This news got me to thinking, again, about something I’ve thought about a lot over the years:
Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman’s (R) presidential campaign manager, Susie Wiles, is resigning and will be replaced by communications director Matt David, according to the campaign.
Huntsman is announcing the changes to his staff at a meeting this afternoon. Top adviser John Weaver confirmed the changes to The Fix.
“Susie has served the campaign well and was vital in getting it off the ground in such a short time-frame,” Weaver said in a statement provided by the campaign. “In just under three months, Governor Huntsman has returned from China, launched a campaign and created a strong infrastructure in the three early primary states. He’s built important relationships with donors, as well as political, policy and grassroots leaders that other candidates have been courting for half a decade.
High-level staff departures early in a presidential campaign are generally not seen as a good thing, but thus far, Wiles is the only known departure from Huntsman’s team. (Another staffer recently took a leavefor personal reasons.)
The campaign did not expound on the reason for Wiles’s departure. Weaver said the campaign is simply shifting gears…
The thing I’ve thought about is this: Who in the world would want to work on a political campaign?
OK, that’s not quite what I mean… I know lots of people who DO work on campaigns, and who do little else. So the answer to the “who” is easy. But I’ve always sort of wondered about them, and marveled at them.
They mystified me more back when I had a long-time steady job. I just could not imagine anyone deliberately taking a job with such little job security — back when I had been working for the same company for 24 years, with good pay and benefits, and intended to stay until retirement.
Now, I’ve had more experience with the ad hoc lifestyle, and it’s not as scary as I always figured it would be. I see how someone can get used to it. I still don’t see choosing it.
Even if you really, really believed in a candidate… even if that was the only candidate in the world you would work for, and you were willing to give up all the comforts of a steady job in order to help that person get elected… it still sort of befuddles me.
There are problems with the whole campaign-staff career, as I see it, both from the perspective of the staffer, and from the perspective of those of us who want a healthy republic:
- Lousy job security, in the sense that the “firm” for which you work — the campaign — is an extremely volatile enterprise. It could become essential to the success of the enterprise (or perceived as essential, which amounts to the same thing) for you to be fired at any moment. And there will be little warning, if any. One day, you’re fine. Next day something erupts that makes in impossible for you to stay.
- Even worse job security, in the sense that even if things go well and you don’t get fired, the job only lasts a few months. Yeah, you might get hired by the newly elected official if things go really well and he or she wins, but that’s dicey. That’s like counting on getting hired when your boss moves on to another company. Could happen. Might not. Just as likely, you’re going to be looking for another campaign to work on the day after Election Day.
- Once or twice in a lifetime, if you’re lucky, you’ll get to work for a candidate you really, truly believe in (unless you’re pretty indiscriminate). And it won’t last long.
- You will probably have to associate yourself, permanently, with one of the political parties. This wouldn’t be a drawback for a lot of people — obviously is not a drawback for the people who actual do this for a living — but it certainly would be for me (speaking as a guy who’s had occasion to think of it since leaving the newspaper biz). The kinds of people who do the hiring for campaigns may run across an independent who is really knowledgeable about issues and politics and messaging and the rest, and really believes in the candidate individually, but they are not likely to hire such a person because there’s a long line of loyal party people wanting the job.
- Finally, the big drawback to society of all of the above… It’s bad enough that politicians have trouble leading normal lives. It would be great if they could have some people around them who DO live normal, workaday lives in the regular economy and therefore have a deep, personal, working understanding of regular voters and their concerns. But for the reasons I cited above, the fraternity of people likely to work on a campaign and be in the best position to advise the candidate tend to be rather insular. (By the way, the newspaper industry is the same way — ever since afternoon newspapers died, newspapermen and -women have tended to be people who all work weird hours and therefore mostly associate only with people like themselves. Which is not good, in terms of staying in close touch with the community.)
It would be great if some of you folks who do this for a living, or at least have taken time out from the rest of life to work for pay on a campaign, would weigh in and enlighten us on this. I know there are quite a few of you who read this blog.
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Brad,
Great post. It reaffirmed why I quit working on campaigns.
