Campaign Staff Research Articles

Feasibility and acceptability of collecting dried blood spots (DBS) from children after vaccination during supplementary immunization activities to estimate measles and rubella seroprevalence

Nested serosurveys within routine service delivery platforms such as planned supplemental immunization activities (SIAs) provide an opportunity to collect information that can be used to answer valuable questions on the effectiveness and efficiency of the delivery model to inform future activities. However, integrating research data collection in SIAs is rarely done due to concerns it will negatively impact the program. We conducted a serosurvey nested within the November 2020 measles-rubella SIA integrated with the Child Health Week activities in Zambia to evaluate this approach. In-depth interviews with the study teams and vaccination campaign staff at the vaccination sites were conducted. Recorded interviews were transcribed, transcripts were coded and then grouped into themes based on a process evaluation framework. A multi-methods analytical approach was used to assess the feasibility and acceptability of collecting dried blood spots from children during the SIA. This included a quantitative assessment of participant enrollment. The serosurvey successfully enrolled 90% of children from Child Health Week due to close coordination and teamwork between the vaccination teams and serosurvey team, in addition to substantial social mobilization efforts. Continually adjusting the sampling interval that was used to select eligible children allowed us to enroll throughout the SIA and capture a representative sample of children in attendance although it was challenging for the staff involved. As vaccination programs aim to tailor their approaches to reach the hardest-to-reach children, embedding research questions in SIAs will allow evaluation of the successes and challenges and compare alternative approaches. Lessons learned from this experience collecting data during an SIA can be applicable to future research activities embedded in SIAs or other delivery platforms.

Damage Control: How Campaign Teams Interpret and Respond to Online Incivility

ABSTRACTSocial media are critical to election campaigns, but they also expose candidates to incivility and abuse. While there is a growing literature on online incivility faced by politicians, little is known about how campaign teams interpret and respond to it. To address that gap, we analyze in-depth interviews with 31 candidates and campaign staff from the 2019 federal election in Canada. We find that campaign teams interpret incivility according to the intensity of messages’ content, but also their frequency, source, and target. They use these criteria to assess potential harms in three areas: security and psychological wellbeing, strategic campaign activities, and inclusive democratic discourse. Based on these assessments, campaign teams use a limited set of platform affordances to ignore, monitor, engage, or block uncivil voices. Our analysis shows that interpretations of incivility are more nuanced and multi-dimensional than most scholarship recognizes. We also reveal the often-hidden labor that campaign teams devote to content moderation, as they try to balance protecting themselves, defending their campaign messaging, and creating space for civil discussion. By paying closer attention to campaign teams’ mediation and moderation of online incivility, scholars can better understand its consequences for democratic political participation in elections.

Power struggles: Police and crime commissioners, chief constables, and the battle over operational policing

Abstract This paper reviews the challenges that directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) face in reforming controversial police tactics that are favoured by chief constables, but generate significant concerns among the electorate. Focusing on reforms to police-initiated stops, namely ‘stop and account’ and ‘stop and search’, the results suggest PCCs tend to achieve incremental changes, at best, as they struggle to overcome resistance from their chief constables and the legal constraints of ‘operational independence’. The results have significant implications because it suggests PCCs are not as powerful as has been assumed. However, PCCs can enhance the prospects of reform and better navigate resistance by exercising their rarely used soft powers, such as commissioning national regulatory bodies to review areas of concern or appealing to their local Police and Crime Panel for support in scrutiny. The results of this study are based on interviews with PCCs and chief constables, their deputies and assistants, local campaign groups and staff from national regulatory bodies, as well as participant observations across several police forces.

Cost-effectiveness of LiveLighter® - a mass media public education campaign for obesity prevention.

