Good post (0.00 / 0)

It's definitely like that in Maine. Personal ties are why some politicians enjoy popularity ratings that transcend party lines. Not only out of place Republicans like Snowe and Collins (and believe me, Collins's support is much softer than Snowe's), but Democrats as well (especially Mike Michaud in CD-2). The ways I find I'm connected to people never cease to amaze me.

I think it's relevant, especially in terms of campaign tactics. What we consider negative campaigning in Maine is nothing compared to some of the larger states.

That said, Susan needs to go! :)

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by: Biddeford-Dem @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 14:08:53 PM UTC

same for New Mexico (0.00 / 0)

Mike, it's definitely the same in New Mexico, with the added advantage for me that successful politics there required me to learn something about Latinos...

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by: cobblestones @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 14:35:52 PM UTC

The Down Side (0.00 / 0)

Without denying anything you've said, I think there's a downside also, which can be seen in other tight-knit environments as well, even in big states like California.  One example is the community of San Pedro, where the paper I write for, Random Lengths News is published.

One result of being such a tight-knit community is a kind of group think, which it takes great intensity and effort over a long period of time to break through, even a little bit.  This is particularly true when the group think is reflective of a dominant economic interest--in our case, the Port of Los Angeles.  I am particularly sensistive to this right now, because it seems to me that our paper--which has previously been a sharp critic of the Port--seems to me to be on the verge of throwing in the towel.

When the dominant elite power structure is small and homogeneous enough that it never has significant internal divisions, there is very little space for fundamental progress, no matter how great the need.

Locally, I'm seeing that manifest in the form of a green rhetoric charade that is utterly divorced from reality.  The flow of global trade through the local ports is projected to triple over the next 20 years, but we're seeing no signs of anything close to the sort of systemic, region-wide analysis that would be necessary to begin accomodating it while drastically cutting pollution levels.  There are a few components that are very promising, but they are the exceptions, not the rule--at the same time that powers that be have become increasingly hostile to genuine community involvement in the planning process.

It's unfortunate, I guess.  But it seems to take the relatively transitory anonymity of metropolitan life to allow the brutal clash of forces necessary to break through such log-jams, and actually do stuff like saving people's lives. (More Californians die from air pollution than from homicides each year by a significant margin).  Even then, of course, success is anything but guaranteed.  But at least there's a glimmer of hope.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 14:37:51 PM UTC

You're right. (0.00 / 0)

Your point is very true about the downsides with tight knit local power structures. The good news is that it's sometimes easier to break through just because you do know everybody, but there's no doubt that all those ties can bind.

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by: Mike Lux @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 19:07:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

High School (0.00 / 0)

The problem is, mostly the people who can break through are the ones who already did break through back in high school.  Meaning, not Buffy, not Willow, not Veronica Mars.

You know, the chicks who save the world.  Minus them, we are royally fucked.

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 20:40:42 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

In Vermont... (0.00 / 0)

one of the reasons Bernie Sanders is a Senator today is because his opponent, Rich Tarant, waged a very negative campaign and Vermonters, in general, don't care much for that.

Bernie probably would have one even without the negative campaign, but it did help him quite a bit.

One of the reasons that Welch is our Congressman today is because his opponent, Martha Rainville, had a lot of ethical problems and Welch kept his campaign positive and respectful while letting the media and local blogs point out Rainville's negatives.

One of the reasons we haven't been able to defeat Jim Douglas, our Republican governor, is because you can't wage a good negative campaign in Vermont without a strong polarizing issue and he's good at portraying himself as a nice guy and a moderate.  Even though the majority of Vermonters disagree with him on most issues, he hasn't been challenged by anyone who can articulate those differences and weaknesses without making them seem like attacks.  It's a tricky balance and one that's causing us real problems.

I mention this because the connectedness issue is a big deal-- it's why people here don't like the attacks.  It's one thing to say that Bernie Sanders doesn't necessarily serve the interests of Vermonters.  It's another to insist he's a scumbag of some sort because you want to beat him in an election. 

--julie

I probably have better things to do with my time than this.

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by: julie @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 15:00:33 PM UTC

Not Just A Small State Phenomena (0.00 / 0)

This is a really interesting and insightful piece.  I lived in DC and worked on the Hill and then as a lobbyist until 2000 when I left politics as a profession.  I then moved to Portland, Oregon and then back to my home town of NYC. 

