Anatomy of a Big-Time Campaign Blunder

Democrat Rutt Bridges’ disastrous announcement that he is entering the race for governor was all the buzz on Thursday, and the concern among high-level Democrats was everywhere. Meanwhile, Bridges and his campaign staff were frantically working to repair the damage. Here’s what happened, why it is a big deal, and what it means...

By the middle of last week, word had gotten out that Bridges was going to enter the race for governor on Thursday, June 2. Reporters had heard the rumors and were asking around, and on Wednesday, Susan Greene of The Denver Post called Bridges saying she had heard he was planning on telling people of his intentions to run that night. It wasn’t an “ambush” as was claimed by Bridges supporters in an effort to deflect blame; it was reporting. That’s what reporters do. They call to verify if what they hear is true. Greene talked to Bridges on two separate phone calls, so he had time to add more to this initial statement:

"I'm basically telling a bunch of my close friends and family that I'm in the race," said the 53-year-old political neophyte, who would not say why he is running nor reveal his campaign message. "That's not a conversation I'm willing to have yet," he said.

Bridges should have had some sort of message in his head, whether he was prepared to talk about it or not. The only thing he could have said that would have been worse was, “I’m running for governor because I think it will be cool.” He could have told Greene that the announcement would come tomorrow, and that he would talk about it then. Of course, if he was going to say that, his staff would have had to scramble to get an official announcement ready because they didn’t have a staged announcement planned.

This statement is so bad because the knock on Bridges is going to be that he is just a millionaire looking to buy his way into the governor’s mansion. He knows that attack is coming, and his staff should know that attack is coming. But by telling Greene that he essentially didn’t have an answer for why he is running for governor, he walked right into that criticism. This is not going to go away. The average voter will forget about it, but you can bet they’ll be reminded of it if he makes it out of a Democratic primary. Don’t think for a minute that Bob Beauprez or Marc Holtzman won’t turn that statement right back around in an attack that says Bridges doesn’t have a real plan for why he is running for governor. “Don’t take our word for it,” they can say. “Bridges said it himself.” And while the average voter may forget about it, key Democratic supporters will most certainly not.

The botched announcement is also bad because his campaign wasted an opportunity to get a lot of positive press. They didn’t do a big announcement with a crowd in the background that might make it look like he had a lot of support. Instead, they let The Denver Post get the scoop (because, in part, they didn’t have anything planned) and as a result, every other news outlet mentions the story as a side item. Instead of getting a big picture in newspapers across the state with his supporters cheering for him, papers are running stock head shot photos. You have one chance this early in a campaign to control the press and get a great positive story, and Bridges’ campaign staff screwed it up so bad that now a lot of Democrats are questioning whether he even has the ability to run an effective campaign. That’s as a bad an announcement as any politician can have.

Now the key to this whole story, and the reason many Democrats – from the biggest donors to the smallest precinct committee people – are so concerned is because of the sheer ineptitude of a campaign that could allow this to happen. It is absolutely inexcusable that Bridges has not been prepared with a litany of sound byte statements to answer questions about his candidacy. He doesn’t need to need to go into great detail, but he needs to be able to fire off some quick statements even if a reporter calls out of the blue. The fact that he was so unprepared to handle Greene’s call reflects on his campaign staff, and it has Democrats concerned. If they bungled an announcement, what are they going to screw up next? An announcement of candidacy is an easy thing to do right, and a difficult thing to do wrong.

Bridges’ exchange with Greene is reminiscent of Ted Kennedy’s disastrous appearance on CBS News Special Reports in 1980 when correspondent Roger Mudd asked Kennedy, then a potential presidential candidate, “Why do you want to be President?” Kennedy couldn’t come up with a straightforward answer, and it killed his chances and let Jimmy Carter cruise to the Democratic nomination. If you can’t immediately come up with a reason for running, you shouldn’t be running yet.

Bridges did come back on Thursday night and make stronger statements about why he wants to be governor, but it was too late. What’s done is done.

We’ll say it again. There is absolutely, positively no excuse for Bridges to not be prepared to take that question from a reporter. Period. Bridges is paying big money to a staff that failed terribly in what is one of the most straightforward things you can do in a campaign.

