It’s a fact of life: politics can get dirty. Issue, policy and personal attacks are not uncommon. What strategies work in responding to negative attacks from your opponent?

In a Voter Gravity white paper titled Mailbox Metrics: The Data-Driven Impact of Campaign Direct Mail, Dr. George Hawley, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Alabama, analyzed and compiled research on the direct mail and its effects on campaigns. In his research he came across some fascinating information connecting direct mail strategy and negative campaigning:

Pfau et al. found that a well-timed and orchestrated direct mail campaign can decrease the persuasiveness of an attack campaign on a candidate.Specifically, they found that direct mail can “inoculate” a potential voter against potentially-damaging attacks. If a candidate knows that his or her opponent is going to raise specific issues and make specific attacks, it may be in the candidate’s best interest to address these issues first via direct mail, and present the information in the most favorable light possible. Inoculation techniques furthermore seem to be effective whether they are targeted at people who already agree with a position or argument, those who are neutral, or those who oppose a position or argument.

Direct mail is often used in many different ways throughout a campaign, but has not been proven to make a difference in regards to GOTV. Using direct mail to deflect an attack campaign attacks is actually one of the effective ways to use mail.

For more findings on the effectiveness of political direct mail, read Dr. Hawley’s report here:Mailbox Metrics: The Data-Driven Impact of Campaign Direct Mail.