ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the activities aimed at maximizing votes through rational allocations of time, money, and personnel—the private world of campaign management. Candidates relied on their wits, their friends, and a few trusted allies to mount a campaign for office. Few men specialized in selling political advice. As a fledgling industry campaign management is a direct descendent of the public relations profession that matured in this country after the 1920s. The public relations man’s chief task in that era was to devise propaganda programs for American businessmen. The initial successes of Campaigns, Inc. quickly spawned imitative management firms. California became the capital of campaign management. Following World War II, however, many of the conditions that had disrupted California politics in the 1930s spread nationwide. By the 1960s campaign management had become a nationwide service industry that reached all electoral levels.
