On September 24, the Moscow News press center hosted a press conference dedicated to the publication of Joseph Napolitan's book "Electoral Game". The book, published by the Niccolo M Group of companies (one of the leading structures in the political consulting market in Russia), presents the work of one of the most famous political strategists in the world, who worked in the election campaigns of John F. Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Valerie Giscard d'Estaing, Francois Mitterrand and many other political figures around the world-from Costa Rica toCosta Rica and Venezuela (where he conducted five campaigns) to Sudan, Philippines, Mauritius, etc. Naturally, a large number of clients in the United States are governors and senators from the Democratic Party ("This does not mean that there are no good Republicans, just in a two - party country you have to make a choice," said Napolitan). According to Igor Mintusov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Niccolo M Group of companies, Napolitan can be compared to Freud in psychoanalysis, since he was the first to call himself a political consultant, that is, in fact, founded and justified this profession.

To begin with, Joseph Napolitan admitted to the audience that the best period in his life was a ten-year job as a reporter - in the United States and while traveling in Europe. The money, however, was low ("I hope you're better at it!"), and at one point he opened a public relations office. "Two weeks later, a gentleman appeared who said that he wanted to be elected mayor of the city. And we won! Four years later, I was campaigning against this man. And we beat him! It made me think that the political consultant really has a role to play!"

Speaking about the subtleties of his business at the present stage, Napolitan ranked himself as an "endangered species", since he is engaged in general campaign consulting, while the era of specialization has long since arrived: special people are engaged in creating clips for TV and radio, someone writes political biographies, someone studies opponents, is engaged in mailing lists and telephone campaigns some specialists in the United States work with ethnic groups - African Americans, Hispanics, etc.

Your best campaign (albeit a lost one!) Napolitan considers working with presidential candidate Huber Humphrey in 1968. Then Nixon won, but thanks to a political strategist in record time - in 7 weeks - it was possible to reduce Humphrey's lag from the initial 7 points to 0.7. "It seemed-just a little more time, a few days-and we will win!"

Speaking about Russian political consulting, Joseph Napolitan noted that he had to communicate with excellent specialists, including, of course, those present - the president of the Council of founders of Niccolo M Ekaterina Yegorova, the president of the European Association of Political Consultants Andrey Bulychev and Igor Mintusov. To this day, Napolitan is still impressed by the latter's account of the elections in Mongolia. "Your democracy is young, but you can already teach many people, and soon your specialists will be working all over the world." Moreover, according to the unanimous opinion, technologies are the same everywhere - both "dirty" ones are found, and administrative resources are used everywhere. The main thing is not the tool, but its use. "I do not know how to get rid of dirty technologies, except to punish those who violate it within the law."

In his book, which we will write more about in the pages of EL-NG, Joseph Napolitan describes in detail the campaigns he conducted. It was published 30 years ago - in 1971 in New York, but it has not lost its relevance and modernity. Moreover, it is possible and necessary to study according to the most revealing examples. For example, in the office of Niccolo M there is an engraving of the sample as early as 1750, dedicated to elections in the English county of Yorkshire. Everything is familiar: the Tory party is bribing voters! Here you can not say: about the times, about morals.

Permanent link to this publication: