I am Alex White, a progressive campaign strategist, writer, social marketer and policy activist.
Despite the (still) prevailing orthodoxy that election strategies are a matter of well-timed policy announcements, media management and “feeding the chooks”, and focus-grouped television ads, the fact is that personal contact is the most effective way to change someone’s voting intention. A while back, I had a discussion with someone who posited that political campaigns [...]
We’re only a few days into the election campaign and I must confess that I’ve had discussions about the quality of the parties’ election campaign. The amateur-hour ads of the Liberals contrasts nicely with the recycled “make Melbourne history” Greens message (drowning out other candidates). Meanwhile, Labor HQ has decided inexplicably to make John Brumby [...]
The Greens political party loves to say that they support genuine action on climate change, but unfortunately the reality is that they are a policy-free zone. Labor has recently come out with its Climate Change White Paper. This plan has the potential to see massive cuts to Victoria’s carbon pollution – 20% by 2020. Victorian [...]
Everyone refers to the Obama campaign as benchmarks for so much in political campaigning, so forgive me while I do the same. Below is a video from the99percent, a think-tank in the US that has a series of talks, lectures or seminars that they video and put on the web. There’s a lot of really [...]
With negotiations between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats taking place as I write, it’s worth considering why the Tories are in this invidious position. A few months ago, David Cameron and his coterie were riding high in the polls, with expectations high that Labour would be smashed at the ballot box. The rout [...]