defence Minister Rob Nicholson went out of his way to attack Lt. Gen. (ret.) Andrew Leslie for accepting a $72,000 payment to cover the costs of his final move, as allowed for in Canadian Forces policy]. While it might be red meat for the base, such an aggressive, personal attack runs the risk of being seen as mostly political in its motivation - as Leslie is now a declared Liberal defence policy adviser to Justin Trudeau. l.

5. People get tired of hearing the same thing over and over again. This is true in politics and it's also true in television. Piers Morgan doubled down on his belief that viewers would tune in to his repetitive anti-gun diatribes [no matter how legitimate some of them may have been]. The news that CNN is pulling the plug on Piers Morgan Tonight is not a big surprise.

I can't sign off without a special congratulations to my partner, Laura Peck, who started this company with me 30 years ago this year. It has just been announced that Laura has won the WCT [Women in Communications and Technology] Award for Communications Excellence. The Awards Ceremony will be held on April 7th and I will proudly be there along with her.






On a final note.....Our thoughts are with the Ukrainian people...
Our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine, with the events unfolding in Kiev leading to the removal of the President by the Ukrainian Parliament and the ordering of an election, I couldn't help but think back about five years when Laura and I were in Kiev and conducted three seminars for the three main courts of Ukraine. Hopefully, part of the new revolution will ensure that the rule of law will prevail, with an independent judiciary. Our thoughts and best wishes are for the Ukrainian people as they go through this historic revolution.
So for now, it's off to Saskatchewan - where it's a dry cold - and we will see you all soon!
Until next time....

The Psychological Voter 'Drivers'

Welcome back!
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies." —Groucho Marx
Groucho probably had that about right, but - hey - that won't stop us from exploring one of my favorite sports, politics!
I can't believe it's been nearly three weeks since my last posting. The craziness of the fall season is well underway, and I've traveled from one end of one country (Canada) to the other end of the other (United States). In between seminars and consulting I've kept a close eye - with some media interviews - on politicians, debates, elections and scandals thrown in for good measure. Within the next week or so, there will be provincial and territorial elections in Canada and in the U.S., Republican candidate debates. And to make it really fun and games....it's World Series time!!!! So let's get started with this week's subject...the psychological 'drivers' of voters.
The Psychological Voter 'Drivers'
If every political campaign could understand the psychological state of their voters, they would hold the victory within their grasp. For if you understand your voter, you learn what motivates them and may ultimately get them to the polls to mark an 'X' next to your candidate's name [or 'yes' or 'no' on your ballot initiative].
Although I am not a psychologist - nor have I played one on television, but...... based on providing strategic communications advice, training for media, debates and campaign speeches for dozens of campaigns, I venture the following analysis:
Driver No. 1. Voters can be highly volatile in their opinions. Their opinions can change fairly rapidly based on specific arguments that make sense to them, if they resonate with their collective experiences. For example, whether a 10% tax middle class tax cut is a good thing or not, is a matter of opinion, on which reasonable people may disagree. It's what the cuts are associated with [the connotations] that matter: for those opposed to the cuts, the campaign might focus on the cuts to health care, education etc. while those in favor might focus on jobs and opportunities. What voters supported two or four years ago, don't assume that they are going to support it this year.
Driver No. 2. Connect with the slower-moving prevailing public attitudes - broader than any one issue, attitudes are more powerful than trading opinions. For example, tax cuts is only one of a basket of issues - "unfair tax hikes' and "lies", "waste" and "giveaways" etc. They can form a hardened powerful public opinion. In turn, that can generate a wave of anger and protest [witness the current Wall St. daily protests spreading elsewhere]. While slower to shift than opinions, prevailing attitudes do change and they can end up throwing leaders and governments out of power. Clearly this is what Ontario's PC Leader Tim Hudak and the NDP's Andrea Horwath are counting on as they race towards what appears to be a minority government situation. [By the way, I wonder what kind of ink Premier McGuinty's pledge to not form a coalition government was written with? Just asking.]
Driver No. 3. Connect with the core (very-slowly) changing values of 'voters'. Values - family, community, justice, protecting the environment, protecting borders etc. can be the most powerful motivators of all - when they are under attack. Like a mama bear, values can lie there unstirred and taken for granted. But when that bears cubs are threatened, don't be surprised if it lashes out angrily to protect its young. So one of the rules of politics is, don't press the 'values' button unless you are sure that your voters competing values are stronger and can be marshaled in your favor. Every election is ultimately a fight for a large piece of the voters' value set. Who gets a hold of that, is often the winner.
Driver No. 4. Connect with the leader/candidate. The voters don't have to love the candidate or Leader [but it definitely helps]. The key is respect. Stephen Harper counted on 'respect' from the voter in his last two elections, not necessarily 'love'. The love that millions of voters had for Barack Obama in 2008 needs to be translated into 'respect' if he hopes to be re-elected in 2012. If the candidate makes embarrassing comments, in the Twitter-verse world, he or she runs the danger of becomes a running joke. Some move quickly to apologize or explain or - even better - poke fun at themselves, such gaffes can be overcome, so long as they can relate to the candidate. As the 'fitness-challenged' Gov. Chris Christie [Rep. NJ] contemplates throwing his hat into the Republican Presidential race, it signals that the public no longer have an idea of the 'perfect' candidate in mind. Instead, they seem to want a candidate whom they could 'have a beer with'. They want someone to connect with. Not to worship, but someone who really gets them and speaks up and asks for them.
Driver No. 5. A powerful message, powerfully communicated. 'Change' is an over-used but powerful message. Alberta's Alison Redford, came from behind to win the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party this past weekend in the run-off election and is now the Premier-designate of Alberta. She represented change in the status quo. Hard to beat that! In Manitoba, after one of the nastiest campaigns on record, if the PC's Hugh McFadyen succeeds in taking down NDP Premier Greg Selinger it will demonstrate once again that 'change' trumps virtually everything else.

So, what does all this mean for this week's elections in PEI, Ontario and Manitoba? I won't predict as they are three very different campaigns, but it is clear that change is in the air.  The other five psychological 'drivers' will come into play in their own way and how strongly they do will tip the balance. It's important to remember that momentum and get-out-the-vote [GOTV] are critical to paying off on your voter analysis. So no matter who your party or candidate is, exercise your hard-won right and get out and vote! Or even better, volunteer for the candidate or Party you believe in. You are more important to democracy than you think. Pass it on!

Until next time.......