The thing I find very different on the local level is that politics is not as nasty or as personal for the most part.  I live in an area that used to be very competitive between Dems and liberal Republicans but in the past 5 yrs all the remaining liberal, Rockefeller Repubs have been defeated or retired largely due to the actions of George W. Bush. 

On the local level, people play hard and to win but that doesn't mean that after the battle is done that people can't be friends.  I think personal relations matter more on the local level because whether or not you agree on all issues you are neighbors or live in the same community, have kids who go to the same schools, etc.  There are common bonds that go beyond political views.  I found this to be much less true in DC.

I was surprised to find how much I prefer local politics to national politics.  The tenor for the most part is much more respectful of opposing views which I think is healthy.  I don't like what the Repubs stand for and do believe that there are "evil" Republicans in the world.  However, that doesn't mean that I think every Republican is evil because he or she doesn't share my particular politics.  That was something I always had a problem with living in DC and thankfully I don't have to buy into that mentality on the local level.  I can judge people for who they are rather than their party affiliation.

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by: John Mills @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 15:27:15 PM UTC

Small state politics (0.00 / 0)

I assume that the differences show up especially in IA where the leaders in polling for each party are not the national front runners.

The citizenary do not let the national narrative influence them in their choices and look more deeply into character  warmness likeability and beliveability

I grew up in Minnesota and currently live in northern VA

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by: BDM @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 15:50:27 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Really good point (0.00 / 0)

re the difference between local and national politics.

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by: Mike Lux @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 19:09:50 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Is South Dakota a Small State? (4.00 / 1)

What about the character assassination of Tom Daschle in 2004? 

I'm not saying I disagree w/ the premise of this piece, but I think what you've described is a type of small-state conventional wisdom that I hear constantly from the majority of political operatives outside DC. 

I've even heard it in rural Florida just outside Tampa... certainly not a small-state. 

Everyone everywhere, that isn't from DC or a traveling political professionals, or an academic, seems to think that "their state is different" or "DC Consultants don't get what small states are like."

Like I said, there is some truth to that... way too many consultants grew up in large cities and don't understand the culture of small towns or rural areas, and then leap right in w/out grasping how things work. 

But the reverse is true, way too many local politcos eschew beltway advice, which -like it or not- often has serious empirical evidence behind it, because they're convinced people are just so different in their area. 

And as South Dakota in 2004, or Nebraska (Nelson) in 1996, shows you, hard-core attack adds can work anywhere.  I think it's more a matter of completing Dauo's Triangle w/ the attacks.  W/out complicit media backing, people won't accept attack ads as true... and the conventional wisdom will become "that candidate is just too negative."  A candidate going negative needs strong establishment backing or blog backing (like in the CT primary) to build the triangle, and push the media into completing it.  That's my theory at least. 

This would also explain why Republicans in small-states often do better w/ attack adds, than Democrats.  Small-state papers are often much much more conservative. 

This would also explain why the Republican attack adds that backfire (like Pete Ricketts in NE in '06) are mostly directed at incumbents who have earned strong local-media support.  I know the Omaha World-Herald played a big part in making Ricketts seem like a loony negative millionaire, rather than a serious challenger. 

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by: nebraskajohn @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 15:48:03 PM UTC

I Think You're Right (0.00 / 0)

I don't think attacks necessarily work well in a small-scale, direct-contact context.  But put those ads up on the TeeVee, and watch folks go all schizy, loudly complaining about the very same ads that are changing their votes.

In short, it's the hypocrisy, stupid!

"You know what they say -- those of us who fail history... doomed to repeat it in summer school." -- Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Season 6, Episode 3

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by: Paul Rosenberg @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 16:51:35 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

no kidding! (0.00 / 0)

almost more classic than the "voters around here are *different*" cliche, is the cliche of the voters loudly complaining about all the negativity, while simultaneously casting their votes based on the negative adds they've seen.

I wish the polisci 101 classes most people take in college taught students about these dynamics, rather than talking idealistically about bipartisanship, etc. 

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by: nebraskajohn @ Fri Sep 07, 2007 at 02:16:49 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I mostly agree. (0.00 / 0)

I think the Daou triangle dynamic fits in small states for sure.
I do think that one difference in the Daschle race was that Daschle had become so tied to national politics in folks' minds, in an incredibly polarized national environment, that it overrode the dynamics that allowed him to win easily in most of his other races.

