Campaign-isms

Every job has its jargon and campaigns are no exception. While these idioms are not unique to campaigns, they are used so frequently that they are almost jokes within the campaign community. If you don't know them, you should.

1)"It is what it is." Used to describe a situation over which the campaign has no control.
Communications Director: "She knows she's gonna be with us eventually, she just do it now so we can add her to the press release."
Political Director: "Yeah, I wish she would endorse before her primary, but it is what it is."

2)"Throw someone under the bus." Used to describe the process of blaming someone else, usually an non-present party, in order to avoid blow-back from unwelcome information or circumstances.
Field Organizer: "Things are okay, but the county chair pissed because we won't hire his nephew to put up yard signs."
Field Director: "Ugh. Well if she comes at you with that again, just throw me under the bus and tell him I said we can't afford it."

3)"Throw spaghetti at the wall." To take a broad, non-targeted approach, inefficient approach in the hope that something sticks. Usually a non-preferred method.
Field Director "I mean the problem with just handing out literature at subway stations is that you don't know if those people are voters or actually live in the district, so it's kind of like throwing spaghetti at the wall."

4)"To have the bandwidth for.." To have the time or mental energy to properly execute a particular task.
Campaign Manager: "I guess we could schedule a debate prep for after the candidate finishes call time, but I'm just worried he won't have the bandwidth for that."

5)"At the end of the day..." Usually used to bring perspective to a currently stressful situation.
Intern 1: " I was taught that this far out we should be registering voters. Why aren't we new registering voters?"
Intern 2 : "Listen, at the end of the day people are not registering to vote for the first time because of a Controller's race."

6) "Living the dream as always." Avoidance response to questions about a campaign worker's well-being. Delivered with various amounts of sarcasm.
Organizer 1: "How ya doin?"
Organizer 2: "Oh I was here until 2am printing walk lists and then none of my volunteers showed up so you know, living the dream as always."


Happy to be here. Proud to serve.

Nancy