Among politicians, it’s called earned media. As opposed to purchased media, like radio and TV ads, media attention is earned when you do or say something that attracts attention and, you hope, puts you in a positive light.
One way to earn media is the long tradition of political stunts. When Russ Feingold painted his campaign promises on his garage door to kick off his first run for the U.S. Senate, that was a stunt that worked. And the fact that the door was attached to a modest ranch house helped underscore the point that he was a regular guy. That was needed because that particular regular guy had been a Rhodes Scholar.
In the 1970s, the Pail and Shovel Party on the UW-Madison campus built an entire student government on the finely tuned political stunt. Pink flamingos on Bascom Hill and the Statue of Liberty mostly submerged in Lake Mendota have become iconic campus images. But they also worked to help make a broader point about the ludicrousness of student government at the time, which seemed like it had absolutely no relevance to students. It was on-target mockery at a high level.
On the other hand, when former Rep. Brett Hulsey (D-Madison) showed up at a Republican state convention wearing a Confederate uniform to make a point about racist policies, it met with groans even from those who agreed with him about the underlying point. There is a fine line between stunts that work and stunts that backfire.
So, Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Kelda Roys was taking a big chance when she released an online campaign ad in which she breastfeeds her infant daughter. But, for me at least, it works.
For one thing, Roys feeds her baby while talking about her work to ban a harmful chemical in items like feeding bottles and sippy cups. The whole ad is about how her experiences as a mother impact her approach to politics and her priorities. It speaks directly to how she intends to conduct herself as governor.
And it’s a heck of a nice contrast to the super-macho approach of President Donald Trump and to some extent Gov. Scott (Go Big and Bold!) Walker.
The main thing I like about it is that the candidate is offering voters something completely different: a mother with a newborn and a young family. While I’m a pretty harsh critic of identity politics, Roys’ ad makes a compelling case that she has strong reasons to care about the future of her state and would probably emphasize issues that might get short shrift from a guy like Walker — and, implicitly, a lot of her opponents in the Democratic primary.
This isn’t the first time Roys has taken a big chance. She gave up her safe seat in the Assembly to challenge Rep. Mark Pocan for the Congressional seat left open when Tammy Baldwin ran for the Senate. Everyone assumed that the seat belonged to Pocan, but Roys’ view was that these seats don’t open up very often and she wasn’t just going to cede it to the odds-on-favorite. I joined the overwhelming majority of Democrats in supporting and voting for Pocan, but I had to admire Roys’ audaciousness.
Look, Roys doesn’t fit my theory of the 2018 gubernatorial election. In my view, the best Democratic candidate would be really boring. If they could nominate “Generic Blue,” that would be best — because the Democratic base is going to turn out to vote against Scott Walker for who he is and what he’s done, but also as a referendum on Trump. The last thing the Democrats need is a candidate who draws attention to herself and gives conservative voters reason to show up just to vote against her.
But breastfeeding your child while talking about how you worked across the aisle to pass legislation protecting kids from toxic substances is not the definition of red meat for the conservative base. Roys’ ad hits a sweet spot between being nurturing and being strong.
If Roys, who’s sitting at less than 1 percent in the latest poll, keeps up the tone of that ad during the next five months, she may just have a chance against better-known and better-funded but more conventional opponents.
