There are three political rules of thumb (RoT) that public officials ignore at their own peril.
One is to get out in front of news that will impact you. Clairvoyance is not a prerequisite. The obvious can be anticipated. Avoid being reactive. You get no credit.
Second, when you screw up, acknowledge it right away. Don’t do your part to serialize the issue or try to weasel out of what you’ve done wrong. Basically, don’t make it worse. In the public relations business, it’s called damage control. It’s also called being honest. That, ironically, can yield credit and voter empathy.
Third, don’t allow issues — such as a certain missed deadline and its ripple effects — to dominate. That’s well within your purview. After immediately acknowledging an embarrassing screw-up, don’t let it dominate an interview, let alone a candidacy. Immediately bridge to your priorities. Why you’re still running.
Dan Gelber provides a classic example of how political proactivity can’t be overrated. Gelber’s the Democratic attorney general candidate who recently resigned from his South Florida law firm, Ackerman Senterfitt.
AS, the state’s largest law firm, has agreed to represent BP against oil-spill claims. And Gelber is outspoken in his opposition to oil drilling in this state’s waters. Indeed, the Miami Beach state senator wants it banned. Yesterday.
The political problem, however, is that Gelber didn’t go public with his resignation until after his opponent, state Sen. Dave Aronberg, called for it.
It makes no political difference that Gelber suggests he had already made up his mind to resign a few weeks earlier. He gets no credit for an ostensibly wracked conscience. It is politically what it looks like: He resigned for pragmatic political purposes after his opponent demanded he do it. Nor does it matter that he played, he insists, no role in the firm’s decision to represent BP. He’s not a legal tar ball, but he’s tainted. It could have been avoided.
No, Gelber’s gaffe wasn’t nearly as bad as the PR wound that current AG Bill McCollum inflicted on himself over his Rentboy.com “expert” on gay adoptions, but bad enough. Image matters, especially to those who spend big bucks to mass produce one.
As to the second RoT, we’ve seen a pretty good case study closer to home: the deadline duo of City Council members John Dingfelder and Linda Saul-Sena. Both missed the cut-off for submitting the paperwork that would have allowed them to stay on the council while running for County Commission seats in November.
It was careless. It was unfortunate. The public deserves better than legal machinations and ad hoc, council fill-ins for the next four months. But it happened.
Dingfelder, to his credit, acknowledged right away that he screwed up. Didn’t bother to use the passive “mistakes were made” voice either. He obviously answers for his own campaign, and it was his fault. Saul-Sena seemed circumspect and more concerned with moving on. Understandable, but not a response that resonates with most voters.
Although she later apologized for the mistake, Saul-Sena’s delayed admission of a lapse in judgment won’t mitigate matters enough to some voters. In effect, there are no second chances to make a mea-culpa first impression. Voters can forgive such a human failing as a careless oversight, but they won’t so easily forget a calculated response. The standard advice: Just say: “I screwed up,” take some short-term lumps, and then move posthaste on to your issue-oriented agenda. But not before.
Speaking of agendas — and the third RoT — that’s what these candidates, including Dingfelder, who accepted his party’s “replacement” selection, need to bridge to immediately whenever the compound subject of missed deadlines, untimely resignations and election-law circumvention arises. And the media and political opponents will assure it arises often.
It’s not that hard. Respond directly and briefly to all zingers about missed deadlines and political entitlement with references to what you’ve already acknowledged and admitted and then underscore that it’s in nobody interest — other than conflict-crazed media and political partisans — to be rehashing instead of moving forward. Don’t wait for a follow-up. Every gotcha query is also a potential rhetorical coup.
“For too long the County Commission has been an exercise in embarrassing dysfunction. For too long it’s been ground zero for us-vs.-them provincialism. For too long Tampa, the business hub of a major metro market, has been more tolerated than appreciated. For too long growth-sprawl advocates have had their way. For too long mess transportation has prevailed. For too long we’ve allowed pandering platitudes and insider influence to trump smart growth and environmental stewardship. It’s about time we focused on enlightened self-interest — not business-as-usual special interests.”
Before long, queries about a missed deadline won’t seem particularly relevant — or inviting.