Every two years the American politics industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country - and then declares itself puzzled that America has lost trust in its politicians.
--Charles Krauthammer
Public service is a noble calling. As Benjamin Franklin once said in his Poor Richard’s Almanac, “The noblest question in the world is, what good may I do in it." Most who choose to run for office do so not for personal glory, but rather because they believe that they can help make their community, their state, and their nation a better place.
Although public service is a noble calling, the process of getting there is not always so noble. As we all know, politics can be an ugly, nasty business. Pretty much everyone who runs for public office believes that he or she is ethical, however in the heat of the battle it is easy to have ethical lapses encouraged by such rationalizations as, “If I don’t win, I won’t be able to do all of the good things that I have planned for my community,” or, “That other guy is bad news and if he wins the community will suffer.” In other words, we argue, the ends justify the means.
The problem with this thinking is that how a person campaigns may affect how a person will govern once in office. Public perception of public officials is also impacted because if candidates are deceptive and engage in dirty tricks in order to get elected, why should we believe that their conduct will miraculously change upon taking the oath of office?
Our process for electing public officials is born out of the ethical ideal of creating an informed electorate. Regrettably, irrelevant, misleading, and vitriolic campaign communications leave the voter without any real information about where a candidate stands. Also, when candidates incur secret obligations in exchange for endorsements, voters don’t know to whom the candidate is beholden. In addition, the amount of money being contributed to, or on behalf of, political campaigns has never been greater, leaving voters to believe that their vote no longer matters and only the rich have a voice.
Many citizens are also frustrated by political polarity and resultant lack of legislative productivity. The public perceives that negotiation and compromise are no longer available tools for those who govern due to obligations created during the campaign process. Moreover, unethical political attacks freely dispensed during a campaign can poison later legislative relationships.
Statistics for voter turn-out and public trust in government are at historic lows. According to the United States Election Project, only 54.7 percent of the voting age population turned out to vote for president in 2016—the last presidential election before the writing of this guide.1 According to the Pew Research Center, the United States trails most developed democracies in going to the polls. The U.S. places 26 out of 32 in voting among the members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.2
At the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics we believe that one of the reasons for this civic disengagement is that our political process turns a blind eye toward unethical campaign practices. We believe that encouraging ethical campaigns will have three important benefits:
It will help decrease political polarity by reducing the rancor in political races.
It will help restore public trust in government by ensuring fairness and integrity in campaigns.
It will help increase civic engagement by creating a process that not only encourages an informed and involved electorate but also encourages good people to run for office.
Not only are ethical campaign practices good for our democracy, engaging in such practices can yield positive results for your campaign. Research conducted by the Center for Campaign Leadership at the University of California Berkeley and the Institute for Global Ethics shows that voters want to vote for the candidate that takes the high road--the one who tells the truth, is forthright about where he or she stands on issues, is independent, and doesn’t engage in dirty, attack-style politics.3
This guidebook does not cover the legal rules and regulations covering campaign conduct. It is important that you retain legal counsel to advise your campaign on compliance with the campaign laws in your jurisdiction. Adherence to these laws is necessary to a good campaign, but compliance with laws is not sufficient for an ethically sound campaign. Laws provide the floor, not the ceiling of ethical behavior.
The focus of this guidebook is how an ethical campaign should be run to maintain the integrity of the system and the trust of the people in those who would govern. The book will cover the primary areas in which your campaign will likely have to make ethical choices. It is inevitable in any political campaign that unavoidable ethical dilemmas will arise. Not only will your campaign be faced with clear right and wrong choices, but you will also face areas where you will have to find the least harmful course of action among bad choices. An un-exhaustive list of possible dilemmas is included in the appendices of this guide. The guide will also provide nuts and bolts advice on how to create an ethical campaign organization.
Each chapter will include “side bars” from political experts providing real life examples of ethical challenges they have experienced, practical tips, and a case study to prompt thoughtful reflection on how an ethical candidate would respond to the facts of the case. This book is called a field guide because it is designed to be a ready reference for when you confront the inevitable ethical dilemmas on the campaign trail.