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The Biggest Change to Campaigns in a Generation – Everything You Need to Know About Independent Expenditures Is Your Campaign Ready to Address This New Aspect of Campaigns? PACs, independent expenditures and outside money in general has changed political campaigns in the US dramatically in recent election cycles. In an effort to help the Getting Elected Community understand these changes and what they can expect in the future I spoke with Jason Barraza an attorney, political consultant and lobbyist in Arizona who has witnessed and been involved the changes brought on by the 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United decision. This decision changed campaign finance law by  allowing unions and corporations to make independent expenditures and "electioneering communications".  You can learn more about Jason on the Veridus website. Getting Elected Announcements: CALLING ALL CANDIDATES - If you are a candidate (past or present) and you would like to contribute to the “Coming Soon” Getting Elected section called “From the Candidate”, contact me today! This “coming soon” section of the website will be dedicated to candidates helping other / future candidates. This section of the website will be content created 100% by candidates, if you would like to help define this new community contact me today at Jason@GettingElected.org . We would love to share your knowledge with the Getting Elected community. In this episode we discuss: Jason’s background, how he went from a biology pre-med student to a politico. Jason discuss his current role at Veridus as an attorney and political relations consultant. Jason and I discuss his hope to help more people through politics than medicine, we discuss if he thinks he made the right decision. The 2010 Supreme Court Citizens United decision is described and explained very eloquently by Jason – if you are not 100% sure what this means for your campaign you have to listen to this section of the interview.  What do independent expenditures look like today, how are they structured and how did they develop? The difference between an independent expenditure and an independent expenditure committee – you want to make sure you understand this if you are considering being involved in either one. How C4s (non-profit status) play a role in independent expenditures and how they are used to hide who has donated to a independent expenditure. How corporations are using IE’s to say thank you to candidates but not necessarily

Creating and Growing a Successful Goggle Plus Community for your Political Campaign with Luke Mulvey Getting Elected Podcast 011 Back in July I posted an article about Google + called Google Plus for Political Campaigns – an untapped opportunity to engage and organize. In this post I explain how I believe campaigns can leverage Google + to build and strengthen their base while organizing efforts more effectively by leveraging the free tools provided on the platform. If you haven’t read the article I recommend you take a look, it complements episode 011 of the Getting Elected podcast. I wanted to provide more back up for my case to campaigns to use G+ so I arranged an interview with Luke Mulvey, creator and moderator of Sensible Politics *  a very active community on Google+. Being active on G+, Luke and I became friends online and he continues to impress me with his social media skills. This episode is a little different than ones in the past because Luke and his community are focused on issues not a specific campaign but the information he provides is very valuable for campaigns who want to leverage G+.  Sensible Politics is a perfect example of how you can use G+ to organize and engage voters and supporters.  I hope you enjoy the interview. In this episode we discuss: The difference between Google Plus and Facebook, connecting on interest not social connections Luke making friends on G+, getting over the creep factor so you can meet new people The inspiration behind Sensible Politics and how Luke structured the community Luke explains the concept behind a G+ community and how he has used it to connect over 5 thousand users in one year How to avoid trolls (Luke explains what a troll is in the interview) to keep conversations constructive and focused The different types of Google Plus communities and how you can use them Luke explains how he keeps the community active and engaged Luke explains a Google+ Hangout and we discuss the live hangout we did together in June with Phoenix City candidate Lawrence Robinson  for the community. ** Check out this link if you want to watch Luke’s first hangout on Sensible Politics with Governor Markel of Delaware Luke gives his advise on how to start using Google Plus today I recommend you check out the Google Plus community Political Campaigns, it's a great community that only discusses non-partisan campaign tactics and war stories. If any of you get inspired by this episode and you decide to use

Using Online Campaign Ads to Target Voters Based on Voting History with Jordan Lieberman Getting Elected Podcast 010 The internet is opening up new possibilities for campaigns and one of the most exciting ones is online voter targeting. Campaigns are now able to target voters online based on their voting record. This is making online advertising much more efficient and cost effective. To learn more about this developing campaign tactic I spoke with Jordan Lieberman, President of Campaign Grid. Jordan Lieberman joined Campaign Grid in 2010. Previously he spent five years as publisher of Campaigns & Elections magazine. Prior to C&E, Lieberman consulted on campaigns and advocacy programs in the United States and abroad, handling the direct mail and telephone advocacy programs for congressional and state house candidates. He managed numerous races throughout New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Lieberman was among the first Americans to travel to Ukraine to assist the successful Presidential campaign of Victor Yushchenko, by training his campaign management team. Lieberman has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MPA from Columbia University. He frequently serves as an analyst for cable news and other media outlets around the country. He had a lead role in the movie “Electile Dysfunction” the BBC documentary "Tea Party America,” and the upcoming film “How to Get Elected in America.” In this episode we discuss: Targeting voters online with Campaign Grid by using cookies (code placed on internet browers) and the voter file to track and follow voters online. Using Retargeting and search targeting to track voters online Jordan explains how the US voter file is used to ID voters online We discuss the types of ads you can use online to talk to voters – display ads, video ads, LinkedIn, Facebook and the Apple network ads to name a few. Jordan explains how pricing works for Campaign Grid. We look at when a product like Campaign Grid would make sense to be used by a campaign. Jordan and his team have worked with campaigns ranging from presidential elections to school board elections and were involved in more than 500 engagement last year. We look at the changing role of advertising for campaigns – where people see ads doesn’t matter as much as frequency. Jordan explains the types of questions you should ask when deciding how to spend your media budget. We discuss the types of questions you should be asking and looking into when