Trump vs. Cruz: Republican rivalry is a contest of two contrary campaign styles
WASHINGTON – The two increasingly bitter rivals atop the Republican presidential field are testing contrary campaign styles — with one top candidate noisily dominating the airwaves, the other quietly working a ground game.
Donald Trump versus Sen. Ted Cruz.
With the Iowa vote two weeks away, the poll-leading candidates who sparred in Thursday’s debate are apparently polar opposites when it comes to organization.
Trump dominates by decibel level. He’s generated 30 times more network news coverage than Cruz, by some estimates; eight times more Twitter followers; and an unparalleled ability to pound his way into the daily conversation with an endless barrage of flaming controversy-bomblets.
But from the quieter corners of Iowa the New York Times this week reported on a Trump team that’s supposedly amateurish — confused canvassers, empty offices and a crew not only short on organizational know-how but also lacking a desire to knock on doors when it’s cold.
The paper described a striking contrast between the team assembled by the first-time candidate and those of more seasoned campaigners — especially Cruz.
The contrast is equally apparent in social media. Look beyond the number of tweets and followers — Trump has 5.68 million followers on Twitter, whereas Cruz has just 710,000 — and you’ll notice the Texas senator making sophisticated use of state-of-the-art campaign technology.
“Donald Trump is a master media manipulator,” said Mindy Finn, who has organized digital campaigns for George W. Bush, Mitt Romney and Twitter.
“(But Cruz) has been more methodical. And more focused on the organizing aspect… Ted Cruz has taken the opposite approach.”
The proof is as close as the nearest smartphone.
Search iPhone’s app store for Trump and what pops up first are gags and games produced by third parties: Superimpose Trump’s hair over yours! Play Trump soundbites!
But search Cruz’s name and you’ll find a serious campaign tool — an application that uses various coaxing techniques to press you into service for the campaign.
It has games enticing people to share their home and email address, friends’ contact information, their level of familiarity with politics, whether they’re born-again Christians, how they feel about the Tea Party and libertarianism, and so on.
Participants gather points for every contribution: 15 points for watching an ad, more for sharing it in social media, 125 points for filling a survey, 1,000 for canvassing voters. They climb the ranks from “intern” to “organizer” to “patriot,” and finally, when they’ve amassed 250,000 points, to “revolutionary.”
Cruz took a dig at his rival’s reliance on a much simpler means of spreading the message. Trump will frequently do the rounds of the Sunday talk shows without even leaving New York’s Trump Tower, where he has a studio set up in the lobby.
“How do you run a grassroots campaign? It’s very time-intensive. It’s labour-intensive,” Cruz told supporters while visiting an Iowa church.
“You don’t do it from a TV studio in Manhattan.”
The Times got in on the Trump-teasing with an unflattering portrait of a sad-sack organizing team under the headline, Donald Trump’s Iowa Ground Game Seems to be Missing a Coach.
Trump has, however, hired staff and visited Iowa multiple times, and has been investing heavily in advertising there.
The website Political Ad Sleuth, which tracks filings with the Federal Elections Commission, has found more ad buys in Iowa for Trump than Cruz in recent days. He’s promised to spend $2 million per week.
Finn says Trump certainly carries assets into the primaries. But there’s a nagging question mark.
“(The) knock against Donald Trump — what many people say — is … that he’s not running the type of campaign that’s focused on outreach. He’s never done that before,” Finn said.
“And so will he be able to mobilize new voters to the polls? A large portion of his coalition are low-information voters, and less-reliable voters, or first-time voters. There’s a big question mark.”
Both men kept their names in the news this week — by attacking each other’s origins.
Trump ribbed Cruz over his Canadian-born roots. The senator responded with a jab at Trump’s so-called “New York values” — namely, materialism and social liberalism.
This prompted a New York tabloid Friday to run a front-page graphic of Lady Liberty, her middle finger extended in the best Big Apple tradition beside a headline aimed at the Texas conservative: Drop Dead, Ted… You don’t like N.Y.? Go back to Canada!
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