THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 17, 1994 TAG: 9410170047
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Senate Race '94
22 DAYS UNTIL ELECTION DAY
SOURCE: BY KEITH MONROE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 210 lines
For all their bluster, Virginia's three U.S. Senate candidates rarely battle face-to-face-to-face. A modern media campaign leaves most of the dueling to television commercials.
That means the people who make the ads - the media consultants - are scripting the fight. Just as you can tell a lot about people by the clothes they wear, the cars they drive or the dogs they own, so can you pick up clues about candidates from the media consultants they hire.
Incumbent Democrat Charles S. Robb picked David Doak, an established player - cautious, steady, deliberate.
Doak, 47, grew up on a Missouri farm. His father was a teacher, and Doak is a lawyer by training. He entered politics as a low-level campaign worker, but quickly wound up managing campaigns. One of the first was Robb's successful bid to become Virginia's lieutenant governor in 1977.
By 1985, Doak had a solid track record and opened his own mini-advertising agency devoted exclusively to political commercials for Democrats.
Today, he and four partners and 15 employees handle media for half a dozen candidates simultaneously. ``I do the strategy, write the spots, direct the spots and produce the spots,'' Doak said.
This year, in addition to Robb, his firm's clients include the re-election bids of Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts, Paul Sarbanes in Maryland, Herb Kohl in Wisconsin and Joel Hyatt's run for the open Senate seat in Ohio now held by his father-in-law, Howard Metzenbaum.
In an era of celebrity political gurus such as Roger Ailes and James Carville, Doak shuns the limelight.
``I tend to try to be a more low-profile person, Doak says. ``These races aren't really about us. We, in our business, have less to do with winning and losing than people give us credit for. These races truly are about the men and women who mount the effort themselves. And their performance out there everyday is what makes the difference.'' Republican Oliver L. North's media man, Mike Murphy, agrees.
``The client's the boss. It's his life, his campaign, his name on the ballot.''
That said, Murphy is anything but shy and retiring. At 32, he's already a veteran of many campaigns and is considered a Republican star. Like Doak, Murphy is at the center of a campaign-consulting business with two other partners and a dozen employees.
Murphy is a hyperkinetic soundbite of a man who talks fast and funny in a voice spookily reminiscent of Rush Limbaugh's. Though Murphy says he, too, tries to maintain a low profile, he admits that as he sits in an editing room giving a telephone interview, ``I've got a TV camera about nine inches from my ear.'' He's being taped for a documentary about the North campaign.
``If I spoke with a Louisiana accent, I'd be a genius,'' he says in a sideswipe at the adulation heaped on Carville, the Bill Clinton campaign consultant also known as the Ragin' Cajun.
TV crew notwithstanding, Murphy says, ``I don't think the making of the candidate ought to be the story.'' He bemoans the focus on campaign gurus that ``creates the false perception we have in politics now that there are a bunch of us wearing lab coats, hanging out in the back room. That it's all rigged. When, half the time, we change the ad 'cause the candidate's wife doesn't like it.''
Murphy, like North, is brash and aggressive and talks like an outsider even though he's an insider.
He grew up in a Democratic family in Detroit. In fact, his grandfather was an elected judge: ``Honest Joe Murphy, who was never defeated.'' He attended President Clinton's alma mater, Georgetown, to study foreign policy, but dropped out to help run a TV studio for House Republicans.
Murphy describes Doak as having often worked for incumbents in trouble.
``He sits down with the incumbent, looks him in the eye and says, `Senator, here's the problem. Everybody in the state hates you. We can run ads about how great you are, but they'd change the channel. Instead, we're going to convince them the other guy's worse. I'm going to spend about 90 percent of my money trashing the other guy. So why don't you take a nice long vacation, see you election night, and make sure I get about six or seven million for airtime.' ''
If Doak has made a specialty of incumbents in trouble, however, Murphy has made his reputation with obscure Republican insurgents who have won election by trashing incumbents. Without him, there might not be a Sen. Kempthorne of Idaho, a Sen. Coverdell of Georgia. Christine Whitman might not be governor of New Jersey, or John Engler of Michigan.
This fall, his firm's other candidates include Engler in a re-election bid, Terry Branstad trying for a fourth term as governor of Iowa and Spence Abraham running for an open Senate seat in Michigan.
The matchup between Doak and Murphy should make for a classic slugfest. ``Doak's a good consultant,'' says Murphy. ``It reminds me a lot of Big Ten football coaching. We're all coaches. We all know each other. There's some respect, but, yeah, I want to beat his brains out on Election Day.''
At this time of year, people in their line of work are spread thin and the days are too short. Murphy says, ``We both need a haircut and both need to lose 20 pounds.''
With only weeks to go, Doak says, ``the biggest single problem in the business that people don't really understand is how time-consuming it is to make television. You have to have time to think. You have to write it. Then you have to collect visual images for it. Then you have to edit it, which takes time. And you have to record the voice, which is a critically important piece. . . .
``It takes four or five days. You have to start at one end and monitor the progression all the way. At the same time, at this time of year, you have to have a lot of meetings because people are nervous. And the meetings tend to interrupt this very laborious, mechanical process that's going on.''