I made the jump from campaigns to law/lobbying.
A couple thoughts from my experiences
First, the track – campaign to staff – can be done, but it can blow up just as easily. If you bust your butt by writing a good op-ed and can use a post-digger, you will turn some heads. As long as a campaign guy or gal takes the “no job is too small approach” it can be done.
Second, your typical campaign staffer (minimal oversight on the operation) ranges from the age of 22-27. Let’s be honest, these folks are hurting right now and can’t find employment with their English/PoliSci degree. That guy or gal who just dumped over 100K in a college degree feels like they really have a purpose to change something and their candidate is the one. Combine this with the aforementioned and you have two main reasons why one jumps on.
Third, the attention span of your typical campaign staffer is very minimal. Driving around a state, putting out fires, and recruiting people you’ve never met fits for a person with a short attention span. Thanks Nintendo.
Furthermore, to combine my second and third point, do you really think a person who majored in finance or accounting would take a job that could last anywhere from 2weeks to 2years? No. Those folks have been planning their lives out for a while and most likely don’t have the attention span of a small bug.
In closing, I left because my last boss lost and I was tired of the campaign life. I’ve never met you but you have covered a couple candidates I’ve worked for and I’ve always enjoyed reading your blog, so thanks.
Were we not better served when candidates’ campaigns were run by networks of local volunteers? I remember the scene in one of the Kennedy bio pics where Joseph talks about getting some guy in some little town to go pick up folks and take them to the polls.
Local politics (and I mean small town politics), where the candidates themselves place their own yard signs on the way to speak at some church in the far end of the county; that’s what denmocracy is all about. And not campaigns that fill the coffers of TV stations and networks (and formerly newspapers). Sign me disgruntled, disillusioned and (justifiably) cynical.
I can’t imagine doing campaigns and nothing else for an entire career. Maybe that’s why my experience as a campaign staffer has been much happier than all that. I’ve worked on five campaigns over 30 years and only worked for one candidate I didn’t believe in. And it’s not because I’m indiscriminate, either — there really are some people who don’t give politics a bad name. I’ve also worked for both Republicans and Democrats, and anyone I’d be able to believe in wouldn’t care.
As to why — well, because if you like politics and a fast pace and intense competition and being in a bunker with smart, quirky people and having great stories you’ll never be able to tell, and you don’t mind the job insecurity, it’s the most fun you’ll ever have.
@john – I see what you’re saying, but most non-political people view lobbyists as the same person who you see on auto actions in the face of bidders trying to convince them they need to throw in one more bid. Except instead of bidders you’re dealing with legislators. Instead of representing a politician, your representing a corporation or political cause.
Great post. I’ve been through a few stretches where I was exclusively doing campaign work. I think people who do this for a living keep coming back for the rush, and for the sense that you are working for a cause. If you have a bit of a Don Quixote thing going on and you have a hard time being engaged by more traditional vocational pursuits, campaign life is really appealing. EVERYTHING can take on life or death importance. The flip side is despite this kind of personality’s desire to be out crusading, campaign life is restricted by a series of limited frequently meaningless skirmishes, sometimes multiple distinct ones in a day. They are usually pretty vapid and often symptomatic of how sleep-deprived, overworked and screwed up folks get during the marathon campaign season. And it becomes clear over time that the nature of these fights actually prevent large victories for policy goals that fire up the crusader impulse that gets you into it in the first place.
But it is super fun.
As the Mom of a campaign staffer, campaign staffers can’t work in a 9 to 5 job too boring. They get themselves fired. They love the adrenaline rush and have a tolerance for ambiguity and risk.
Their personal lives are train wrecks, they have an array of personal items from electronic toys to wardrobes scattered across the country in furnished apartments. They have network but no roots. They live for the next campaign and there is always one more campaign….
It is a job for young folks with energy and fire in the belly. They see it as a calling and a passion much like an actor pursuing a career in movies or on Broadway.
I also don’t understand doctors and nurses who work the emergency department but they love the rush.
Who would want to work on a political campaign?
Someone who aspires to be a used car saleman but doesn’t know enough about cars.