The Same Old Song and Dance

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.