US-Style Electioneering Catches on South of the Border Associated Press
go to original March 12, 2012

In this Monday, March 5, 2012 file photo, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, and Josefina Vazquez Mota, presidential candidate for the National Action Party, PAN, shake hands as they pose for pictures in Mexico City. Biden is on a one-day official visit to Mexico. As Vazquez Mota heads toward the July 1 general elections, Mexico City consultant Alejandro Gonzalez, whose creative campaign is credited with helping Mexico’s first female presidential candidate, said they’re mirroring President Barack Obama’s 2008 social media strategy, and offering a warm, carefully managed image that is constantly scrutinized. ( Alexandre Meneghini / Associated Press )

CANCUN, Mexico — On a recent February morning, as sleet darkened Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., three prominent Obama strategists gathered near the sparkling, turquoise waves of the Caribbean and opened their playbooks to hundreds of Mexican candidates and campaigners, each of whom had paid $900 for an insider peek at their most successful tactics.

“People tell me, ‘We’d like you to do an Obama for us,’” said veteran Democratic media consultant Jim Margolis.

Mexicans are running this year for everything from mayor to president and are turning to American-style electioneering in hopes of generating the kind of excitement that shot an underdog into the White House four years ago. And with $1 billion estimated to be spent on Mexico’s elections, U.S. political consultants see a lucrative opportunity.

“Doing an Obama” can be tricky in a democracy that has banned negative campaigning and fundraising, and where only one in three voters has Internet access, but the fundamentals remain the same: Candidates must win the trust of voters, and they will need technology to woo them.

“In order to effectively push through the clutter, you have to have a message that is real and true, authentic and credible,” Margolis told the crowd. “And voters must be targeted and reached on their terms.”

In Mexico’s last presidential election six years ago, Twitter was preparing to launch, Facebook was open mostly to a few thousand Ivy League students and the iPhone was just a rumor.

This year, presidential candidates are developing phone applications, writing Wikipedia pages and launching YouTube channels.

But with low Internet penetration in Mexico, compared with about 80 percent in the U.S., traditional tactics also endure. Sweaty supporters wield bullhorns hollering slogans, bright plastic campaign flags line the streets, and rallies feature the essential political ingredients: spicy chicken tacos, steaming pork tamales and sugared cakes.

“We’ve learned from the U.S. in a big way, but we’ve still got to do things our way,” said Alejandro Gonzalez, a Mexico City consultant whose creative campaign is credited with helping Mexico’s first female presidential candidate, Josefina Vazquez Mota, win her primary in February. Now, as Vazquez Mota heads toward the July 1 general election, Gonzalez said they’re mirroring President Barack Obama’s 2008 social media strategy, offering a warm, carefully managed image that is constantly scrutinized: Too soft? Too tough? Too sharp?

Like Obama’s video announcements emailed directly to supporters, Vazquez Mota also has exclusive YouTube videos viewable only by registering at her website. On her Facebook page, a digital application automatically makes clicking on her face a “like.” Visitors also can download “I’m going with JVM” files to print onto T-shirts or buttons. She has spent much of her campaign pledging to make Mexico safer.

Her opponent, front-runner Enrique Pena Nieto, who is promising to build the economy and bring new jobs to Mexico, blogs about murder rates and his love of country and responds directly to Twitter messages.

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