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by: Mike Lux @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 19:14:22 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Iowa Small State politics (0.00 / 0)

Mike, Your comments gave me a chuckle. As an Iowa lifer (but for 1 year in Georgia that I don't count) and growing up on a farm and attending school in a town of 1600 folks, one always had to watch what she said about someone -- because you never knew to whom they might be related! I find similarities in your post. I've become so progressive I scare my husband. Yet one of our best friends has been drinking the neocon Koolaid and watching Fox News exclusively for years. With him I just keep my mouth shut because it would ruin a good relationship. But if my naive Republican niece starts asking questions, I sure fill her in. You can't win over hearts and minds with negativity and party bashing.  I was a bit sad when long-time Republican rep. Jim Leach lost his reelection bid. He's a good and thoughtful man and we need that in Congress in these globally difficult times.  He has expertise and we should be using him.  Our state is usually fairly close in state-elected officials between the parties so, in my opinion, bipartisanship is a good and necessary thing.  Perhaps something our Congress should look into on the national level. Thanks for your website -- I'm enjoying it! J. Ramsey, an Iowa farm girl

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by: jmramsey @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 15:50:39 PM UTC

Leach, King, etc. (0.00 / 0)

I live in Jersey but Leach is a decent guy, obvious from half a continent away.  Like Connie Morrella and Lincoln Chafee, Jim Leach was brought down by the hard core, hard right Republicans.  Voters like Leach but  chose another direction.  Nussle was not nearly as personable but he got promoted within the national and state parties till his incompetence brought him down.  I've heard tapes of Nussle and there is no way the man could be considered charming.  He's a hard edged attack dog who just trots out the Kool Aid.

Small state, or at least Plains, Republicans seem to be getting significantly nastier.  One of the two remaining Iowa Republicans in the House is Steve King, a jerk who blocked naming the Berkeley, CA post office for the mentor of the local congress woman because King considered her a "socialist."  What doesthat have to do with it.  It's Berkeley.  Keep your priggish, ideological nose out of other people's business.  Well, King has the safe Republican seat in Iowa and unlike Leach, King's still there.

The Republican Parties in Kansas and Missouri are certainly swinging hard right.  In Kansas, all of a sudden Democrats are routinely recruiting moderate Republicans and aiding and abetting the fracture of the Kansas Republicans along ideological lines.  As noted in the Daschle comment, South dakota Republicans were successful playing nasty and they have continued with their anti-abortion crap and other stuff.

OTOH, I live in a town of 7,000 people and I can't even name th real local power brokers who push things through under the cover of a constantly changing group of GOP pols.  And neither can my neighbors.  It's monied, I can saythat and it doesn't change.  The little locals get pushed in favor of out of town big business and  ... they still mostly vote Republican.

If you ask me, the anonymity of the big states is true but the small states while less anonymous are hardly benign.

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by: David Kowalski @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 17:48:42 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Repubs in small states are swinging harder right. (0.00 / 0)

I think partly this just a national phenomena, and the small states are coming along. Partly it's that the local fundamentalist churches and the local gun clubs are sometimes so strong and so ideological in these rural areas that they overwhelm everything else.

As I said in my post, small states ain't nirvana, and sometimes- like in the Arkansas of the Clinton era- everyone knowing everyone so well gets toxic and downright twisted instead of small town friendly.

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by: Mike Lux @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 19:54:36 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thanks for the comment. (0.00 / 0)

I always liked Jim Leach a lot, for a Republican, although I have to admit that I'm way too partisan to have ever voted for him.

I have lots of Republican friends and family back home, and I love arguing politics with them. But we still get along fine personally.

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by: Mike Lux @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 19:50:15 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Intellectual vs cultural (0.00 / 0)

I think that you are basically speaking of intellectual vs cultural differences. 

In small states you are probably very culturally similar to the people you disagree with.  You disagree with them on an intellectual level, but you would still go camping or skeet shooting with them because most of your values are the same.

In larger cities the differences tend to be cultural.  People who come from different cultures are much less willing to give each other the benefit of the doubt.

To put it in Transactional analysis terms you have similar parents and child's, but different adults.  Politics becomes nasty when different cultures are together regardless of how small or large they are.  (See the jena six for example)

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by: Astera @ Thu Sep 06, 2007 at 22:10:51 PM UTC