My sense of Democrat Jotham Stein’s campaign in the 14th Congressional District is that he has put a tremendous amount of effort into it. He was the first in the race (both sides) to announce, he strenuously has attempted to attend events, big and small, and at times Jotham has been the only Democratic candidate (perhaps only candidate in the race both sides) at an event. Stein deserves a lot of credit for his effort - but politics involves more than effort. The best investment Jotham could have made (and the earlier the better) was an experienced campaign manager that he would really listen to - one that would direct his efforts to more successful results.
Since his early biographical video, Stein videos have attempted to appeal to voters through a quirky ‘I’m not a professional politician’ appeal with mixed results. His latest effort dealing with child hunger and health care is quirky, but just doesn’t work for me. Without analyzing it to death here is the video followed by some bullet points:
- The female ‘narrator’ voice seems way too high pitched and cheery for me given the topic.
- The ad is disjointed (from space themed PowerPoint presentations with a narrator, to Jotham getting snow in his face while playing on an outdoor kids play set, to Jotham’s non-funny discussion of the need to make funny ads that he says he can’t make funny, back to PowerPoint, etc.). Far from reinforcing the ad message it seems to detract from it.
- Like last week’s effort on global climate change, one of the themes Stein is trying to hit on is that his positions aren’t “Democratic or Republican issues.” But I’m not convinced that Stein is going to reach a large voting constituency that will help him, either in the Democratic primary field or in the special election to serve out former Congressman Dennis Hastert’s term, given the number of well-funded candidates in both parties (three) who can better get their message out, and the fight on the political left where Jotham faces John Laesch who has already run as the nominee, does a decent job getting press and is picking up significant political endorsements.
Perhaps Jotham Stein would make a great congressman - but we’ll never know if he can’t communicate it. Effort is not sufficient to make the case.
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