Some excerpts from Gary North:
When I served as Ron Paul’s staff economist in 1976, I learned of a policy in Washington. When a new law was passed that meant money being spent in a district, the agency would contact the local media to announce it. The district would perceive that the Congressman was behind this windfall. Sometimes, the agency would send the press release as if the Congressman had sent it. Congressman Paul officially told them not to do this in his district.
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Here are fundamental strategies of political campaigns:
1. The incumbent’s staff searches for incriminating quotations from something the challenger wrote years ago or (even better) said at a meeting that was videotaped.
2. The challenger’s staff searches for controversial votes made by the incumbent that the incumbent has successfully concealed from local special-interest groups.
One of the reasons why Congressional bills are written in ways to conceal their meaning is because the Good Old Boys in Congress seek to keep this knowledge away from voters.
One way to do this is to write a bill to announce that it is changing specific words in a previous law. It does not quote the law — only specific words in part of the law’s text. The context is missing. In the days before the Internet, it was difficult to track down the law and find what the law specified. Only a handful of researchers would do this.
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I remember a light-hearted remark by Congressman Phil Crane, who replaced Donald Rumsfeld in a special election in 1969, when Rumsfeld resigned to take a job with the Nixon Administration. Crane served until his defeat in 2002. Here is what he said in a speech at a conference I sponsored.
Sometimes, a constituent asks me at a town hall meeting, “Why did you vote against the bill to do this or that?” I always say, “Because of Section 17B. I could never vote for anything like that.” Of course, I have no idea what was in Section 17B.
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Richardson had been in advertising before he went into politics. He understood direct mail. So, he would look for a vote the guy made on a law that a lot of people in his district opposed. Of course, the guy had kept this vote quiet in his district. It might even be something that Richardson had supported. Anyway, it was something peripheral to gun control.
Richardson would write a direct-mail ad exposing the guy’s vote. He would rent lists from special-interest groups in the guy’s district that were furious with his vote. He would start the mailing campaign in an election year. He made sure word got out in Sacramento that he was behind the mailing. The guy would come to him and beg him to stop. Richardson said he would, but only if the guy switched sides on gun control. The guy, not being a fanatic on gun control, would agree.
Here is Richardson’s law of political pressure: “Politicians respond to pain.” Senator Everett Dirksen offered this version: “When we feel the heat, we see the light.”
This is a variation of the reverse hot-button strategy. Incumbents conceal certain votes from their constituents. They do this in order not to get organized groups in their districts to mobilize and go to the polls to vote for their opponents.