1996 Ad

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Feb 26, 1996 | by Michael Rust

A new generation of press aides - who cut its professional teeth during the Reagan era - is employing the latest communication technology to shape coverage of the 1996 presidential election.

In the Nixon White House, Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman called them "snakes"; if the roman a clef Primary Colors is to be believed, they were known in the 1992 Clinton campaign as "scorpions."

Call them political reporters and look for them during this election season near their natural habitat, the presidential campaigns, where they are under the sometimes tender, sometimes brutal care of campaign press secretaries. For as long as anyone can remember, the symbiotic relationship between journalistic snake and political snake handler has been rocky.

"I find Republicans and Democrats alike are maddening to deal with in the campaign season until a moment comes when maybe they think they need you" Newsweek's Eleanor Clift tells Insight. "Otherwise, obfuscation, staring - and they usually do it very pleasantly."

However, while some things stay the same, others do not. A generational change has taken place, with spots once held by grizzled ex-newspaperment now occupied by younger political operatives who cut their professional teeth during the Reagan era.

When younger press secretaries have no campaign-reporting experience, it's difficult for them to know just what it is the reporters out there want," says Lyn Nofziger, who served as press secretary in Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign and who went from 16 years in journalism to staff positions in the Nixon and Reagan White Houses. His newspaper background benefited him in his dealings with reporters, Nofziger tells Insight, because "I knew their wants; I knew what I could get away with and what I wouldn't let them get away with; and other than that, I think that that I knew."

But the members of the new breed enjoy certain advantages as well, working in a field that has seen vast technological changes. What's more, they have a camaraderie of their own on the campaign trail. "Out there on the trail with the other guys, with [Patrick Buchanan's press secretary Greg] Mueller and [Sen. Phil Gramm's press secretary Gary] Koops and everybody - we know each other fairly well," says Terry Hope, press secretary for the campaign of Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana.

"Some of us have worked together on other campaigns. So, you're competing, but at the same time, you recognize very well that one of these days we'll be in the same foxhole together. So you try hard to beat them at the things you can, but with the recognition that they're doing their jobs too."

That job has evolved with technology, something readily acknowledged by seasoned campaign veterans. Bill Kling, until recently press secretary for Alan Keyes' presidential campaign and now spokesman for the Senate campaign of Virginia Republican James Miller, says that keeping up with new technology while figuring out the best way to use it "has made the job one in which you have to be creative and have initiative."

At a basic level, the job has become easier, Kling tells Insight. "The fax machine has really been a shot in the arm for folks in my line of work," he says. Sending a news release to hundreds of people via broadcast fax is far less strenuous than typing a release by hand and reproducing it on a photocopy machine.

At the same time, new technologies require new strategies. This year, many reporters have E-mail and campaigns are responding by sending items to selected reporters' E-mail addresses, says Kling. However, he cautions: "You should use technology to advance your cause but not have technology guide your cause. It's a tool - it's not the end itself, it's the means to an end."

And, in fact, no matter what leaps in technical prowess occur, human interaction between campaign and press corps still is of paramount importance. Tony Snow, a nationally syndicated Detroit News columnist and former chief speechwriter in the Bush administration, says "the care and feeding of journalists tends to be a lot less exalted" than in past years. The first priority for press officers is to let reporters know where the candidate is. "Some campaigns do a good job. [Illinois businessman] Morry Taylor lets everybody know where he is even if people don't care, whereas some other, much better financed campaigns do not."

Other journalists are more specific, saying Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole's campaign in the early stages of the electoral season was lax in providing information about the candidate's whereabouts. "It's a fundamental question which the campaigns are often terrible on," says Weekly Standard Executive Editor Fred Barnes. "You can't find out where the candidate is." However, he tells Insight, the Dole campaign improved markedly as the first primary drew closer.

Away from the spotlight on the front-runner, smaller campaigns strive to get the maximum bang for their limited buck. The Lugar press operation - which consists of Hope, an assistant press secretary and part-time contacts in Iowa and New Hampshire - stands in marked contrast to the high-powered operations of Dole and Gramm. "I kid that with the number of people some campaigns have, we'd have covered the others like a blanket by now," says Hope. "As it is, we try very hard to service all of our interested reporters."