Managing Individual Communications with Candidates: PVSWiki

Managing Individual Communications with Candidates

Table of Contents

Managing Individual Communications with Candidates

Candidate Line Supervision

Candidate Requests

Candidate Fights

During non-peak times, candidate line coverage may be shared with those covering the Mainline. Answering the candidate line will often times be time consuming in election season, especially before deadlines, and can also be rather stressful. In order to keep both staff answering the candidate line relaxed and, therefore, for the best results with candidates, I highly recommend that this be split up between multiple people. This can be done either on a day-to-day schedule or on a call-by-call basis with someone different answering it each time. Be sure that everyone answering the candidate line has been trained in how to handle candidate questions and requests so that calls can be completed quickly. If you are getting alot of calls and/or getting complaints from candidates that they are getting a busy signal or the voicemail during business hours, let the Office Manager know and we may add a line.

Training

Occasionally, candidates will call while extremely agitated because of how stressful a campaign can be. Receiving a red card saying they are going to fail something from someone not in their district can sometimes heighten this. Any staff members answering the candidate line need to be patient and not easily flustered. Candidates can be completely irrational and terse, but in most cases someone who is calm and can keep their composure can settle them down and get to the heart of the issue. Anyone on the candidate line will at some point face extremes on both sides of the coin. In one memorable exchange in 2008, a candidate called and cursed out a staff member for two minutes over receiving a red card and hanging up before the staff member could say anything. The same candidate then called back two weeks later asking why his responses were not on the website as if nothing had happened. At the other extreme, a staff member was offered a job working on a candidate's staff in the event he won the election. Most candidates will fall well inside of these extremes, but it is always a good idea to prepare staff members for all situations. The PCT Administrator or head of the PCT department should always make themselves available in the event that other staff are not able to calm candidates down or answer their questions to their satisfaction.

General Procedure for speaking with candidates/campaigns:

get the name and position of the person you are speaking with
what is the name/office/district of candidate (bring that person up in admin
address any questions they might have (see ways to deal with common questions) or redirect the call to the appropriate person. If a person is yelling at you or otherwise being inappropriate, you may pass/escalate the call to your supervisor.
encourage campaign to contact us if they have any additional questions or if they would like to submit something. This is the contact info you will give:

Candidate Line: 406-859-8692
Main Fax: 406-859-8680 (Attn: PCT)
Email: politicalcourage@votesmart.org (Attn: whoever is appropriate to deal with their inquiry)
Mailing Address:

Project Vote Smart
Attn: PCT
1 Common Ground
Philipsburg MT, 59858

end the call with: "good luck on your campaign"
create a contact log for the call

Try to keep all calls under 10 minutes!!

Contact Logs

Candidate Contact Logs

Party Advice

It is important to document party advice that is obtained from candidates. Many party leaders encourage candidates not to respond to "surveys" (sometimes specifically the PCT). Documenting this evidence enables us to demonstrate to the media that candidates are less and less willing to provide citizens with their issue positions. If a candidate suggests they will not be responding to the PCT ask them why- if they suggest that their reluctance is based on party advice, mrke the contact log as "notable." Evidence of party advice should be immediately brought to the Director's attention, who will note the advice in the Party Advice folder. This information should be shared with the Communications Department. Toward election day, the PCT department will produce a party advice document for public consumption, incorporating new evidence.

Candidate Requests

All requests from candidates (whether during a scheduled call/email or a request on the candidate line) must be documented to ensure that we fulfill them all properly. Candidate requests are generally pretty simple, but can be time consuming if several come in at once. When a request is received, the person who took the request should fill out the request form with required information, including the candidate name, candidate ID number, what's being requested, and the email/fax/mailing address to send it to. Also, include a phone number in case there is a problem faxing or e-mailing documents. Candidate requests should be fulfilled immediately, or at the latest by the end of that business day. Candidate requests should only be fulfilled by staff so any interns who get a request, for instance in a confirmation call, they should hand all requests to either the Administrator or other staff member. If the candidate requested a PCT, be sure to include a copy of the biographical form as well. It is best that all outgoing communications to candidates be sent through the politicalcourage@votesmart.org account. All candidate requests should be documented in that candidate's Contact Logs

PVSWiki : IndividualCandidateContacts