Jody Wagner continues to wage her negative campaign against the Lt. Gov. Bolling in the hopes that voters will suddenly “come to their senses” and run to her side. Unfortunately, Wagner has not ran a campaign that messages effectively, that highlights who she is and builds name recognition or that can compete with the four years of success and popularity Bolling has had.
This campaign ad is a problem. It comes across as childish, more designed to make you laugh than make you think. The moment you see the cigar in his hand, any educated person starts laughing at the “Boss Tweed” reference and dismisses it as a political joke. It also attempts to make Bolling look bad because of his stance on healthcare, a national issue that is very divisive and complicated.
Can we hear a big “hooray” for failed negative ads? There’s an effective and ineffective method of going negative, and unfortunately, “ineffective” has been the buzz word and message of the Wagner campaign.
One of the most important traits of any political campaign should be the ability to change strategies when necessary. If one campaign strategy fails to produce the results the candidate needs, the campaign must be able to adapt and switch to a strategy that does work. If focusing on one issue and emphasizing the candidate’s views regarding that issue fails to energize the electorate, logic would dictate that the campaign should move on to another issue, another set of views to emphasize.
Of course, in order to do this effectively, the campaign must have a candidate with competent views on a number of issues. A campaign can not change their strategy and emphasize a different point if the candidate is only running on one issue, or can only talk about one or two points. This seems to be the problem facing Jody Wagner and her campaign staff.
Polls released earlier this week show Bill Bolling ahead of Wagner 50% to 38%. Obviously, either Bolling is doing something right, or Wagner is doing something wrong. However, instead of changing tactics, Wagner has continued to emphasize Bolling’s lack-luster attendance record for meetings of the several boards and counsels on which Bolling serves. Wagner claims that Bolling has personally attended only 4 out of the 68 board meetings he was supposed to attend over the last four years. What Wagner tends to ignore is the fact that, for every one of those 68 meetings, Bolling was either in attendance or sent a staff member to take notes and then brief him later.
Regardless of how much truth there is in Wagner’s claims, she seems determined to continue with a campaign strategy that clearly does not work. Virginians do not care about whether Bolling himself attended the 17 board meetings he had per year, or if he sent staff members to attend. They don’t care about attacks based on insignificant issues and manipulated statistics. Virginians want a candidate that can talk about the issues and offer competent and thoughtful solutions to the problems the state faces. They want a positive leader, not a negative one. Simply put, Virginians want Bill Bolling, not Jody Wagner.
Bill Bolling and Bob McDonnell have undoubtedly ran the race for Lt. Governor and Governor has a pair. This is true of the entire republican ticket, including the candidate for Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli. However, Cuccinelli has been slightly less successful against the democratic candidate Steve Shannon.
After volunteering at Virginia Victory in Alexandria twice I believe the republican strategy is working. While phone banking we do not just endorse one candidate, we endorse all republican candidates, including that districts delegate. The few people who answer and agree to answer questions are either democrats and who will only vote “for people with a D after their name” (as one man told me), or they are republicans who will only vote for republicans. Many do not even know their candidates names, which could be part of the reason why we make these calls.
This Bill Bolling television ad, “steward,” shows how Bolling and McDonnell present themselves as that pair. Vote for this ideal pair in less than a week!
On October 21, the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce took an Official Straw Poll Ballot to determine how the members and guests planned to vote on November 3rd. The Republican ticket scored huge points and Lt. Governor Bill Bolling was in attendance to watch it happen.
Stumping for his ticket, Bolling spoke of McDonnell as the future ‘Chief Jobs Officer’ and that all Republican candidates are planning to be about ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ during their term in office.
Bolling was joined by Delegates O’Bannon, Janis, Senator Watkins and candidates Gage and Sampson at the reception. All saw the straw poll come in for Bolling: Lt. Governor: Bolling – 69% Wagner – 31%
November 3rd was but two weeks away and this straw poll endorsement by the Richmond Chamber is merely an echo of the average Virginia voter who is saying, “you’ve done well Bolling, yes we’ll give you four more years!”
Technology is the core of any campaign today. The campaign website is a source of information that many people rely on. It's integral to reaching greater numbers of people and guiding those people's beliefs on a candidates stance on issues, how to donate their time and efforts, a place for supporters to connect with the candidate on a more personal level, and a very important resource for both local and national media.