The third player in the race makes an interesting contrast to all this frenetic activity. Independent candidate J. Marshall Coleman's consultant, Ron Wilner, is 63 and operates not inside the Washington Beltway but in his hometown of Baltimore. He's a former radio personality and station executive who got an economics degree from the Wharton School and founded an ad agency in the '60s with Bob Goodman. Together, they pioneered modern political advertising, helping to elect Linwood Holton, Trent Lott, Alan Simpson and California Gov. Pete Wilson.
But these days, Wilner is an independent consultant with no partners or staff. He claims satellite technology, faxes and computers permit him to operate as a one-man band. That makes him a logical match for Coleman, who has hired him before and who is running as a sort of Lone Ranger. Wilner's only other candidate this fall is Dick Bennett, who is running for attorney general in Maryland. While Doak and Murphy are run ragged, Wilner is laid back. ``We're going to have a conference call this afternoon with some campaign managers. This morning I was talking to the time-buying firm. I went to the bank. I walked my dog.''
Wilner says, rather winningly, that he's a retiring man who lives very simply. Yet Wilner expresses no concern about the race or his trailing candidate. In fact, he seems to relish the tilting-at-windmills aspect of the Coleman effort. ``I feel very good about this campaign. We're coming from the back and moving. It's not an ordinary campaign. You can take a few more risks if you're an underdog, and that's what makes it exciting.''
Wilner insists the road ahead is charted. ``We play a lot by ear, but we have a map. We have a plan. We have it financed. We do know what we're going to do right up to the final day. With the one caveat that we have to watch Robb and watch North and see if there are other opportunities we haven't thought of.''
Nor is Wilner worried, he says, about being outmaneuvered by campaigns with greater resources. ``I think I hold the record for turning a TV spot around.''
He tells how he learned of a key endorsement for a Nebraska client at 4 a.m. on the Monday before an election. Wilner wrote out a script, and the candidate faxed him the editorial at dawn. Wilner shot the spot and sent it to Nebraska TV stations via satellite by 9 a.m. ``A lot of people saw their own morning paper on the air before they got around to reading it,'' Wilner says.
Doak and Murphy say they, too, are ready for whatever comes as the campaign enters the final rounds.
``I can't wait,'' Murphy says. ``It's going to be the best free show in Virginia. . . . You'd normally have to spend six bucks at the multiplex for something like this.'' MEMO: [This text appeared as a side-bar on page A4.]
IMAGE MEN
Three media consultants put their spin on the campaign, the
candidates and commercials.
RON WILNER, CONSULTANT FOR J. MARSHALL COLEMAN:
On what makes a great ad: ``It's got to be interruptive in nature. It
can't make you say, `Oh, there's another campaign ad.' It's got to get
your attention. You've got to do what you can in 30 seconds that fit the
situation.''
Are TV ads too much image and not enough substance? ``I can't dispute
it. It's awfully tough to express your whole campaign in four 30-second
spots, in 120 seconds. That's what makes the job interesting.''
On his campaign strategy: ``People are looking for someone to
establish themselves as an alternative. Both of these guys (Robb and
North) carry tremendous negatives and Marshall doesn't. What I've got to
try to do is get people back to ground zero, where they were - I think -
last June when a good many Virginians said, `Anybody but North or Robb.'
''
DAVID DOAK, CONSULTANT FOR CHARLES S. ROBB:
On Chuck Robb: ``People have always called Chuck a little stiff, but
I think he's a pretty good TV candidate. I think he looks good. Our
spots have really tested well. So I think he's a pretty good subject.''
Are TV ads too much image and not enough substance? ``Television has
enabled people to make their own judgments about candidates. Now we can
listen to the candidate's voice, look in their eye. The reason
television is so effective is that it approximates as close as anything
can to the one-on-one meeting of human beings. And that's the way human
beings have learned to judge people. I think it's allowed people to make
their own judgments and probably more informed judgments than before.''
On his campaign strategy: ``There are two motivated voters in this
race, North voters and anti-North voters who may be even more motivated.
It is our job to motivate those who aren't strongly anti-North.
``I think we all assume that everybody knows a lot about Ollie North
because he's been in the press so much. But when you really get into it
and you watch focus groups and look at polls, you realize people don't
really know a lot about the guy. That'll be a part of what we do.''
MIKE MURPHY, CONSULTANT TO OLIVER L. NORTH:
On Oliver North: ``He has some great ideas. The Betsy ad (featuring
North's wife) was his idea. He's a smart guy and he's fun to work with.
He trusts me to know something about TV and I trust him to be a pretty
good candidate who wants to make a difference. He's got a sense of
strategy. He understands politics and he understands theater.''
What makes a great ad? ``It has to be true, interesting and pop off
the air a little bit. It has to have something to do with people's real
lives. You can't let technique wreck the message. I like real people. I
like the candidates talking. I like comparisons. I like facts.
``Good ads are full of information. Voters like information. They
like positive information and they like to know conflicting information.
Negative information disqualifies people and they're interested in
that.''
On his campaign strategy: ``The fact is, I don't think a lot of
Virginians know that Robb has voted with Clinton 95 percent of the time.
I want to make sure the voters of the commonwealth know exactly what's
going on. If you think Bill Clinton's right 95 percent of the time, vote
for Robb.
``The way we win is staying on the offense and controlling the
agenda. If we debate the issues, we win. If we debate Robb, we win.''
KEYWORDS: U.S. SENATE RACE CANDIDATES CONSULTANTS ADVERTISING by CNB