Personal Campaigning

Personal campaigning is a traditional form of office seeking, and despite the importance of media and the Internet in modern campaigns, personal campaigning still plays an important role. Personal campaigning refers to two different aspects of the campaign process: personal interactions between candidates and voters and personal interactions between representatives of the candidate and voters.

Personal campaigning directly by candidates is, of course, the most visible and well-known part of the political process. Candidates seek to involve themselves directly with voters by going door to door, making individual phone calls, or seeking out voters directly in other individual one-on-one settings. Candidates also find personal appearances before small groups of voters can offer some of the same advantages as direct one-on-one campaigning.

Canvassing and grassroots campaigning are other words sometimes used to describe personal campaigning. When a candidate and/or a candidate's supporters “canvass” voters in this sense, it means that they go from door to door seeking to solicit the vote of the eligible voters in each household., often distributing flyers and campaign literature as well as meeting and talking directly with voters.

In lower level races, particularly at the local and districtwide level or in rural communities, personal campaigning is one of the only ways for a candidate to communicate with voters. In such situations, there are no localized media that can serve to get out the candidate's message, or the cost of media-oriented messages is too costly and inefficient to be a viable campaign strategy. Voters in such locales have come to expect that candidates will be available to meet with them personally.

Even at the U.S. presidential level, there is some evidence that personal campaigning is important. Such individual contact and personal or small-group meetings are particularly recognized as important in the early stages of a presidential campaign. The two earliest presidential selection markers, the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, are situations where experts have agreed that candidate appearances and personal campaigning are crucial. A candidate's bank account and the advantages of media buys play a much larger role later in the primary selection process. But Iowa and New Hampshire are very much personal tests for candidates and their workers.

Research has been mixed on the effectiveness of particular aspects of personal campaigning. There is some evidence that personal campaigning is particularly effective at enhancing turnout. Voters who have been contacted personally by candidates or their [Page 545]supporters are more likely to go to the polls and vote on Election Day. Evidence is less clear that personal campaigning translate directly into votes for the candidate who makes the contact.

Many studies also suggest that personal campaigning is particularly important outside the United States. In many countries, personal contact between candidates and voters is still very important and overrides media in many situations.

The increased use of computers in campaigning has raised questions about the ability of cyber-campaigning to replace or enhance personal campaigning. While some argue that Internet communications, particularly e-mail contact and chat room involvement, can provide voters with the feelings of personal and intimate involvement with candidates, other political observers argue that computers depersonalize the campaign contact and reduce voters'feelings of political engagement.

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