CLOUT is a regular feature from Beyond November that profiles the pols, pals and pundits who influence the candidates and their campaigns.
Name: Clifford Franklin
Party: Democrat
Job: Chief Executive Officer, Fuse Advertising
Clout: Franklin founded the St. Louis ad agency in 1997, along with his wife and brother, carving out a niche firm that creates and places corporate and political advertising designed to appeal to minority voters, but which is also “fused” to broader audiences as well. Clients have included Entergy, CNN, Hyundai, IBM, Anheuser-Busch, and a number of Democratic candidates.
But Franklin’s biggest client has been President Barack Obama, for whom he developed ads for African-American voters in battleground states that were key to Obama’s victories in 2008 and last Tuesday. CNN reported that Obama for America spent about $2.8 million with the firm during the just-ended campaign.
“We’re extremely proud of the turnout,” Franklin told Beyond November. “In key battleground states it was higher than projected. It’s been a good run for us. We’ve been messaging throughout the year, insuring there would not be an enthusiasm gap.” Franklin was impressed by Obama’s campaign gurus, David Axelrod and Plouffe. “None of these guys had egos – it was truly about getting the president elected and re-elected.”
Franklin’s firm also worked on the successful U.S. Senate campaigns of Claire McCaskill in Missouri and Tim Kaine in Virginia.
Here are some of Franklin’s post-election thoughts:
Biggest thrill:
“Seeing the team recreate the magic of 2008. We didn’t panic after the first debate. That we could play a small role in getting the first African-American president elected and re-elected, is a crowning joy – it’s almost surreal. “
Biggest disappointment:
Media coverage of the election. “It’s almost like they’re hyping a Super Bowl game. It’s not a game. It’s people’s lives. I had to turn off the major cable outlets.”
Biggest surprise: None in the presidential race. “Our internal numbers came out pretty accurate.”
Big picture: What will this election will mean for the United States?
“I think the economy is definitely coming back. Things are changing. Political discourse is so bad in America, I’m hoping he (Obama) can be the unifying figure he wanted to be in 2008. It’s important for him to oversee the resurgence in America.”
Smaller picture – What will this election will mean for Missouri?
That Democrats did very well in statewide races – except for Obama – means racial divisions still matter in the state. “Absolutely, race plays a factor,” said Franklin. He hopes his high profile national work for Obama might translate into more local business. “We’ve been doing national campaigns since 2004, but rarely in the state of Missouri. It’s always been a struggle for us to do business in our own hometown. It baffles me.”
What the election means for 2014:
“What I hope is people see minority voters are engaged in the political process. Most ballot initiatives do not target minority voters. Minority targeting should be baked into the strategy from the beginning, (as in the Obama campaign), not as an afterthought in the last 30 days. It’s my hope that campaign managers will see that and say, ‘Why don’t we try that?’ And I hope corporations see that.”
“I think race did play a role, when you look at the GOP and the demographics.” But Franklin adds that it’s not just demographics, but the substance behind the numbers. Romney scored low among Hispanics because of the anti-immigration stance he and the Republican party adopted, leading voters to think: “These guys are not looking out for our best interests.”
What the election means for 2016:
“It comes down to how the economy does. The GOP has to look at whether to run a moderate or a staunch conservative. Democrats must duplicate the Obama campaign team.”
Message from the electorate to Republicans:
“We’re not stupid.”
Message from the electorate to Democrats:
“Keep fighting. Years ago, Reagan coined the phrase ‘hand-wringing liberals.’ Now, Democrats are fighting back.”
Anything else?
“I believe great communications can transcend race. A great brand can speak to a multitude of people. “
Callow is a Democratic publicist, the president of Public Eye Inc. and campaign guru for St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. Hulshof is a Republican commentator on KFRU-AM in Columbia, Mo.
Over the course of the recently concluded election campaign, Tim Poor profiled 16 pols, pals and pundits who influence the candidates and their campaigns. Now in the aftermath, we are checking back to see what the outcome meant to them and the people they support. Weighing in today: Gwen Reed, a Democrat, and Paul Zemitzsch, a Republican.
Name: Patrick Werner
Name: Michael Kelley
Name: Lee Brotherton
Name: Gwen Reed
Name: Franc Flotron
Missouri In Black And White
Hartmann, Reed and Zemitzsch
Missouri Democratic statewide candidates cruised to victory statewide on Nov. 6, but the party’s standard-bearer, Barack Obama lost the state by nearly 10 percent. Why? Ray Hartmann says the answer is race. Here’s how Democrat Gwen Reed and Republican Paul Zemitzsch responded.
Gwen Reed, Democratic political consultant:
This is an ongoing debate and concern for Missourians. Personally, I strongly agree with Mr. Hartmann. Every statewide Democratic candidate (with the exception of one) won their election.
All of these candidates are members of the same political party with many of the same ideologies as President Obama. You could say they were on the same page. Then how could their constituents vote for Mitt Romney, the opposition?
Perhaps one would have a better understanding if they studied the history of race relations in Missouri. Starting with the fact that Missouri was a slave state, research the Dred Scott case, revisit the Jim Crow era, understand that separate but equal was not equal and then re-read the account of the Fairground Park riot. Or, try to find a report on the riot that took place at Beaumont High School in the 60’s (I lived it; I was a junior at the time).
Now it is time to put ALL of this behind us and move FORWARD. BARACK OBAMA IS our President and one thing we can do to help him is to start having serious, meaningful discussions about race relations in this country. The white population is fast losing the majority race status and African-Americans are fast losing the majority minority status.
Paul Zemitzsch, Republican political consultant:
Missouri is not the same state as I grew up in decades ago. Missouri then was a conservative Democrat state helmed by Warren Hearnes and others that kept it a blue state before there was such a color designation. Since then, outstate Missouri has changed the hue to red on a presidential level. But, statewide the results have varied ever since the Bill Webster debacle in 1992 cast Republicans into the wilderness for awhile.
As I’ve said before, Missouri and St. Louis don’t like major change. People sort of like things as they are and don’t topple top leadership haphazardly. We just aren’t a Wisconsin-type of model.
It would be naïve to think race doesn’t play some part in election results, but it is not simply a black and white issue. It’s young-older, women-men, Latino and other minority and the list gets long. Obama did well among urban, higher-educated, younger, professional and female white voters. Romney did terribly among black and Latino voters, but that was both a self-inflicted wound by the candidate and the complete dysfunction of the Republican Party addressing the critical issues of those groups.
McCaskill’s election in particular was not a referendum on race. When Republican voters were silly enough to nominate a jihadist Christian candidate, they got what they deserved. I’m sure blacks in Missouri overwhelmingly voted against Todd Akin, but then so did virtually every other group that doesn’t believe The Scarlet Letter is a modern guide for living.
As America increasingly becomes a mixed race country in the decades to come, this argument of classic racial division will go the way of the Whigs.