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Health & Fitness

Political Campaigns and the Conventional Wisdom

The unconventional way I chose to deliver my message to the voters of County Board District 2

How many times have you heard or read something that begins with “The conventional wisdom says…” or “According to the conventional wisdom…”?  I can’t begin to count how many times I have come across those two phrases.  You probably can’t, either.

What is this thing called The Conventional Wisdom?  It doesn’t have a clear and generally-accepted definition.  I think it’s a term used when a speaker or writer puts out an idea or concept that he wants us to accept without question.  By wrapping it in The Conventional Wisdom, he wants us to believe that his idea has gained acceptance beyond himself. 

One example of conventional wisdom is the way we conduct political campaigns in Illinois.  It calls upon every candidate to spend a small fortune on signs and plaster every available open space with them.

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The signs usually say, “Vote for…”, but they don’t say why you should “Vote for…”.

When I started this campaign, I chose to base it on five ideas:

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  • Government does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.  If we don’t get serious about it very soon, the consequences will be very painful.
  • We need greater financial transparency in county government.
  • The county needs to stop competing with private businesses.
  • We need to conduct a periodic forensic audit of county operations.
  • We need a County Board that better reflects the urban-rural population balance of 2012, not the balance of two generations ago.

I put together a leaflet that explains who I am and what I want to do for Kendall County.  I wrote it all myself, without the help of a campaign consultant who would poll-test and focus-group every phrase.   My purpose was to tell people what I genuinely believe and want to do, not what a consultant thought they want to hear.

To deliver my message to the voters in County Board District 2, I set about going door to door in each of the district’s 42 precincts.  Reaching my goal required a rigorous schedule and some luck with the weather.  With three days to go to the Primary, I have been to over 2,700 homes!  How effective is this compared to the conventional method of campaigning?  We’ll know in four days.

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