Cover Story
Power brokers
by David Fisher
Labour has hired the political guns that are helping Barack Obama.
Which New Zealand political party has undeclared links to a foreign-based political strategy firm that has been accused of underhand tactics?
No, it’s not a teaser to describe the National Party’s relationship with Australian political image sculptors Crosby Textor.
Instead, it’s the Labour Party, which has hired the company behind the rise of US presidential aspirant Barack Obama to manage its online presence. The Labour Party website is now overseen by Washington-based strategy and technology experts Blue State Digital.
The discovery of the link points again to similarities between the our main parties.
Blue State Digital has had a powerful effect on the Obama campaign. It runs the engine behind Obamamania, and claims responsibility for the $US200 million the campaign has raised online and barackobama.com’s “social network” of almost a million people.
Its only speed bump was its connection to a viral internet video that attacked Hillary Clinton. The staff member who designed the video did so in his own time and left the company soon after.
In a move that allied it more closely to left-leaning causes, the company has already reached outside the US. It was used unsuccessfully for British Labour-backed Ken Livingstone’s campaign for the London mayoralty earlier this year.
It’s interesting to note the comparison with strategists Crosby Textor, which has worked for right-leaning causes in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Supporters like its “values-based” messages that tap into the fears of voters, allowing parties to have a closer understanding of what the public is thinking. These same messages are described as “dog-whistle” politics by opponents, who say Crosby Textor’s tactics encourage and play on people’s fears.
Here, Crosby Textor is painted as a mysterious and underhand force teaching the National Party how to trick people. This image is far more prominent here than in the other countries the company works in, and National does nothing to discourage that by refusing to speak about it. It has been politicised to the point of being of questionable use to National.
But how would Blue State Digital look if the same line was taken with that company?
Labour Party national secretary Mike Smith immediately says “this is not a Crosby Textor story” when asked about Blue State Digital. The company came to work for Labour through “our friends the [US] Democrats. We do talk to each other.” It provided website tools for Labour, says Smith. He won’t elaborate: “It’s very small beer.”
“But we don’t have anything like the International Democratic Union, which is the Crosby Textor connection, or the Lord Ashcroft connection. Get a real story. It’s really big.”
The International Democratic Union (IDU) is an international club of right-leaning political parties. It is chaired by former Australian prime minister John Howard and lauds George Bush Sr and Margaret Thatcher as “champions of democracy”. Tory funder Lord Ashcroft is the treasurer – the same Ashcroft who visited National leader John Key recently. Key was criticised for being evasive when questioned about the visit.
The IDU says it aims to promote social and political values. It’s basically a club of right-leaning politicians who get together to swap strategies and experiences, and build allegiances across national borders. National Party MPs and members who have attended its get-togethers abroad include Murray McCully, Lindsay Tisch, David Farrar and John Slater. In IDU circles, Crosby Textor would not be a dirty word.
However, is it fair to say Labour doesn’t “have anything” like the IDU? The party belongs to Progressive Governance, a grouping of left-leaning leaders and strategists from around the world. It was set up with the urging of President Bill Clinton in 2000 and meets regularly. Helen Clark attends often, and is a prominent player in this international club. She chairs important meetings of international leaders, is praised in speeches made by Clinton and writes magazine articles for the secretariat think-tank Policy Network.
A network of dozens of leaders and strategists from left-leaning parties has access to a library of think pieces, market research and strategy documents. One that offers lessons from the 2005 UK election campaign says like-minded parties in different countries need to work together. “Greater co-operation, collaboration and networking between progressives are urged here, particularly in light of a resurgent and united international right.”
It’s the sort of environment in which Blue State Digital would be spoken of in glowing terms.
