The Use of Political Surrogates

Teaching Elephants to Talk Tip
By Matt Lewis
Feb. 11, 2005

Smart candidates understand the importance of using a surrogate (a stand-in or substitute) to help spread their message.

Typically, there are two circumstances where candidates use surrogates:

• A candidate wants to attack his opponent – but doesn’t want to come across as, “negative.” Bill Clinton was a master of this. How many times did he use James Carville or Paul Begala to attack Ken Star during the Monica scandal?

• A candidate wants to brag about himself – without being “braggadocios.” Matthew Dowd, a senior strategist for President Bush’s reelection campaign, recently said that John Kerry made a mistake by playing up his Vietnam service: “If you try to make yourself into a hero, the public discounts it. If somebody else talks about the story it has a much bigger impact” (Texas Monthly).