BackgroundThe Western Australian LiveLighter® program has implemented a series of mass media advertising campaigns that aim to encourage adults to achieve and maintain a healthy weight through healthy behaviours. This study aimed to assess the cost-effectiveness of the LiveLighter® campaign in preventing obesity-related ill health in the Western Australian population from the health sector perspective.MethodsCampaign effectiveness (delivered over 12 months) was estimated from a meta-analysis of two cohort studies that surveyed a representative sample of the Western Australian population aged 25–49 years on discretionary food consumption one month pre- and one month post-campaign. Campaign costs were derived from campaign invoices and interviews with campaign staff. Long-term health (measured in health-adjusted life years (HALYs)) and healthcare cost-savings resulting from reduced obesity-related diseases were modelled over the lifetime of the population using a validated multi-state lifetable Markov model (ACE-Obesity Policy model). All cost and health outcomes were discounted at 7% and presented in 2017 values. Uncertainty analyses were undertaken using Monte-Carlo simulations.ResultsThe 12-month intervention was estimated to cost approximately A$2.46 million (M) (95% uncertainty interval (UI): 2.26M; 2.67M). The meta-analysis indicated post-campaign weekly reduction in sugary drinks consumption of 0.78 serves (95% UI: 0.57; 1.0) and sweet food of 0.28 serves (95% UI: 0.07; 0.48), which was modelled to result in average weight reduction of 0.58 kilograms (95%UI: 0.31; 0.92), 204 HALYs gained (95%UI: 103; 334), and healthcare cost-savings of A$3.17M (95%UI: A$1.66M; A$5.03M). The mean incremental cost-effectiveness ratio showed that LiveLighter® was dominant (cost-saving and health promoting; 95%UI: dominant; A$7 703 per HALY gained). The intervention remained cost-effective in all sensitivity analyses conducted.ConclusionThe LiveLighter® campaign is likely to represent very good value-for-money as an obesity prevention intervention in Western Australia and should be included as part of an evidence-based obesity prevention strategy.

Impact of a Community-Controlled Adult Literacy Campaign on Crime and Justice Outcomes in Remote Australian Aboriginal Communities

Using qualitative self-reported and observational evidence combined with a quantitative breakdown of linked administrative justice system data, this before-and-after study demonstrates the beneficial impacts of a First Nations community-controlled adult literacy campaign in six rural and remote communities in New South Wales, Australia. The most significant quantitative finding is a 50% reduction in reported serious offences in a sample of 162 campaign participants. Qualitative data from interviews found an increased use of legal assistance services following the campaign.. These findings are contextualised through the lived experiences and perceptions of First Nations campaign staff and participants, community leaders and government and non-government agency personnel.

Vertical and horizontal communication on the Facebook pages of 2014 Brazilian presidential candidates

Social networking sites can be defined as online services that allow users to create public or private profiles and, among other things, create connections, share opinions, news, and affections. In 2014, many electors in Brazil were engaged in the presidential campaign on these virtual spaces as never before. In this context, the research question guiding this study is: What are the communication strategies employed by electors and the three main presidential candidates in the online interaction processes during the 2014 Brazilian elections? To address this question, empirical research was employed using a qualitative approach to analyze comments posted in the candidates’ Facebook fan pages during that electoral process. Based on the research and theory in this field, two types of communication in the virtual space were investigated: (a) vertical communication through interaction between Internet users and campaign staff; and (b) horizontal communication among electors in the comments section. We conclude that, although the comments section of the candidates’ pages on Facebook is frequently used as a space both for mutual support and incivility against opponents, it is still used creatively for discussion on the candidates’ government plans, the situation of the country, attempts of engagement in the electoral process and exposure to ideologically crosscutting viewpoints.

Use of surveys to evaluate an integrated oral cholera vaccine campaign in response to a cholera outbreak in Hoima district, Uganda

ObjectivesTo evaluate the quality and coverage of the campaign to distribute oral cholera vaccine (OCV) during a cholera outbreak in Hoima, Uganda to guide future campaigns of cholera vaccine.DesignSurvey of...

