Fran on party strategists

Fran O’Sullivan takes a look at who is driving the campaign strategy in each party.

But at the tactical level, some decisions are backfiring. Clark says the election is about “trust”. She reinforces that message by using “dog whistle” tactics which could have come from the Crosby Textor campaign textbook she usually decries.

Yep.

In the past she has deputed senior politicians such as Trevor Mallard or Phil Goff to be the party’s attack dogs and rark up her opponents, but this time she is getting into the gutter.

Leading the descent downwards.

National does not have an uber-fuhrer as strategist. What it has is a strategy team which has been meeting on a daily basis “for months now”.

Strategy by committee – hmmmn.

Party insiders expect author Nicky Hager, who wrote The Hollow Men, to try to drive a public wedge between English and Key by dropping more damaging emails during the election campaign.

No doubt.

Some clued up National MPs are even using digital tape-recorders to record their public utterances so they have a log of what has been said in case they are subject to a re-run of the secret recordings at their own annual conference.

A very good idea.

Maori MP Hone Harawira is the party’s campaign manager and also in charge of fund-raising.

A smart choice – lots of street smarts.