Campaign Secrets

On today's show, I interview Louisville, KY campaign fundraising expert, Will Carle who is the Founder and President of Mighty Development. A veteran of State Government, political campaigns, and public relations – this diverse professional background led him to create the company Mighty Development. Will has served as a top-level campaign adviser to some of the most well-known and influential policymakers in Kentucky. He is best known for his work with municipal candidates having been an integral part of former Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson’s political team as well as current Mayor Greg Fischer’s first campaign organization. Will served as the Finance Director for Lexington Mayor Jim Gray’s U.S. Senate campaign and has served as campaign manager to former State Auditor Adam Edelen. Other clients include former Attorney General Jack Conway, State Senator Perry Clark, Councilman Bill Hollander, and former Lt. Governor Daniel Mongiardo. Public service has always been important to Will and over the years he has served the Commonwealth of Kentucky in wide-ranging executive roles. Serving as a top aide to the Governor’s Chief-of-Staff, Will worked on a diverse number of issues that affected small businesses, large corporations, and non-profits. Will also served under the Director of the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security and was the Deputy Chief-of-Staff for the Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts. Will left state government to pursue opportunities in the private sector where he gained experience in public relations and public affairs. While working for two of Kentucky’s most successful PR firms, RunSwitch Public Relations and Peritus Public Relations, Will worked on issue advocacy campaigns, media relations, alliance development, and special projects for a wide array of clients.

In this episode, I interview Democratic media consultant John Rowley. John Rowley is the founder of CounterPoint Messaging, a message, media and digital firm based in Nashville, TN. His first work was in radio and television in Burlington, Iowa. Since then, Rowley has worked on over 500 political campaigns for Democrats in 47 states – winning 81 percent of his campaigns. He has worked with candidates from President and governor to city council. Rowley has worked with 20 Members of Congress. Rowley has provided political analysis on MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, FOX Business, Fox News and NPR. His firm has won 50 Pollie Awards for excellence in political advertising. His commercials have been featured on NPR, PBS, CNN, FOX, MSNBC and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His firm’s work has been covered by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. For corporate clients, Rowley handles branding, advertising, video production and crisis management

Hal Malchow is the former Chairman of MSHC Partners, a firm that helped pioneer the use of statistical modeling and control group experiments in politics. Hal revolutionized the way campaigns target and deliver messages to voters. Hal's work pushed political professionals to be held accountable to their clients and blazed a pathway for those who today seek to professionalize the profession of political consulting.

In this episode, I interview Hahrie Han, Professor of Political Science, and Faculty Director of the P3 Research Lab at Johns Hopkins University. Professor Han specializes in the study of civic and political participation, social movements, collective action, and organizing, particularly as it pertains to democratic revitalization. In our interview, we discuss her book Groundbreakers: How Obama's 2.2 Million Volunteers Transformed Campaigning in America. Building a grassroots field operation is vital for any candidate running for any office.

In this episode, Democrat turned Republican media consultant, Mark McKinnon discusses his life in music, politics, and media. In our interview, McKinnon talks about his time working with President George W. Bush, Karl Rove, and many others during his days of Texas, Louisiana, and national politics. Mark McKinnon is best known for being Governor George W. Bush’s ad maker for his 1998 re-election campaign for Texas Governor then leading Bush’s media ad-team for his 2000 and 2004 Presidential campaign. Being the winning ad maker for two consecutive Presidential campaigns is an honor few consultants-of either party-have accomplished in American history. This puts Mark McKinnon on the political consultants Mt. Rushmore (if there was such a thing). But before that, McKinnon was an award-winning songwriter who lived with Kris Kristofferson in Nashville. Not the typical path to politics, which is one reason why Mark McKinnon is an original political Maverick. Since the 2004 election, Mark McKinnon has been a fixture on Morning Joe and other political programs as well as developing and producing the popular Showtime program “The Circus: Inside The Greatest Greatest Political Show on Earth.”

Without a doubt, Ray Strother is one of the founding fathers and preeminent experts of American political consulting. In this episode, I talk with Strother about his career in politics and the lessons that he has learned that can be applied to candidates running today. Ray discusses working with legendary U.S. Senators like Russell Long and Gary Hart, as well as working for Governor Bill Clinton from 1980 until 1990. Ray also shares a few stories about the Democratic party’s "Boogie Man" Republican operative, Lee Atwater, and the infamous Bill Clinton consultant, Dick Morris. Strother also reflects on his time working in the corrupt and often entertaining world of Louisiana politics, and how different today's politicians are from when he began-which is both good and bad. With his blue-collar Democratic upbringing in the oil refining small town of Port Arthur, Texas, to his days working for the most powerful politicians in the world, Ray Strother has never forgotten where he came from. Ray Strother is an American political icon who blazed the trail for today’s political consultants-in both party’s and helped start the career of many politicians. While we often profess to be living in a time of digital dominance in how we buy things or choose candidates, the professionals who can craft a compelling narrative and candidate story are still the ones who win. Raymond D. Strother is the political G.O.A.T. in this department. There is a lot to learn in this episode for candidates running today.

In this episode, we talk with Sasha Issenberg, best selling author of "The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns." We are living in an era of hyper-political polarization and an incredibly shrinking undecided group of voters. Every campaign needs to understand that modern campaigns are a game of margins. Sasha Issenberg's book examines the history of winning campaigns and why the field of Political Science as well as the "consultant class" have historically been reluctant to use human experiments on what works in campaigns-that is until now. In this podcast, we discuss the tools and science that are being used to win a modern-day campaign and the growing arms race between the parties on who will have the winning technological edge. A battle that is no less as important than the space race between the super-powers. Who controls the Presidency, Congress, and the State Capitals, will be decided by who invests in technology and experimentation. Sasha's book is one of the most important political books of our time and highlights the real drama that is going on behind the curtain of today's politics.