Survey of Winning Candidates - Top Level Results

In November-December 2017, after Democrat candidates swept many local municipality elections, the Bucks County Democratic Committee (BCDC) fielded a survey of winning supervisors and council members asking them about factors that lead to their win, what approaches were used in the campaign, how much money was spent, etc. The survey collected 29 responses, all from winning Democrats, of course.

Get-Out-The-Vote Campaign was Critical

• Top factors contributing to wins are GOTV (Get Out The Vote), especially canvassing & strong local municipal organization (see chart below)
• Most prevalent approaches were canvassing, signs, in-person fundraising, snail mail, social media and meet & greets

The GOTV effort – mostly through canvassing – was very important, especially for someone like me who never ran for office before. Not only was that critical for getting people to know me and to vote for me, it also gave me an opportunity to speak to residents about issues that were important to them. I surveyed and polled residents on the issues as well (for more on that, read “Newtown Speaks Out on the Issues”).

Under “Other,” I included my blog and email newsletter, which continue to to be important ways for me to inform residents about important issues.

Follow the Money

• Campaigns spent anywhere from $0 (unopposed) to $50,000; average was about $9000; on average, candidate self-funding was $626 (see table below)

After the primary and before the election, I spent $651.12 out of my own pocket, mostly for my website (www.johnmacknewtown.info), which I will continue to maintain, pamphlet printing fees, postage and envelopes for mailings sent to a couple of hundred people I met while canvassing, and Facebook ads.

Of course, my team (Newtown’s Voice) spent much more than that to fund the campaign of three Supervisor candidates; i.e., Phil Calabro, Linda Bobrin, and myself. For the period from June 6, 2017 through October 23, 2017, Newtown’s Voice Spent $31,559 according to Campaign Finance Reports filed with the Bucks County Board of Elections. The Republican team (Newtown First) spent $46,363 during the same period.

Posted on 04 Jan 2018, 13:12 - Category: Survey Results