Abstract PO-255: A colorectal cancer screening intervention to help increase screening rate within the Harris Health safety-net health care system

Abstract Background: Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is often preventable through regular screening. CRC screening is an evidence-based intervention for early detection and prevention of CRC. However, screening rates are low among medically underserved, minority populations. In collaboration with a local safety-net healthcare system and community clinics, we are implementing a comprehensive, multi-modal CRC prevention program. Our CRC screening program includes community outreach, culturally and linguistically targeted educational point-of-care patient education videos, patient navigation services, and provider and staff training. In 2018, a new component was introduced that includes a CRC survivor led provider-targeted assessment intervention leveraging the American Cancer Society National Colorectal Roundtable’s “80% in Every Community” campaign. Methods: As part of the 80% in Every Community campaign, providers and clinical staff are trained by the CRC survivor staff member to employ strategies from the Roundtable’s toolkit to heighten clinic-level commitment to improving screening rates. Specific strategies include providing tips for evidence-based messaging to reach the unscreened, and training providers to consistently give a strong CRC screening recommendation. A baseline survey was administered ahead of the initial training to assess current clinical practices. Results: Survey data indicated 84.3% (N= 297, 14 clinics) of respondents identified patients not completing and returning FIT as a screening barrier (61.7%-Sometimes and 22.7%-Usually). When asked if they had mechanism to ensure patients given a FIT kit have completed and returned them -75.7 % said Yes and 24.3%-No. In the follow-up question, asking if they had a mechanism to ensure FIT were completed and returned, responses showed: 13.9 % said no mechanism, 43.0% reminder call, 8.1% mail reminder, and 28.6% said a chart reminder to return kit at next visit. 73 respondents wrote in various other mechanisms. Discussion: Respondents believed a systematic mechanism already existed to remind patients to complete their FIT and return it to their clinic. Our next steps are to present these findings to health system leadership and investigate the possibility to strengthen screening patient reminders in various forms of communication to increase FIT completion rate. Citation Format: Allison Rosen, Roshanda Chenier, Jane Montealegre, Maria Jibaja-Weiss. A colorectal cancer screening intervention to help increase screening rate within the Harris Health safety-net health care system [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Conference: Thirteenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2020 Oct 2-4. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2020;29(12 Suppl):Abstract nr PO-255.

"Stopping the itch": mass drug administration for scabies outbreak control covered for over nine million people in Ethiopia.

In 2018, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health embarked on a Mass Drug Administration (MDA) campaign that involved over 9 million people in Ethiopia - the largest scabies MDA campaign ever conducted on a global level. We describe its implementation and report on a) numbers screened and identified with scabies, b) treatment category and drug type and c) human resources used, duration, and cost of the campaign. The MDA campaign was conducted according to national guidelines and activities including: planning and organization, engagement of local leaders, community mobilisation and advocacy, awareness-raising among health workers, field implementation, and monitoring and evaluation. The campaign was conducted between July and August 2018. The MDA campaign was implemented by about 15,000 people, mostly from the community, over an average of 6 days and reached 9, 057, 427 people. A total of 875,890 (9.7%) scabies cases were detected and 995,471 (11.0%) contacts received treatment. (Contact-to-case ratio = 1.3). Scabies prevalence varied, the highest prevalence was seen in Central Gondar (39.2%), South Gondar (16.7%) and North Gondar (15.0%), these neighbouring zones contributing more than two third of all scabies cases in the region. Of 1,738,304 (93%) who received treatment, 94% received ivermectin, the rest topical permethrin and sulfur. The average coverage capacity of an MDA campaign staff member was 84 people per day. The total cost was 11,696,333 United States Dollars (USD). Cost per 100,000 population = 129,135 USD. This experience of rapid-large scale implementation would be useful to scale up similar interventions and "stop the itch" in other regions of Ethiopia.