Even though the heat of the Lieutenant Governor race between Bill Bolling and Jody Wagner has died down, their new media campaigns are in full swing. Both campaigns are running with a variety of new media outlets; website, blogs, twitter, youtube, interactive website components, email, and text messaging. Each candidate has attempted to put together a comprehensive face sending the same message to anyone who is listening, "Vote for me!"
I've put together a little report card to review each campaigns ease of use, quality of information, they're ability to "go viral" on the web, and who has been more successful in reaching out through new technology.
Bill Bolling
Jody Wagner
Website
A-Bolling’s site is very appealing to the eye, there are a lot of images, and links information is easily accessible. There are many interactive components, and getting involved is easy from his site.
BJody’s website isn’t bad, but the focus isn’t on the most persuasive pieces of information and it’s very txt heavy. The interactive/involvement component of the site is one of the first things that catches your eyes.
Blog
A Bolling’s blog is easy to read with lots of different media. Sound clips, quotes, and photos are visible as you scroll down the page. There are also links to other blogs related to the campaign.
F I’m not sure if Jody Wagner has a blog, there is anareas called “news” that discusses goings-on, but I couldn’t find the campaign blog or blogs that were connected to the campaign.
Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, Myspace
C+ Bolling’s a little off; he’s got a facebook application and a profile, but he doesn’t have a fan page. He also doesn’t update his twitter all that frequently, and his myspace profile is absolutely abysmal.
D The Wagner campaign is absolutely dreadful. She doesn’t have a myspace page at all, and her facebook exposure is pretty limited as well. She is redeemed by the fact that her twitter is updated almost hourly on occasion.
Youtube
C While his youtube looks good, has a great layout, it is completely lacking in content. There is only one video from 8months ago, and when search Bill Bolling on youtube’s search engine the top searches are negative ads.
BEven if her site is a little plain, Jody Wagner keeps it up to date and has done great attracting foot traffic where the campaign wants it. Her ads are funny and more watched, unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be all that much about Jody on youtube at all.
Other
The Bolling campaign has a social media page on the main site that makes it easy to connect in almost any way.
Needs to work on it.
While Jody Wagner is behind, she's doing a much better job taking advantage of the benefits of social media. Unfortunately I don't think that either campaign was really able to reach out into those networks, younger people are not interested in campaigns and this campaign did not do enough to captivate their interest.
While both campaigns are dabbling in electronic communication, neither are taking advantage of it as much as they could. I imagine that in the final days, we can count on an increase on all this communication and perhaps a greater push through this very valuable medium.
For many Americans, it’s a widely accepted truth that politicians tend to lie, especially during campaigns. It’s not a good thing, but it’s a common place thing, simply a part of the political game. Politicians make claims that aren’t true, promises they can’t keep, and distort facts to work in their favor. Whether it’s true or not, it’s the way many people view politics and politicians.
Last night, during the first televised debate between Bill Bolling and Jody Wagner at Roanoke College, Wagner confirmed that stereotype in a not-so-subtle manner. In a debate filled with attacks slung from both sides of the stage, Wagner’s strategy seemed to be to say whatever it took to deface Bolling, whether her claims were true or not. In fact, many of them were not true.
The most glaring example of this came during her response to the question of whether she would support Democratic candidate for Governor Creigh Deeds’ plan to raise taxes on gasoline in order to fund transportation initiatives. “At this point, I am not willing to raise any taxes,” Wagner said, “I don’t believe Deeds has any plan to raise taxes, but if he does, I would not support it.”
In fact, Deeds does have a plan to raise taxes on gasoline and, in fact, Wagner did say she would support his plan. To prove it, Bolling cited a recent Washington Post article in which Wagner confirmed she would support Deeds’ plan.
This did not sit well with Wagner, who claimed that Bolling was breaking the rules of the debate by citing an outside source. This, by the way, was also untrue, but that’s beside the point. What should not sit well with voters in Virginia is that Wagner, who has supported every tax increase in Virginia for the last eight years, is suddenly against any kind of tax increase. Doesn’t that sound like a claim that isn’t true? Doesn’t that sound like a promise Wagner won’t keep?
Throughout Wagner’s campaign, she has insisted that she represents a new kind of politician, a bipartisan problem solver who works in the interest of the people instead of her party, while Bolling represents the old political guard of deceit, partisanship and self-interest. If Wagner is supposed to be a different breed of politician, why is she playing right into the stereotype of a politician that lies and distorts the truth? If Wagner can stand in front of a packed Olin Theater at Roanoke College and lie about raising taxes, lie about Bolling’s attendance record and lie about the state of Virginia’s budget, what else could she be lying about?
