Good Political Strategist Guides

Political consulting is the business which has grown up around advising and assisting political campaigns, primarily in the nation. As democracy has spread across the globe, American political consultants have often developed a worldwide base of clients. Although its most critical role is probably within the production of mass media (largely television), political consultants advise campaigns on practically all of their activities,from research to field strategy.

The practice of consulting has several early precedents. President William McKinley's closest political advisor Mark Hanna is sometimes described as the very first best political strategy consultant. In California within the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, Whitaker and Baxter established and grew the very first true consulting firm, Campaigns, Inc. Conversely, political consulting blossomed with the increasing use of television advertising for campaign communications in the 1960s. It was in that period that Joe Napolitan claims to have end up being the first person to describe himself as a political consultant (Perlmutter, ed. Manship Guide to Political Communication, pg19).

Within the subsequent years, political consulting has grown in importance and influence and extended its reach to campaigns at all levels of government in the united states, and beyond. Many consultants work not just for campaigns, but additionally for other political
organizations, including parties and political action committees, sometimes through independent expenditures; some also do public relations and research work with corporations and governments. In fact, today corporations seeking approval from municipal boards have turned to land use political consultants to help earn need entitlements for their project.

Critics also blame political consulting, at least in part, for many different ills of the modern election process. In part because broadcast media consultants are often paid on commission, they may be blamed specifically for the rising cost of political campaigns as well as the increasing reliance upon paid media. A successful candidate running a low-budget campaign could be a serious financial threat to the political consulting field; such candidates, however, are rare.