Fighting the Good Fight: John Bartlow Martin and Hubert Humphrey's 1968 Presidential Campaign

Hoosier journalist and author John Bartlow Martin played an important role as advance campaign staff and speechwriter in several post-World War II Democratic presidential campaigns, including those of Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, and George McGovern. Historian Ray E. Boomhower, Martin's biographer, focuses here on Martin's role in the campaign of Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey. Martin's private notes and memos offer perspective on the tumultuous Chicago convention of August 1968, President Lyndon Johnson's complicated role in that convention, and the considerable limitations faced by Humphrey and his campaign staff. Boomhower also offers perspective on the life and work of a significant figure in Democratic Party politics for more than three decades.

International Anti-Impunity Missions in Guatemala and Honduras: What Lessons for El Salvador?

In February 2019, Nayib Bukele was elected president of El Salvador. One prominent pledge he had made during the campaign was the formation of an international commission that would assist in the fight against corruption, linked to the United Nations (UN) and/or the Organization of American States (OAS). The inspiration for this commission was the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), which has helped the Guatemalan Attorney General’s office identify 60 criminal networks and prosecute over 100 cases resulting in more than 300 convictions since its creation in 2007. It was celebrated as a success after its investigations led to corruption-related indictments of the then-President Otto Perez Molina and the then-vice president. Bukele did not release many details of the proposal before the election, and had designated his vice-presidential candidate, Felix Ulloa, to oversee the initiative. Campaign staff indicated they were seeking to adapt the CICIG model, and also perhaps draw on the Organization of American States Mission in Support of the Fight Against Corruption in Honduras (MACCIH). Both these institutions were innovative attempts to reduce exclusionary governance by a restricted group of elites, to enhance democratic governance, and to model holding even the well-connected and powerful to account. The purpose of this document is to highlight lessons from these two Central American experiences for those interested in establishing a comparable hybrid institution that combines an international mission with national capacities in combatting corruption and/or impunity.

Soft Power: (Auto)ethnography, Racial Affect, and Dramaturgical Critique

Soft Power: (Auto)ethnography, Racial Affect, and Dramaturgical Critique Dorinne Kondo (bio) Soft Power, Ahmanson Theater, Los Angeles, 05 16– 06 10, 2018; Curran Theater, San Francisco, 06 20– 07 8, 2018. Soft Power, a spectacular, genre-bending "play with a musical," opened on May 16, 2018, at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles, as the culmination of Center Theatre Group's fiftieth anniversary season. A co-production with LA's East West Players, the longest continuously running theater of color in the United States, and San Francisco's Curran Theater, Soft Powermoved to the Curran on June 20, 2018, for a three-week run and will move to New York in the fall of 2019. The creative team includes David Henry Hwang, the premier Asian American dramatist (book and lyrics), Jeanine Tesori, the composer of celebrated musicals including Fun Homeand Caroline, or Change, the director Leigh Silverman (long-time collaborator with Hwang), and the choreographer Sam Pinkleton. Over-the-top staging, dazzling acting, singing, and dancing from a majority Asian American cast, sumptuous music by the twenty-two-piece orchestra, and witty metatheatricality that nonetheless goes straight to the heart are on full display in Soft Power. Soft Powertakes as a point of departure Joseph Nye's concept of geopolitical power that exceeds military force or economic dominance. Soft power is the cultural and ideological influence circulated through cultural products such as film, television, sports, music, and theater, constituting a crucial register of global hegemony. Nye offers a highly gendered and sexualized definition: "the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. It arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals, and policies. … Seduction is always more effective than coercion, and many values like democracy, human rights, and individual opportunities are deeply seductive." 1The play/musical Soft Poweruses the registers of song, dance, and the transnational, interracial romance between the candidate Hillary Clinton and the Chinese film executive Xue Xing to perform the "seductiveness" of soft power. Hwang's play/musical asks, what would happen if mainstream [End Page 265]America's worst nightmare were realized, and China became the preeminent global superpower after the decline of the US nation-state in the wake of the 2016 election? We see the US from "another point of view," as Xue convinces US politicians to lay down their guns and to join the community of nations, a vision he calls the New Silk Road. The majority Asian American cast vividly challenges the whiteness of mainstream theater. We are still in a moment when Asian Americans onstage or backstage are too few. 2Of all minoritarian theater actors, Asian Americans experienced the sharpest decline in representation from the previous season on New York City stages, accounting for only 4 percent of the 35 percent of roles played by African American, Latinx, Middle Eastern / North African (MENA), American Indian, and disabled performers. 3Conrad Ricamora (Oliver, the gay Asian American hacker from How to Get Away with Murder, Lun Tha in the 2015 revival of The King and I, and Ninoy Aquino in David Byrne's musical Here Lies Love) is Xue; Alyse Alan Louis (the only white cast member) plays Hillary; Francis Jue, veteran of many of Hwang's productions, performs the eponymous role of DHH, stand-in for the playwright. An ensemble of young, talented Asian American singers/dancers/actors embody multiple roles: donning blond wigs, they become senators, campaign staff, sketchy con artists on Hollywood Boulevard, thus turning the tables on yellowface performance. This was one of Soft Power's greatest pleasures. When has theater, especially mainstream musical theater, seen whiteness so sharply satirized? I have written of what I call racial affect, which enlivens some and leaches life energy from others. 4Too often, minoritarian subjects who attend performances of "high culture" are subjected to what I call "affective violence," when our roundedness and complexity are flattened through stereotype, marginalization, erasure. In stark contrast, for me and my companions, Soft Powerwas among the rare, life-giving theatrical experiences that theater lovers crave. Inspiring a sense of liveliness and uplift assumes a particular political urgency in...