To see more, check out this video of some of the highlights, or more appropriately, lowlights of last night's debate
Jodi Wagner has ramped up her negative attacks on the Bill Bolling campaign. Her ads have started to focus more on her campaign's misperceptions on Bill Bolling; her accusations have started to pile up culminating with her accusations that his presence has been almost non-existent during his last term and his opposition to any bi-partisan work.
"Since taking office, Bolling has had an open invitation to the meetings of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates, on which sit appropriate Cabinet Secretaries, the House and Senate Leadership, and Virginia’s business leaders. The Committee plays a critical role in the bi-partisan process of revenue forecasting. Each year, Lt. Governor Bolling has been invited. Each year, he’s failed to show up-including the latest meeting, held yesterday in Richmond. So, if Bill Bolling is so concerned about the state’s revenue forecasts, why hasn’t he bothered to actually take part in the process?" (A statement released in a press release by the Wagner campaign)
And while this sounds pretty bad, the whole issue was blown out of proportion and the information was not provided in the appropriate context. The meetings occurred on a yearly basis and were to discuss public opinion in regards to what had happened since the last meeting. They were short and disorganized with no published information.
On Saturday Bolling and McDonnell spoke to attendants of Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s picnic in support of the three republican candidates who are leading in the polls.During his speech Bolling encouraged supporters, “We’re in the fourth quarter with four to five mintues left and we can’t stop playing now.’’ Bolling said before the picnic that he believes the Republican campaign is having so much success in part because of their talks of creating more jobs and focusing on the economy.
That could be the reason Republicans are having so much success this year or it could be because of the growing public dissatisfaction with the Democratic party, a theory Karl Rove stated in a Wall Street Journal article from earlier this week.Rove suggested that a major reason many independent voters are turning away from the Democrats is because of Obama’s handling of the deficit earlier this year, with polls showing that a growing number of people are unhappy about how the problem was dealt with.As well as the highly publicized healthcare issue.
Rove believes that Congressional Democrats will take a huge hit in the next Congressional elections.These upcoming elections will definitely serve as a forecast for those in Congress up for re-election next year.Let’s all just hope this election turns out the right way, with Bill Bolling winning.
I spent my Saturday in Alexandria off the Braddock metro station working at the Virginia Victory campaign office for Bill Bolling and the rest of the Republican ticket. It's a nice office with a very warm and welcoming staff of regulars headed up by Kiley Smith and Marissa Pugmire (Bolling's campaign).
At 10 am Jan Larimer of Wyoming came to speak to the volunteers. Larimer was elected co-chairman of the Republican National Committee in January of 2009 and works with Chairman Steele observing and taking inventory of the Republican grassroots organization nation-wide. She was encouraging and supportive and put everyone in a great mood for the day's tasks.
I went out with a friend and canvassed the neighborhood near the headquarters for about 3 hours and met mixed results. There would be pockets of Republican ticket supporters and pockets of Democrat supporters. Many who were willing to talk to us had not heard about Vicki Vasquez who was running for the delegate position so it was great to get her name out there, especially since we past the home of her opponent, incumbent David Englin. We were least successful when we came to apartment buildings/homes with multiple families...it was very difficult to even get people to come to the door and many had "no soliciting" signs.
Then at 2 pm, we arrived back at the headquarters and made phone calls for an hour. It was fun learning how the call center worked and how the phones kept track of survey results, voicemails and bad phone numbers. I probably spoke to an actual human 1 out of every 10 calls and out of all those voters who answered, maybe 4 agreed to take the survey. It would have been disheartening if the day hadn't been well spent canvassing the neighborhood, and having friends/good people around you makes even the call center an exciting event.
Overall, a day well spent. I learned a lot, met some great people, and learned a bit about what a typical campaign day is like in Virginia. VOTE BOLLING!
SurveyUSA came out with a poll on Monday showing Bill Bolling taking a lead over Jodi Wagner in the polls. Previously he had been leading by less then ten percent. In spite of the negative ad recently released by the Wagner campaign, Bill Bolling is gaining among several different demographics. The top three offices all have Republican's leading in the polls, particularly among me and more educated people, as well as a slight lead among independent voters.
The trend of approval for Bolling has been pretty high, he only saw one drop in support that quickly rebounded and has now risen higher then it has been during this race. While Wagner has seen a slow decline in support.
This decline could also be a reflection on Jodi Wagner's increased use of negative campaign tactics. Bill Bolling's campaign has stayed fairly positive in comparison. As the race continues increased negative messaging can be expected from both sides as public attention increases.
