Feature photo by Kameron Scott
Story by Kameron Scott
A panel of political strategists who worked with some of the most powerful politicians in Tennessee discussed a brand new political exhibit that opened on Tuesday at MTSU.
The Todd Art Gallery in the MTSU Art Department held the discussion to open the Johnny Hayes political collection of campaign memorabilia. Johnny Hayes was a fundraiser for many Democratic candidates, including Al Gore. Several notable guests were in attendance at the event, including former Gov. Phil Bredesen and former Rep. Bob Clement.
The panel addressed several issues throughout the discussion, all related to campaigning and advertising. Beth Harwell, the first female Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, talked about how important a candidate’s image was to electoral success.
“When you’re running for the state and local level, name I.D. is important,” said Harwell.
Mark Tipps, operating partner at Frist Cressey Ventures and former chief of staff to Sen. Bill Frist, added to Harwell’s response, saying the nature of negative ads changed from when he was involved with running a campaign.
“What we did in ‘94 is child’s play to now,” said Tipps.
The panel also discussed the successes and failures of communicating a complex issue.
“One of the things that didn’t work was trying to communicate expanding Medicaid in Tennessee,” said Lisa Quigley, former chief of staff for two congressmen from Tennessee, including former Nashville Rep. Jim Cooper.
Harwell, Tennessee Speaker at the time of the attempt to pass Medicaid expansion, said that Medicaid expansion being associated with former President Barack Obama–who was unpopular at the time–made it difficult to pass.
When it comes to campaigning, Kent Syler, MTSU professor and the chief of staff to longtime Rep. Bart Gordon, talked about a tactic that didn’t work in 1994 in Gordon’s re-election bid but did work two years later in a rematch.
The tactic was associating Gordon’s Republican candidate with then-House Minority Leader Newt Gingrich, using a videotape of the candidate embracing Gingrich in a hug during an event at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. While the tactic didn’t work in 1994 due to Gingrich’s popularity, it did work two years later in the rematch since Gingrich was very unpopular by 1996.
“We went from winning by 2,000 in 1994 to winning by 30,000 in 1996,” said Syler.
Quigley discussed her success in getting free school lunches expanded to more children in South Carolina by complimenting the individual legislators who supported it. Legislators hired truck drivers to drive around the perimeter of Trump rallies with screens thanking said legislatures for helping feed South Carolina’s kids.
After the panel, the Art Gallery held a reception with dozens of campaign memorabilia spanning from the 1860s to the early 2000s. The exhibit is open to the public from Oct. 1 through Nov. 5.
Kameron Scott is a contributing writer for MTSU Sidelines.
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