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Political consultants are professionals who assist candidates running for office by providing one or more specialized services. They work on an ad hoc basis, taking a different set of clients each election cycle. The work is typically done on a fee-for-service basis and confined to the specific election cycle. Consultants may work individually, or more typically, as part of a political consulting firm comprised of many professionals who provide the variety of service(s) the firm offers.

Consultants are fixtures in campaigns at all levels in modern American electoral politics. Presidential candidates have stables of consultants working for their campaigns, sometimes with multiple firms providing the same service. In addition, most congressional candidates also hire consultants, though how many varies depending on whether the candidate is an incumbent, challenger, or open-seat candidate, as well as the estimated competitiveness of the campaign. While no serious candidate for office at the federal level would proceed with the assistance of one or more political consultants, the use of such consultants has even spread to state legislative campaigns, mayoral races, and school board contests.

Origins Of Political Consulting

Political consultants are nothing new to political campaigns, although there is some disagreement as to how political consulting originated. Some scholars state that consultants were not strictly an American phenomenon and date as far back as 63 BCE, when ancient Roman Quintus Tullius Cicero advised his brother, orator and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero in an election for the consulship of Rome. In the American context, however, some scholars point to the founding of and debate over the ratification of the U.S. Constitution when the Federalists and Anti-Federalists engaged in political tactics that are reminiscent of those used today. In a more modern context, many observers consider Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter as the founders of the political consulting industry, as they were the first individuals to try and make a living by providing campaign services to clients through their formation of their firm, Campaigns Inc., in 1933.

The consulting industry developed slowly after Campaigns Inc., but was helped along with technological advancements like scientific polling and electronic media, such as radio and television. These advancements meant that campaigning was no longer only a political endeavor: Candidates would need help with the sophisticated and technical tools now at their disposal. In fact, many of the first media consultants were advertisers from Madison Avenue in New York who found new clients in the form of candidates running for office.

Technical advancements also spurred another important development in the consulting industry in the form of specialization. Before this, a single person or a small group of individuals could run the entire campaign, but as the tactics of campaigning became more and more sophisticated, specialization of the industry and skills needed for campaigning developed. Today, political consulting is a highly specialized industry, with thousands of individuals working in many different fields.

Services Provided And Effects Measured

There is a core group of services that define the political consulting industry and others that support or supplement the work of these central elements. The heart of political consulting is the creation and delivery of a candidate’s message, or the short statement that gives voters the reasons they should vote for this candidate rather than the opponent. The consultants typically responsible for developing and disseminating the candidate’s message include a pollster, a media consultant, a direct mail specialist, and a campaign manager or general consultant. Additional consultants may include an opposition researcher, a fundraiser, and a field or get-out-the-vote specialist. Beyond this, other services that are not as central to the overall creation of the candidate’s message, but are just as important to a modern political campaign, include Web site design, media buying, printing services, and culling data from voter files and other sources to help target voters. Individuals providing these services are sometimes called vendors, making the distinction between their role and true consultants. These specialists come together to provide candidates with all the information and assistance they need to run a sophisticated and modern campaign for office.

Political consultants produce tangible results for their candidates. Scholars have systematically examined consultants’ presence in candidates’ campaigns and found that candidates who hire consultants raise more money during their campaign and get more votes on election day than those candidates who do not hire professionals. In terms of fundraising, candidates who hire consultants raise more money from party committees, political action committees, and individual donors than do those candidates who run amateur campaigns. Scholars also believe that a candidate hiring one consultant or more signals to potential donors that their campaign is serious, viable, and worth the investment of a campaign contribution.

Consultants’ impact on a candidate’s vote share is slightly more complex. While Stephen Medvic, in his 2001 book Political Consultants in U.S. Congressional Elections, finds that both the presence of consultants as well as the actual number of consultants hired by a candidate impact the number of votes that challenger and open-seat candidates receive, the same relationship is not true for incumbents. Medvic also finds that the most valuable type of consultant challenger candidates can hire is the pollster, who provides the most bang for the campaign’s buck. Again, however, the same is not true for incumbents. These results may seem to indicate that consultants are not as important for incumbent officeholders seeking reelection. While this may be true for safe incumbents, for embattled incumbents, there is another dynamic at work, as embattled incumbents worry only about winning and not about how many votes they get as long as they receive more than their opponent. For those incumbents who are in a difficult race, the impact of consultants may not be best measured in votes; it may be better measured in terms of simple victory.

Bibliography:

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