Name familiarity a political fact of life

The Rodney Dangerfields of the political world get no respect. They are the candidates for office and the sitting politicians who do not accumulate large amounts of public identification. In politics, name identification is essential to winning a campaign and to governing. It makes sense; people vote for those they are familiar with; they follow those they know and trust.

Salt Lake County government has been cursed with this problem for many years.

When I was mayor of Salt Lake City, Mike Stewart was chairman of the Salt Lake County Commission. In fact, he had a larger municipal portfolio than I did; the unincorporated area of the county was more expansive than Salt Lake City. Even though Stewart did a good job, his name identification seldom got above 50 percent, while my office commanded 80 percent and above.

The same is true today. County Mayor Nancy Workman has less than 60 percent name identification while Salt Lake chief executive Rocky Anderson runs about 90 percent. Credit some of that to sheer flamboyancy on Anderson's part. But Workman has taken to putting her name all over Salt Lake County to do something to solve the problem.

For candidates, the problem is not just an annoyance, it can be political death. It was a surprise to see in last week's Deseret Morning News-Dan Jones' poll that Utah House Speaker Marty Stephens only polled 4 percent among those candidates preparing to run for governor while Jon Huntsman, Jr. came in at about 20 percent. Why would Stephens, whose name is in the paper and on TV continuously, be that far behind Huntsman, who has been away in Washington, D.C.?

Some of the answer is obvious. Huntsman's father is famous for his wealth and his generosity. Most people are attracted to stories of affluence and humanitarian giving. Also, Stephens has been occasionally controversial and has perhaps offended some.

But my theory is that some kinds of press coverage -- detailed workaday government for example -- gets lost in the humdrum. Both Stephens and Workman compete with many other elected officials in their own governments while the governor and the Salt Lake mayor have few rivals or, in the case of Anderson, is the only elected executive in his government.

Those who challenge highly known incumbents have a special challenge. A few sink enormous personal funds into the campaign and buy their name identification like Ross Perot did. But most have to come up the hard way. They become extra aggressive, trying to smoke their incumbent opponent out to create a debate that tends to equalize notoriety. Or they find shticks like walking long distances, honking and waving or working lots of jobs. Sometimes they overcome poor name recognition but often they don't.

Americans are busy people. It is our culture, our way of life. Until we begin to pay attention to candidates, we may just keep sending incumbents back and back and miss the real some real quality in our stealth candidates.

Webb: Some political offices naturally have higher public profiles than others, and some offices are better suited than others as steppingstones to higher political office.

But great candidates can come from almost anywhere and win. They find ways to compensate for initial low name identification or lack of political experience. It takes a quality candidate, smart strategy, personal money or good fund-raising ability, and maybe a little luck.

Scott Matheson was a mostly unknown railroad attorney. Norm Bangerter, Jim Hansen and Rob Bishop came out of legislative obscurity to win higher office. Mark Shurtleff broke the Salt Lake County Commission jinx to become Utah's attorney general. When Mike Leavitt ran for governor in 1992 he started with only 1 percent name identification (although he was fairly well known in political circles).

Head-to-head polling matchups and name identification measurements really don't mean anything at this point in the 2004 campaigns. Candidates should be focused on fund-raising and winning support of opinion leaders and political activists. They should spend their time targeting their winning coalitions, rather than trying to appeal to the masses. Great candidates find ways to win.

-- If John Swallow can raise $300,000 by the end of September, he should have a good chance to head off any credible challenge by another Republican for the 2nd Congressional District nomination.

Emerging from the early spring convention as the Republican nominee, avoiding a primary battle, would allow Swallow or some other nominee to focus on defeating Rep. Jim Matheson instead of battling a fellow Republican.

So Swallow is working hard to put together enough of a war chest to scare off any credible GOP challengers. He has been quite successful, raising more money than any other non-millionaire Republican challenger at this point in a congressional campaign. His June 30 report showed $123,000 raised, with $105,000 on hand.

Swallow is hoping to win the backing of the Club for Growth, a pro- business network of donors whose endorsement can mean quick money in key races. The 2nd District race will again have a high national profile, because Matheson is considered one of the few vulnerable incumbents, and control of the House will hinge on relatively few races.

The Democrats understand the importance of this race and are pumping unprecedented amounts of money into Matheson's campaign. He is proving to be perhaps Utah's best congressional fund-raiser ever, Republican or Democrat. Matheson runs smart, disciplined races, and the Republican nominee will have to run a sophisticated, focused, highly targeted, well-messaged campaign that runs like a well-oiled machine. This is no time for novices or amateurs if Republicans hope to defeat Matheson.

Democrat Ted Wilson, former Salt Lake mayor, directs the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah and is a political strategist. E-mail: tednews@hotmail.com. Republican LaVarr Webb was policy deputy to Gov. Mike Leavitt and Deseret News managing editor. He now is a political consultant and lobbyist. E-mail: lavarrwebb@msn.com

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