It’s important to make a quick point for those of you ready to cry that we are out to get Bridges. This isn’t Colorado Pols saying this; this is a lot of Democrats saying this. The amount of universally negative chatter and comments we heard with these same exact comments was staggering. This IS a big deal, and it’s not going to be soon forgotten by the Democratic supporters he needs to line up behind him.

We wrote before that one top donor was seriously worried about Bridges’ staff sucking him dry and not propelling him forward, and those concerns seem to have been validated on Thursday. Bridges’ staff has been videotaping his speeches to Democratic crowds as though he were using them as a test audience, and it makes him look silly and amateurish. He’s not reaching out personally to interest groups such as organized labor, and his staff by some accounts isn’t helping him to build a list of supporters as he travels the state. These are all criticisms that we heard repeatedly today from Democrats, some of whom said they have been telling Bridges for months that he needs to shore up his campaign and run stronger.

Today, Bridges need to reassure worried Democrats and hold off what is rumored to be the coming candidacy of Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald. Bridges might have been able to make a deal with Bill Ritter to keep him out if he had been active sooner, and if his staff had worked to slow the momentum of the Fitz-Gerald for governor rumors when they first began, he might today be looking at an open road to November. None of the challenges he faces today were unavoidable.

We give Bridges credit for jumping in with both feet and not doing the "exploratory committee" nonsense, as well as for being the first candidate with a working website. But Bridges really stumbled out of the gate on Thursday, and eyebrows are raising in the direction of his staff. The criticism is well deserved. There is absolutely no reason you should botch your candidacy announcement this way. None whatsoever – no matter how his staff tries to spin his way out of it. You can’t pour sugar on shit and call it a brownie.

Comments

[stuck in a...]

RIDE THE RUTT!

[Rutt-Ro]

Ok ok ok, let's call for a redo. Rutt will begin campaigning starting........now. They are off to a weak start and to throw out the press is against us card on the first day is pretty darn bad.

Time to focus get some adults who have actually run a statewide campaign no rinky dink stuff your going for the marbles now. You got the denero if you want the highest office in CO your gonna need top level talent.

Look out of state all the compitent folks left on the Salazar train.

Go get um and do not get stuck in a Rutt.

[George Potsman]

Anyone notice that Coloradopols is the only blog being this critical of Bridges? Maybe there's some motive here, like some of the Coloradopols people want jobs with Bridges, so they try to undermine his current staff....

[Truth hurts]

Colorado Pols i.e. all us political hacks, is just being honest. If the Rutt campaign team cannot see that they are no ready for prime time then they are in worse shape than anyone has commented on in these posts.
Republican or Democrat doesn't matter announcements are your best day and a freebee, if you can't get that right then get out of the game.
Rutt has a decent story to tell but I doubt from what I have seen that he will ever be able to get it out.

[Alfalfa]

I don't think most here have any sort of anti-Bridges agenda in our comments. I've been critical of the announcement, but I actually like the guy and think he would be a good governor.

The reason, perhaps, that you're seeing critical comments here and perhaps not elsewhere is that a lot of people on this site are looking at the political process of this all. In the great scheme of things, does a a bungled announcement matter to most people? No. Does it matter to people who work in politics and follow it obssesively? Yes. It seems that would describe a lot of people who frequent this site, and many of them recognize the announcement for what it was: a missed opportunity and a red flag.

However, why it is important now is that the only people really paying attention are those involved in politics. This far out from the election, that's one of your big audiences - big time donors, operatives, conneced people and organizations who can help you reach voters, elected officials and their staff, etc. These are the people and organizations you as a candidate need to get on your bus. And, it's those types who watch things like an announcement pretty close to gauge a candidate and his/her team's strength.

Is everyone writing Bridges and his team off? Of course not. Are people concerned? Sure - and they will continue to watch and dissect every step to see how things are going for this campaign.

[Ter Ducken]

Did anybody notice that Coloradopols is the only blog being critical about this? What? Is there another blog even TALKING about this?

[vladimir]

No
Tyler did not help McCann even though he got his name in the paper shilling for her -- no they run and hide like little babies and make excuses when their incomptence leads to an ass kicking for their candidates - they are great at excuses -- they are less good at winning -- hire some winners and get rid of the whiners --