Improving uptake of seasonal influenza vaccination by healthcare workers: Implementation differences between higher and lower uptake NHS trusts in England.

Uptake of influenza vaccination by healthcare workers (HCWs) may be related to how influenza campaigns are implemented. This study explores differences in annual influenza campaign implementation between NHS trusts (healthcare organisations) with higher and lower vaccine uptake. A cross-sectional survey with influenza campaign staff in 2016/2017 in 87 NHS trusts in England. The survey measured vaccination policy and uptake target, staff involvement, accessibility, use of peer vaccinators, communication strategies, strategies to address HCW concerns, use of incentives, and management support. The analysis considered implementation differences between higher (n Z 50) and lower (n Z 37) uptake trusts. Higher uptake trusts were more likely to set higher uptake targets, involve a broader range of staff groups in the campaign, and make the vaccine easy to access by core or hard-toreach HCWs. Higher uptake trusts were also more likely to use a greater range of communication strategies, provide real-time feedback on uptake, provide a greater range of incentives to be vaccinated, and have vaccine uptake considered important by managers. Successful influenza vaccination programmes are multifaceted and involve implementation factors at a strategic, organisational, logistical, and personnel level. Lower uptake trusts could improve uptake by identifying and implementing examples of best practice from higher uptake trusts.

Respecting the Smears: Anti-Obama Folklore Anticipates Fake News

Abstract From allegations that he wouldn’t sing the national anthem to accusations that he ordered the spread of the Ebola virus, Barack Obama was plagued by fake news throughout his candidacies and two terms as president of the United States. Neither journalists covering his presidency nor his own campaign staff persistently or publicly debunked these claims. This tolerance for the circulation of spurious accusations may have contributed to the proliferation of fake news in 2016 and 2017.

Power Campaign Staff Meetings With Wine and Cheese

The Major Gifts ReportVolume 20, Issue 7 p. 6-6 Thinking Outside the Office Power Campaign Staff Meetings With Wine and Cheese Daniel Lindley, Daniel LindleySearch for more papers by this author Daniel Lindley, Daniel LindleySearch for more papers by this author First published: 07 June 2018 https://doi.org/10.1002/mgr.30997Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume20, Issue7July 2018Pages 6-6 RelatedInformation

