Arkansas Faith and Ethics Council

Ten Important Factors in a Church-Led Grassroots Election Campaign to Oppose the Expansion of Legalized Gambling

Larry Page, Executive Director
Arkansas Faith and Ethics Council

1. Use the K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, stupid!) Principle or face Murphy's Law.

It’s politics 101.
Stress the fundamental (emphasis on the mental).
Keep the campaign grounded on well-reasoned, substantiated, non-extreme, and understandable premises.
Avoid overemphasis on emotional appeals — they have no staying power and work on only the true believers — use it there, but remember they’re already in your camp.
Think smart. Be smart. Do smart. Don’t get fancy. Keep it simple because the more you try to do the more things can and will go wrong.

2. It’s Numbers — Numbers — Numbers!

The key to victory is election turnout.
Remember — on election day, you need only fifty percent of the vote plus one.
You can’t get every vote, but you don’t need every vote.
Style your campaign knowing that there is an appreciable percentage of the electorate that is going to vote the other way and there is no way you can change that. Don’t waste precious resources, time, and energy on these voters. Only go after the votes you have a reasonable chance of gaining.
While a majority of Americans may favor legalized gambling — many of them are not registered voters, have little or no interest in voting, and simply don’t vote.
You have the numbers on your side — if a proper foundation has been laid — your people are more motivated to vote and typically do so.

3. Silence is not always golden — sometimes it is ignorance and apathy.

Be aggressive — start early — and continue through the campaign to push voter registration.
You may educate members of your grass roots network, and you may motivate them to get involved, but if they are not registered voters they have no say on election day.
When one of your people fail to vote — it is equivalent to a vote for the other side.

4. Don’t get the cart before the horse!

A winning grass roots campaign has two phases.
Be sure you have secured Phase One before moving on to Phase Two — it is contingent on a successful Phase One.

5. Phase One — If you don’t hold your base — you will lose the race.

Use the network that you already have in place — no price can be put on its value.
Use the denominations as they are variously organized. For example, with Southern Baptists work through their state convention, associations, local churches, and members.
It is critically important to co-opt the denominational personalities into the campaign leadership.
Those networks can be used effectively to:
- raise funds
- recruit volunteers
- raise funds
- conduct voter registration
- raise funds
- educate members of the grass roots network
- raise funds
- inspire, embolden, motivate, mobilize, and instill optimism among the grass roots network
- and raise funds

6. Phase Two — Make the connection to win the election.

A certain percentage of your electorate is ambivalent about gambling. Many of them are not in the pews on Sunday. However, many of them will vote your way — if they hear the compelling message you have about the problems of gambling.
This message must be communicated in the secular community. That is a real challenge when the other side has the bulging advertising budget and you have limited resources.
Remember, you will never be able to match your opponents in the amount of advertising they run. However, it is necessary to do a basic level of advertising. This is the reason for the emphasis on raising funds under the list of things to accomplish in Phase One.
Your base can and will provide the resources necessary to run at least a basic level of advertising if you are persuasive in making the case for advertising.
Don’t neglect the value of earned media. Earned media is free media and, therefore, the best media. Be creative in generating free media. Use press conferences, press releases, debates, town hall meetings, civic clubs, and media interviews to get your message disseminated with little or no cost to the campaign. Alert the media to campaign events and always be available to them.
Make yourself and your campaign newsworthy — be relevant.

7. The message is only as good as the messenger.

Your message about gambling is powerful and compelling — but only if it is communicated effectively and wisely.
Don’t be drawn into making ad hominem attacks. The other side will often try to make it personal, but you must not. Your side always starts out occupying the high ground and you must continue throughout the campaign to hold the high ground. If not, you lose one of your greatest strengths.
Don't give in to the temptation to demagogue — it quickly wears thin and drives away the undecided voter put off by strident rhetoric.

8. Preach only to the choir.

At best the secular community is disinterested in your moral positions on gambling and antagonistic to them at worst. Appeals to this community must consist of the economic and social implications of gambling. Don’t apologize or hide your moral objections and be ready to concisely enumerate and defend them if asked, but don’t normally make them a big part of your case to audiences outside of your grass roots network.
Even when addressing members of the grass roots network, mix the message, including the major economic and social arguments against gambling. Remember, they don’t live in church. They live, work, attend school, and interact with people who make up that larger community — let’s give them all the reasons to oppose gambling and the ability to talk intelligently about them.

9. Maximize your strengths to compensate for your weaknesses.

Your considerable strengths are:
- You have the people — the other side has no people, but they have most of the money.
- You have the passion about the issue — your opponents have only greed that drives them.
- You have the truth (all the unbiased, empirical evidence strongly supports your positions) — the other side has only deception to try to convince the electorate to vote with them.
- You have an effective network already in place (the churches and their organizations) and have only to utilize them — the other side has an organization built solely on the power of money and influence.
Your weaknesses are:
- You can never match your opponents’ financial resources — they’re virtually unlimited.
- You can not acquire the same level of professional expertise the other side will — they buy the best advertising, public relations, and legal help available.
- There is growing antagonism toward conservative faith groups that harden some in the secular community against our positions and our involvement in social matters.
- Some in your grass roots network, including pastors, are reluctant to get involved in social and political issues.

10. Never forget that the larger context in which this battle is waged is spiritual.

The most important component of your campaign is prayer. If you don’t consistently and earnestly seek God’s blessings on and guidance for your endeavors — you are fighting with one hand tied behind your back.
It is imperative that we always understand that how we behave during the campaign speaks volumes about our professed values and is critical to our witness. How our opponents and most members of the public perceive us and “our walk” will determine how well that walk lines up with “our talk” and will either bring credit to Christ or do disservice to His Kingdom.