[Lnc-business] Previous Notice - Constructive Candidate Portrayal

[Alicia Mattson]

Attached is another policy proposal I would like added to the agenda for
the December meeting.  My sense is that this will generate more debate than
the previous one, so I'll ask for 15 minutes.

This new policy would require that our public communications portray our
candidates as people seeking to change public policy by getting themselves
elected, not as spoilers who get their kicks by just being monkey wrenches
in some other candidate's election plans.

Over the past few years, a large number of state chairs have complained
repeatedly about spoiler talk in national party communications.  In the
2012 election cycle, one state chair repeatedly asked that one of their
candidates not be portrayed that way, yet it continued.  Half of the front
page of the most recent LP News edition was a table of which candidates
might be spoilers.

First is the obvious philosophical point that other parties don't "own"
anyone's vote, therefore we're not "stealing" votes from anyone.  Second, I
don't think it's true that the presence of our candidates frequently
changes the outcome, as exit polls suggest that if our candidates had not
been on the ballot, those votes would have been fairly evenly divided
between Democrats and Republicans, or those people wouldn't have voted at
all.  Third, I think we just shoot ourselves in the foot for ballot access
fights.  The reason the GOP tries so hard to kick us off the ballot after
we have qualified is because they believe we play the spoiler role for
their candidates.  Why would we perpetuate that idea, when we see how many
hundreds of thousands of dollars it has cost over the years to defend
ballot access challenges?  Fourth, it tells the world that we don't even
see ourselves as serious candidates.

Overall, I think this approach to our image is self-destructive.

-Alicia
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