POL318 Assignment 4
Lisa Murkowski's Message
Description of Murkowski's message:
Lisa Murkowski's message:
Lisa Murkowski's message strategy summarized in one sentence is that voters should vote for her because she is a Republican and the Republican team is what is best for Alaska. Murkowski emphasizes that “‘The Republican agenda is synonymous with the Alaska agenda.’”(Tsong 2004) This summarization fits in with the overall message narrative of initially arguing policy position differences with her opponent and at the end of the campaign focusing on how Republicans are best for Alaska.
Evidence of Murkowski message narrative is found on her website’s breakdown of issue positions and also in media reports about the message. The media reported that “Murkowski’s strategy has been to home in on the balance of power in the Senate, and in keeping with that theme, the Alaska ‘team’” that includes herself. Murkowski wanted to show “what a Republican congressional team from the 49th state can do.” (Tsong 2004)
Dissemination of the message:
-Media reports show that Murkowski presented her message through spokesman and direct quotes in stories. (Mauer and Tsong 2004)
Evaluation of the message
Strategic Evaluation:
Lisa Murkowski’s message strategy seems to be highly strategically successful. Her argument about voting for the Republican team is successful because “ Alaska is heavily Republican” and Alaskans voted for George Bush “59%-28%” in 2000. (National Journal) Polls show that by Murkowski emphasizing how a Republican team is good for Alaska and that Democratic control of the Senate would cause Senator Stevens to lose his committee chairmanships, Murkowski “leads by a significant margin” against Tony Knowles. (Mauer 2004)
Normative Evaluation:
Lisa Murkowski’s campaign is successful when judged normatively. There has been no major sustained media attention paid to any ethical or campaign law violations of either campaign. From the perspective of the voter, no violations of law and campaigning according to the rules and tradition of campaigns are inherently good.
This assessment of Murkowski’s campaign falls in line with the “Rule Utilitarianism” normative ethical theory. Under these guidelines “An act is right if and only if it is required by a rule that is itself a member of a set of rules, the acceptance of which would lead to greater good for society than any available alternative.”(Ursey 2002) Murkowski’s campaign actions are therefore ethically good because they are in line with the rules established for campaigns. Following these rules are better for society than the alternative of breaking the rules because of the integrity of the process would be questioned by breaking these rules.