Your campaign agony aunts Luke Akehurst, Paul Richards and Ruth Smeeth are ready and waiting to hear your queries!
All are experienced campaigners and will be able to get back to you with their thoughts. To ask your query just email here. Paul and Ruth respond to some of the first questions…
Q: What’s your view on negative campaigning? Voters always feed back that they don’t like it so what’s the right balance to strike? Does it just give publicity to your opponents?
Paul Richards: It depends how you define negative campaigning. You should always play the ball and not the man – attack your opponents’ policy failures, their failure to live in the area, or failure to hold local surgeries. You can attack their votes in parliament or council chamber. But attacks because of their personal life tend to rebound, and should be avoided.
Q: If somebody says they would vote Labour if they go to the polling station, but that they might not be bothered to, what’s the best way of recording this on ContactCreator to ensure follow-up?
Luke Akehurst: Well they are Labour, so that’s “L” to the first question. But on question two, clearly there’s a less than 5 out of 5 chance of them voting. I’d put them down in ContactCreator as L2. But in practice you shouldn’t assume any Labour voter will turn out however enthusiastic they sound – I’d treat our entire promise as weak Labour and put effort into GOTVing all of them.
Q: Somebody who is probably a member of the Liberal Democrats has put a letter round the ward. In it he asks residents to vote for the Lib Dems locally, but he has not indicated any ‘printed and promoted’, and it was delivered a few days before April 6. What should we do in response?
LA: It depends exactly when the letter was delivered. The “regulated period” for the council elections started on 29 March. Material before that didn’t legally need an imprint (though all the main parties would still put one on their leaflets). After 30 March it is an offence under election law to publish material without an imprint and without the authorisation of the relevant party Agent. I’d write to the Lib Dem agent to let them know material has gone out without their permission, and write to the person who put the letter round (if they are identifiable) warning they have broken the law. I’d only go to the police if after the results it looks like this extra material affected the outcome of the election in that ward – you’d need plenty of evidence – witnesses prepared to swear exactly when the letters were delivered for instance.
Q: Should I bother canvassing people who are recorded as being ‘against’ Labour or supporting other parties?
Ruth Smeeth: Whilst I wouldn`t advocate going back to Against households every year it is definitely worth revisiting at least every election cycle. People`s views do change and especially at this election, people may be deciding to vote tactically. Every day we are getting people switching from the Tories and Lib Dems. So yes, especially in the run up to the General Election it is definitely worth going back to those people who have been marked Against.
Q: We want to do a regular email newsletter to residents but we’re not sure people will be willing to give their emails over to us. What is the best way of asking?
RS: The easiest way to get people’s email addresses is to ask for them either directly on the doorstep or on your direct mail. We have a supporters’ network in Burton as well as specific campaign groups focusing on issues from bus passes to standing up for beer!