Ethical Political Consultants

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Ethical Political Consultants

• 27 September 2004

2
What is the Role of Political Consultants?

• To win races
• To advise the candidate about the campaign
• To advice the candidate about campaign ethics

3
How do Campaign Consultants Help Democracy?

• They make complicated issues easier to understand
  and remember
• They compare the candidates to each other
• They weed out ineffective candidates
• They uncover information that the public would
  not otherwise know

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What are the Ethical Responsibilities of
Consultants?

• From the self-interested perspective
• Run the most effective campaign possible
• Not to lie, cheat, steal, murder, etc.
• From the civic-responsibility perspective
• Must serve the candidate
• Must do no harm to the public good

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Are these Tactics Ethical?

• Appealing to prejudice or racial stereotypes
• Attempts to erode the public confidence in
  government
• Attempts to suppress voter turnout through
  negative advertising
• Using wedge issues that work to divide the
  public
• Encouraging voters not to think about the
  issuesto think in simplistic terms instead
• Using audio-visual tricks that convey an
  inaccurate message

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How Consultants Perceive Ethics in their Industry

• Survey Results Collected by Political Scientists

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Percent of Consultants of Say the Tactic is
Clearly Unethical

• Making False Statements
• Taking Statements out of Context
• Using Push Polls
• Negative ads to decrease turnout
• Focusing on negative personal characteristics and
  not issues
• Issue comparisons

• 94.2
• 26.9
• 37.7
• 28.4
• 16.7
• 0

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Food for Thought

• More Republicans thought that focusing on
  negative personal characteristics and taking
  statements out of context were unethical
• More Democrats thought that negative ads to
  depress turnout and push polling were unethical

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Who Could/Should Enforce Ethical Conduct?

• Professional associations (AAPC)
• Consultants themselves
• Political parties
• The media
• The voters
• Which has been the most successful?
• The media

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How Consultants Perceive Ethics in their Industry

• A View from the Inside

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Who are Political Consultants?

• Unregulated industry with no professional
  requirements
• Many different kinds of consultants
• Media consultant
• Strategist
• Direct mail consultant
• Fund-raising consultant
• Mail fund-raising consultant
• Organizations consultant
• GOTV consultant

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Which Consultants are More Ethical?

• Those with more experience
• Not young and foolish
• Unethical consultants dont get much work and go
  out of business
• Media consultants tend to be the most ethical
• Why?

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Which Consultants are the Least Ethical?

• Direct mail consultants
• Why?
• Media doesnt pay attention
• Can target only those you want to reach
• Easy to spread inaccurate information
• Direct mail consults are only concerned with
  technically factual information
• Its OK if the information is misleading or feeds
  of fears/prejudices
• Republicans Admit Mailing Campaign Literature
  Saying Liberals Will Ban the Bible
• Headline from the New York Times, 24 September
  2004

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What Consultants Can do to Ensure Ethical Behavior

• Talk about ethics beforehand
• The candidate and the consultant should sign a
  code of ethics
• Let the candidate make the final decisions, esp.
  if the candidate is uncomfortable with a tactic
• Set an example
• Dont burn any bridges. Todays opponent may be
  tomorrows client.