Where David K Gets it Wrong

Assumptions are a terrible thing to make because they always bite people in the ass.

Just because someone advertises on my blog doesn't mean I am behind their campaign, although I sort of appreciate all the perceived power people give me. That and $5 will buy someone a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

Before I get into what DK is wrong about, let me talk about what he is right about. He is right about the fact that for the most part the opposition candidates are terrible. They don't know issues, repeat lines given to them by JOP or STA or the Mayor of Munchkin Land Hector Montes.

David K is also right that if they had better candidates then things would be very different. All the incumbents are going to be re-elected. The question is by how much.

Now to what he got wrong.

I'm not one of Svarzbein's "top advisers". That's a very douchey Hector H. Lopez thing to have, a bunch of "advisers". If I was, I would've told him to whack his opponents a long time ago. All three of the other top-tier candidates are open to a negative message. I would've had him leverage a message and define his opponents a LONG time ago.

Also, I wouldn't send out shitty mail. Short and to the point. I wouldn't try to cram War & Peace onto a mailer.

But David K is under the mistaken belief, along with someone else, that the Westside is somehow special and unique and therefore requires a different way to campaign it. Bull shiiiiiit! That is actually why Svarzbein is doing so well. DK seems to think he's only hitting Democrats in Kern. If that were the case Team Pedro could've block-walked both of those households by now.

David K has had it in for Svarzbein from day one and for whatever reason DK is irked by him. I don't think its because Weisenberger is his lawyer or because his mom is Bonart's treasurer. Maybe its because Svarzbein is so different from him and is still doing well with the electorate on the Westside.

Now comes Bizarro World.

The part were I actually defend Forma. Look, I'm not gonna tell you that they are great. I think they made a major business mistake taking a contract with one candidate, backing out of it, and then going to work for the opposition in the same election.

But to say that they aren't doing good work isn't true. Maybe he thinks that because its hard to blog about a campaign with authority when you don't see the day-to-day stuff you see on the ground in a race when you're so far away. But Forma's role in campaigns has changed drastically. They used to be a one-stop shop. Now their work is primarily project-based.

And frankly, some of their work has been pretty freakin' good this cycle. The negative mail piece they did against Cabrera was probably one of the most effective pieces I've seen in El Paso. 

The mail they did on Dagda, also really effective. And they have been doing mail for school board candidates. They aren't what they used to be, but some of their work has been pretty good this cycle.

And...they are only as effective as they are allowed to be. They do negative mail really well. But if your candidate doesn't want to go negative, well there's only so much you can do with "Vote for me".