Incumbent Protection Program
Grassroots campaign to support the KSDCCC
The Solution
Along with the party leaders, TCG developed a unique tactical plan that would provide an “opponent response mechanism” to aid 5 State Senators and 8 State Representatives in their bid for re-election. The “Incumbent Protection Program (IPP)” was born. The goal was to create 3 different automated programs for each of the 13 State Senate and House districts, and to be able to immediately launch these programs based on opposing campaigning efforts. IPP included a voter identification process of over 80,000 potential supporters in targeted districts, advanced preparation of 3 response type pre-recorded messages, and corresponding voter databases for each of the 13 districts.
KSDP and TCG believed that being ready would be the key factor in the success of the program, incumbents needed to respond to their opponents’ negative campaigning efforts in a timely manner to maximize the programs’ effectiveness. The response mechanism was pre-designed based on local analysis regarding specific campaign efforts for both the incumbent and their opponents. Primarily the messages were based on the expectation of receiving negative attacks.
The plan allowed for response type messages to be pre-recorded by each candidate, a community member who personally knew the candidate, and Governor Kathleen Sebelius. As such, 39 individual automated programs were set up in advance. The programs were ready to be launched based on spur-of-the moment events or oppositions’ negative campaigning.
Pages in this case study:
- Page 1: The Challenge
- Page 2: The Solution
- Page 3: The Results
