Three things you’d better be doing—and you’re probably not—to avoid getting screwed by politicians

If you’re reading this, odds are you or someone you work for is at risk of being totally screwed by politicians.

Maybe they’re in DC. Maybe they’re in one of the fifty state capitols. Maybe they sit on your city council. Maybe they’re in Parliament or Whitehall. Maybe they’re in Brussels. Maybe they’re at some UN body that wants to push individual countries into doing this thing or that thing.

In any event, odds are that somewhere, there’s a politician—maybe well-intentioned but wrong, or maybe straight-up corrupt—out to get you, your employer, or your organization, or at least make your life difficult.

“Yeah, but I’m not worried,” you say. “We’ve got a blue-chip lobbyist and a big-name public affairs firm looking after us. We’ve got people running ads on all the platforms. They’ll take care of everything.”

And maybe you’re right.

But then again, maybe you’re not.

And here’s the real rub: You may not even be asking the right questions to figure out whether you’re covered off, or whether you’re about to get hit with the policy equivalent of a sledgehammer.

The truth is, lobbyists, “do it all” public affairs campaign managers, and ad people are only a part of the puzzle. If you really want to give yourself the best chance of success, there are three other types of advisors who work in the public affairs space that you need to be looking at and talking to—and it’s generally safest to contract with them directly rather than rely on your lobbyist, your generic public affairs firm, or your ad guys to subcontract or try to cover these components off “in-house.”

What type of advisors might you be missing, either because you haven’t hired them or because someone else should have but didn’t, or cheaped it out with a quasi-professional dabbling in these areas? I’m glad you asked.

1. Strategic communications

“Communications” services are typically marketed by pretty much every big public affairs shop that has ever or will ever pitch you on work. They all, regardless of individual quality standards, have the ability to send out press releases, allocate an employee to function as your designated spokesperson, and place an op-ed here or a letter-to-the-editor there. They can talk to all the publications that routinely take an interest in your business, most especially trade publications, which many of them love to prioritize regardless of what actual merits that strategy presents.

But there’s a dirty little secret in the world of public affairs communications: Increasingly, press releases and what’s said by spokespeople—especially to trade publications— isn’t what matters.

What matters most is what’s being pushed behind the scenes—especially to ideologically-driven or dirt-digging publications that Democratic and Republican offices and staffers read and take their cues from, and that you don’t want your name on, but which is vital to achieving the outcomes you need. And to get that information out there in that particular ether, you don’t need or want a press release, or a spokesperson, or an op-ed, or a letter-to-the-editor. You don’t want on the record at all, most likely.

You want someone behind the scenes, with deep, solid relationships with exactly those kinds of media (which, incidentally, are also heavily read by other, more traditional print, cable and broadcast media and grassroots activists in both parties) who can shop relevant information that improves your odds, and screws your opposition without your ever being associated with that effort. Key to that, also, is having a communications consultant that can, in fact, identify, that relevant information.

In short, you need a strategic communications component combining great gut instincts for what makes an issue sexy and coverable, impeccable relationships, and a solid opposition research capability— and the odds are that no matter what you’re being told, you do not have any of these things.

I know this because I run a strategic communications firm that does all of these things, all day long, 24/7/365. I regularly have select bigger “do it all” public affairs campaign management shops come to me asking for help on this or that issue because it turns out they cannot, in fact, “do it all,” or if they can, they can only “do it all” by subcontracting some of it to me. Which is fine; the client’s needs are ultimately met, and that’s all that matters.

But I’m very cognizant of the number of situations in which companies, trade associations or non-profits facing really long odds believe they’re covered off with regard to this kind of work because they hired the “do it all” wizards, but the “do it all” wizards don’t have the capabilities they say they do—and the client bears an inordinate amount of risk in those scenarios. I know that, also, because I write about politics and public affairs on the side, and I get pitched by people who purport to do “strategic communications.” And too often, their pitches are, well, terrible.

This isn’t to say that if you’re employing a big firm, you’re definitely, absolutely not covered off where this need is concerned (hey, I might be doing your work right now, though you and I may not know it!). It’s just to say that this is a gaping hole on most client teams, and one you should call your consultant and ask about. Right now. No joke.