Do you think there is a corollation between Jodi Wagner's negative ads and her drop in the polls?
Apparently, Bill Bolling is a big fan of highway rest-stops. That is, of course, if they are open. When they are closed, like half of the rest-stops in Virginia currently are, Mr. Bolling is not happy. In fact, in an interview last week, Bill Bolling said he can think of “a few choice words” when he encounters a closed highway rest-stop in Virginia.
Transportation being the monolithic issue that it is in this state, the lack of open rest-stops is a legitimate concern. Tourism is down and, if it has any chance of bouncing back, traveling through Virginia must become a more pleasant experience than it currently is. However, given the plethora of hot-button issues surrounding this year’s election, one would think that Bolling’s time would be better spent addressing a more… important issue.
Virginia’s transportation problems are numerous, but, let’s be real. Reopening Virginia’s closed rest-stops is not going to substantially increase tourism, it is not going to solve any larger transportation issues, and it is not really going to help the economy. If he’s going to talk about transportation, why not talk about the 4 billion dollars in transportation bonds McDonnell and Bolling plan on issuing if elected, or the 1% of future state revenue growth (approximately 170 million dollars a year) they plan on devoting entirely to transportation investments?
To that end, why talk about his own stance on issues when he would be equally served by attacking the Democrats’ problems with passing health care legislation, running the economy or handling the war in Afghanistan? Why talk about rest-stops at all?
The reason Bolling is talking about rest-stops is because it’s a perfect opportunity to criticize Virginia’s last two governors, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine. If Bolling or McDonnell hope to win this November, they have to reverse the transition in Virginia from red to blue, which has resulted in two, consecutive Democratic governors in the last eight years, not to mention Obama’s victory here in 2008. They must emphasize everything the Democrats have done wrong under the last two administrations, including closing rest-stops.
Kaine was responsible for closing nearly half of the rest-stops along Virginia’s highways. He claimed it was to cut costs, but Bolling sees otherwise. For Bolling, the decision to close rest-stops was a purely political move aimed at highlighting the GOP’s inability to raise funds to fix the transportation system. In fact, it had to have been at least a somewhat politically motivated decision on Kaine’s part. Closing rest-stops may have cut costs, but not substantially. It could not have freed up that much budget space.
By talking about reopening rest-stops, Bolling has managed to make the Democrats look bad while not looking bad himself. This is somewhat of a departure from his recent trend of attacking Jody Wagner’s political record. Why go negative if Bolling doesn’t have too? Of course, for this observer, sitting comfortably on his couch at home, keeping positive seems like an easy thing for Bolling to do.
However, if we put ourselves in his position, traversing the Old Dominion from campaign event to campaign event, pulling up to the only highway rest stop for miles in the middle of the night, looking for a map, perhaps a vending machine or a place to unleash that 64oz Double Gulp of Diet Coke from earlier, it’s easy to see how seeing those chains around the door handles and that big, orange “closed” sign would make anyone mutter a few “choice words” under their breath.
Bolling and Wagner's scheduled debate last week in Manassas was called off after both camps allegedly could not agree on the rules of the debate and use of footage. The Wagner campaign claimed it was because of an 11th hour "no-use" request in which the Bolling campaign wanted to prevent either camp from using clipse in ads. Wagner's campaign also claimed that it offered a fair use policy where no comments could be taken out of context. Bolling advisers struck back claiming the reason for the drop-out was the release of a negative press release by the opposition claiming he wanted to change the rules late in the game.
Regardless of who is at fault, it is interesting that a debate was scheduled at all. Generally speaking, incumbents with high approval ratings and support avoid debating the opposition, so as not to draw attention to the other candidate or provide them with a chance to shine in the spotlight and make the incumbent look foolish. Debates are most popular in executive races and in open seat races with no incumbent. It is not clear as to whether the canceled debate will reflect poorly on Wagner or Bolling, however it may be in Bolling's best interest to avoid them altogether...history certainly seems to suggest so.
Bolling has been serving his constituents in elected office since 1991 and has a long history of improving health conditions in Virginia, lowering taxes and cleaning up local environments.To learn more about Bill Bollings position on current issues, what he accomplished in his last term as Lieutenant Governor or for campaign updates check out his website!Also on his website you’ll find links to Bob McDonnell (for Governor) and Ken Cuccinellis (for Attorney General) websites.
The Bolling Alley is a blog following Republican Bill Bolling's 2009 campaign for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, as well as all Virginian and national politics.
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