POL311
Legislative Process
Dr. Sellers
January 23, 2008

Campaign Plan

As we discussed in class, you are organizing a campaign for a hypothetical candidate to represent Davidson College in the U.S. Senate. The first step of winning the election is creating a campaign plan for your candidate. That plan must contain two parts: a description of your candidate, and an explanation of exactly how you are going to win the election.

The description of the candidate needs to contain several types of information: the candidate’s name, picture, background, and issue positions. Since your group has the freedom to create any type of candidate, make sure that all parts of the candidate description are consistent with each other, as well as with the rest of your campaign. The candidate description should be no more than one page in length.

The second part of your campaign plan should explain how you are going to win the election. You need to outline strategies for message, budget, targeting, media, and organization (but not fundraising, which will not be a part of this simulation). While you are unlikely to specify all details for these components of your campaign at this early stage, you can nonetheless provide a general sense of your plans. This strategy section should be no more than two pages in length. Note that tables and figures (such as a message box) can appear on a separate page and do not count against the page limit.

I will assign the same grade for the campaign plan to every student in the particular campaign. I will evaluate the campaign plan on how well it develops the components outlined above, and how well the plan follows the guidelines for campaign plans outlined in class and assigned readings. I am not looking for a single right answer; instead, I am looking for campaign plans that apply class concepts effectively to our specific election contest.

Each campaign’s plan will remain confidential. The two campaigns will see each other's initial drafts of the candidate descriptions, but the campaigns will not see each other’s final overall plan; only I will see both campaign plans. As Frederick the Great once said, “there is a reason for secrecy. If you form the finest plans in the world, they might be divulged… then what good are they!” (Sweitzer 100, in Faucheux, Winning Elections (2003), New York: M. Evans and Company).

An initial draft of the candidate description is due on Wednesday, January 30 (before the due date for the overall campaign plan), so that each side can adjust their final campaign plan to fit their particular opponent. This draft will not receive a grade. The final draft of the complete campaign plan is due on Monday, February 4 at the start of class. Assignments turned in 10 minutes or more after the start of class will receive a late penalty.  The penalty is ten points (out of 100 total points) for each 24-hour period (after the start of class) that the assignment is late. 

The campaign plan should be typed, with 1-inch margins and a font no smaller than 10 point.  The assignment can be either single- or double-spaced.  Please follow the page length requirements outlined above; when grading, I will not read any material past these specified lengths (except tables or figures and citation details).  Finally, the Honor Code covers this assignment; make sure that you pledge your work.