Proudly for Brooke: Race-Conscious Campaigning in 1960s Massachusetts

AbstractScholars have credited the victory of Edward Brooke, America's first popularly elected black U.S. senator, to a “deracialized” or “color-blind” election strategy in which both the candidate and the electorate ignored racial matters. This article revises this prevailing historical explanation of Brooke's election. Drawing from the historical-ideational paradigm of Desmond King and Rogers Smith, this paper argues that Brooke was much more of a “race-conscious” candidate than is generally remembered. Primary documents from the 1966 campaign reveal that Brooke spoke openly against racial inequality, argued in favor of racially targeted policies, and called for stronger racial equality legislation. In addition, this paper argues that Brooke's appeals were not targeted primarily to the state's small black population but to liberal whites. Far from ignoring race, internal campaign documents and interviews with campaign staff reveal that Brooke's campaign strategists sought to appeal to white desires to “do the right thing” by electing an African American candidate. Internal polling documents from the Brooke campaign and newspaper commentaries further demonstrate that a proportion of the white electorate cited Brooke's race as the reasonforsupporting his candidacy. This paper suggests that Brooke's election was extremely well timed—coming soon after the passage of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act but before the urban riots of the “long hot summer of 1967”, the King assassination riots, and anti-busing riots in Boston. The first half of Brooke's 1966 campaign slogan “Proudly for Brooke: A Creative Republican” signals the race-conscious dynamics of his candidacy.

Political Constraints and the Limited Effect of Electoral System Change on Personal Vote-Seeking in Hungary

This article aims at capturing how the recent changes in Hungary’s mixed-member electoral system altered the candidates’ personal vote-seeking strategies. Based on the literature, one might expect that strengthening the role of the Single-Member District (SMD) tier increases the incentives for personalisation. By utilizing the data from two consecutive waves of the Comparative Candidate Survey, we show that contrary to these expectations the average level of campaign personalisation decreased from 2010 to 2014. Semi-structured interviews with nine campaign staff members confirm that the political constraints were more important in determining campaign strategies than the institutional setting. Our findings challenge the dominating effect of electoral rules on personal vote-seeking.

The Struggle to Govern in the Trump White House: Competing Power Centers, Personalities, and World Visions The First 7 Months

Abstract Modern presidencies are characterized by the coherent White House staff that seamlessly move from the campaign into the White House to implement the new president’s agenda. Campaign staff built the policy agenda during the months-long if not years-long campaign, revised it to meet political demands at every juncture, and entered their White House offices with a clear view of how to achieve the campaign’s goals. In contrast, few members of the Trump White House staff moved from the campaign into the White House which soon became plagued by multiple power centers and limited agreement on the president’s broad agenda. In general, the Trump staff were unknown to each other and held quite different world visions, varying from extreme nationalists to globalists. This research examines the multiple power centers, the power voids, and the tools of power exercised in the White House. By the end of the first 7 months, the decision process had moved from groupthink to multiple advocacy to the coalition presidency.

Pardon Me, Mr. Carter

During the 1976 presidential campaign, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter could not avoid the “unfinished business of the [Vietnam] war,” specifically the fate of the United States' war resisters, the million or so draft evaders and military deserters. To heal the domestic wounds of the Vietnam War, Carter promised to enact a “blanket pardon” for draft evaders during the first week of his presidency and thereafter to offer conditional, case-by-case pardons for military deserters. This article analyzes the domestic legacy of the Vietnam War in the 1976 election, most notably how, after considering media coverage, alternative news sources, and polling data, Carter and his campaign staff addressed the controversial campaign issue in an effort to “get the Vietnam war over with.” Although magazines and television broadcasts provided important campaign information in 1976, newspapers remained a prominent news source. Thus, this article explores the negotiation over the meaning of the war resister issue among the Carter campaign, the press, and the public, and the structure of feeling that emerged in the analysis of archival documents at the Carter Library and in a census of a sample of news articles, feature stories, house editorials, columns, and letters to the editor in the top six circulating U.S. dailies.

Rethinking Operation Dixie

Rethinking Operation Dixie