2. Ideological group/grass-tops relations

This is another capability that you find a good number of lobbyists, public affairs campaign management firms, and ad firms claiming to have, but in practice what they often mean by “we do ideological group work” is “I met this one guy from a notoriously pay-to-play group at a happy hour a couple weeks ago, and I’m pretty sure I can get his group to say nice things about you/your issue position once if you pay me $10,000 a month and give me $50,000 to pay his group.”

Sound like a good deal? Mm-hmm...

Trust me, there is a better way. What you want is a firm that is staffed by people who have real relationships with key individuals employed by groups you’d like to bring onside, who really know the players well personally, ideally have worked for or with them extensively, and who talk to them on a daily basis—and not just about how big a check X client needs to cut to get Y group to do something that may or may not be really useful. (Sure, sometimes there is a request for money to change hands, but it is hardly a given, nor should it be accepted as such).

You want someone who deeply understands the philosophical standpoint from which a group is coming; why they would or would not inherently want to associate themselves with someone or someone’s viewpoint; how to make persuasive arguments, knowing that person or group’s history, viewpoints, and personal experiences. You want someone to know whether requests for cash are legitimate, or things that should be ignored or declined. In short, you want someone who specializes in working with groups, and exclusively handles this work.

Why does this matter? As this study put out by the Readmond Group LLC (which just so happens to be an excellent provider of ideological group/grass-top relations services) shows, if you have key groups on your side—say, taxpayer protection groups if you’re targeting Republicans—you are more likely to win your policy fight, and achieve a favorable outcome.

Moreover, if you hire a specialist firm like the Readmond Group, it’s likely to save you money overall and eliminate the problem of throwing money around D.C. with little to no bang for what would inevitably be big bucks—very big bucks. So, not only is it outcomes-smart, but it’s budget smart. Who doesn’t like that?

Does your existing consultant team have this capability? You’d better ask, and demand specifics.

3. Grassroots

Let’s jump in our proverbial time machine for a second, shall we?

Zoom back to August 2009, when the Tea Party was emerging and people across the country were going nuts at congressional town hall meetings (especially those held by Democrats) during recess. Remember how this was followed by several retirement announcements by said Democrats, which were greeted with glee by the National Republican Congressional Committee? Yeah… what happens at town hall meetings, and other in-district events matters. A lot.

While much of what happened in 2009 was spontaneous, not especially organized and legitimately came from the ground up, I bring this up to emphasize that it is in fact possible to introduce a modicum of organization into things like demonstrations, media availabilities, or Q&A sessions at town hall meetings organized by everyone from the EPA to your congressman. And it should be a priority for people trying to win public affairs fights.

Officials take a lot of notice when they get a glut of questions at a town hall meeting about a particular topic. Their staff take a lot of notice, too.

And they take even more notice when that’s followed by stories in local media about a glut of questions about a particular topic being lobbed at said official during a town hall meeting. And if there are enough of these stories, it gets the attention of people living in the area, and indeed people covering politics and policy nationally. And that helps change the way debates play out and issues are addressed.

There are several really good consultants who handle grassroots work in Washington, D.C., as well as excellent practitioners in all fifty states; I’m lucky to have worked with many of them on some of the most successful public affairs campaigns I’ve been involved with and can absolutely make recommendations in this regard. If you don’t know who would be good to hire, shoot me an email.

Why haven’t I heard this before? Why isn’t my lobbyist/”do it all” public affairs firm/ad agency covering all this off?

The answer to this first question is probably because people like me spend more time on client work and less time on writing than we really should.

But with that now addressed, let’s take on the second question. First of all, as I say, they might be. Our firm has subcontracted from virtually every major public affairs or public relations agency in the country, some on a very routine basis, some on an occasional one. That indicates that some agencies know they have a gap, and they take steps to fill it to ensure client satisfaction and results.

But I also know of others that avoid using advisors covering off the three bases mentioned above unless and until the shit really hits the fan—and often, when that happens, the situation just isn’t salvageable, or in order to salvage it, it’s going to cost you, the client. A lot. No, like, a whole lot—maybe many times more than what you originally budgeted.

In the end, the simple truth is this: No amount of money is likely to be worth your profits taking a real hammering thanks to government when it was avoidable for an extra $20,000 per calendar month, potentially for as little as three months (and that could easily cover the addition of consultants of all three types mentioned above). Think about that when you’re facing your next crisis or major public affairs challenge.