Look for Innovation in a Campaign Manager
By Heather Holliday

	Candidate Howard Dean (center) reviews his policies with campaign manager Joe Trippi (left), consultant Steve McMahon (second from right), and deputy campaign manager Andi Pringle (right). The team worked while on a chartered flight dubbed "the Grassroots Express" enroute to campaign events in Santo Antonio, Texas. (Photo: Jason Reed/REUTERS)

Howard Dean's campaign manager took his message to the Internet. Dean caught on like wildfire and ended up on the covers of Time and Newsweek. It was a bold and daring move, and it made Dean the frontrunner in a large field of eligible Democratic candidates—at least for a while. That's the kind of campaign manager you should be looking for if you want to run for President too.

To be successful, your campaign manager will need to raise money, create a budget, hire staff, handle the press, schedule appearances, and decide on issues. You can't do it all. You're the public face of the campaign. It's the campaign manager who takes care of the behind-the-scenes work necessary to run a smooth and successful campaign.

Your campaign manager will need a vast set of skills.

"You want to run a campaign like a business," said Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager. But this savvy business person also needs to understand politics.

You want a campaign manager who leaves nothing to chance. Every last detail has to be planned out from schedules to staff management to budgets.

“Everybody has a budget that is very specific, down to everything people spend money on,” Mehlman said of Bush's campaign. Finding a campaign manager who can track every detail of your campaign is imperative.

Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, boosted the former Governor of a small New England state into the national spotlight with his innovative work on the Internet.

"Did the Net find Howard Dean or did Howard Dean find the Net?" Trippi asks. "It was a little of both."

As the campaign continued, however, Dean's popularity dropped. Trippi was replaced and a few weeks later Dean withdrew from the campaign. Senator John Kerry also changed managers in mid-stream. He's now the Democratic nominee. So maybe the real rule of thumb is to be flexible.