Donald Trump provoked the ire of REM frontman Michael Stipe this week after he played an REM hit on the campaign trail. In this push-pull between politicians and musicians, let’s revisit the music.
Tony Abbott opens the campaign office for Liberal candidate Ken Wyatt in 2010. Now he and all incumbent MPs enjoy a $300,000 advantage over their challengers at the next election.
AAP/Dean Lewins
‘Better Communities’ funding is supposedly non-partisan: every electorate gets $300,000 for local projects. But only incumbent MPs have a say in this spending and 60% of them are government members.
This Conservative Party leaflet kills three birds with one stone and is a classic example of Lynton Crosby’s campaign strategy.
UK Conservative Party/Buzzfeed
The British Conservative government’s re-election is the latest and perhaps most startling electoral triumph for Australian political strategist Lynton Crosby. So how did he do it?
Hordes of Jack Kennedy fans would greet the candidate during his 1960 campaign for President.
Wikimedia Commons
There are two types of election campaign; one consists of leader debates, speeches by politicians, press releases and photo opportunities organised by the national parties, together with media interviews…
While all election campaigns are different – and this one is more different than most – there’s usually an incident or two that gives the political obsessive a pleasant reminder of bygone days. So far…
The ‘Socialist Car of State’.
Photo made available courtesy of the BFI.
Labour’s latest election broadcast is a direct-to-audience address by the actor Martin Freeman, who you might know from The Hobbit, Sherlock and The Office. It’s a curious affair – as Freeman stands alone…
Eunice Goes, Richmond American International University
After more than six months of unofficial campaigning, the three biggest parties have left the starting blocks in the race to Number 10. The first exchanges showed that David Cameron and Ed Miliband were…
Chee Soon Juan, pictured campaigning for Singapore’s 2011 general elections, hopes to build on that success in the next election, which is widely expected to be held early, possibly even this year.
Wikimedia Commons/Dexterleezh
The Lee dynasty and their People’s Action Party have ruled Singapore since 1959, but their grip on power has weakened. Opposition leader Chee Soon Juan talks about about his long fight for change.
A report from the Electoral Reform Commission proposes some public-pleasing changes. But we should be careful what we wish for.
With just eight MPs to back her campaign for government, Queensland ALP leader Annastacia Palaszczuk relied heavily on local community organising and decision-making.
AAP/Dan Peled
The “new politics” of 21st-century Australia is much clearer after the extraordinary result in the Queensland election on January 31. Australia’s new politics consists of three elements that they will…
News that the Conservative Party has been spending more than £100,000 a month on Facebook advertising has its supporters and rivals all wondering if this is money well spent. It seems like a lot of money…
This is my doorbell finger.
EPA/Facundo Arrizabalaga
Eunice Goes, Richmond American International University
Ed Miliband’s promise to hold four million doorstep chats with voters during this year’s electoral campaign was met with derision by some commentators. The Guardian mockingly calculated that the Labour…
Voters going to the polls in Illinois’s 12th congressional district in this year’s US midterm elections have a choice to make. Do they want a Congressman who is reserved, calm, the model of a modern politician…
A campaign pro before his time: Benjamin Disraeli.
Wikimedia Commons
We have become used to politicians talking about their emotions and their domestic lives. Indeed, it sometimes seems you can’t get anywhere in politics until you’ve been photographed with your arm wrapped…
Tony Abbott’s smiling now, but if his hold on the leadership weakens some say the Coalition should go back to Malcolm Turnbull.
AAP/Gary Schafer
Spin is widely seen as the scourge of contemporary politics. We rail at politicians who seem more intent on appearing to act, rather than coming up with and pushing through important policy decisions…