SMC professor serves as campaign manager
By SARAH RYKOWSKI
News Writer
Saint Mary's political science chair Patrick Pierce is making good on a 20-year-old promise this election year as he runs James Caldwell's politicalcampaign for St. Joseph County Comm-issioner.
"Jim and I used to sit around Friday nights and talk about when he would run for office and I would run his campaign," Pierce said. "The timing is irrelevant. You just do it."
Pierce has previous experience working on campaigns. He has served as both an advisor and a campaign staff member. He first became involved in the election process when he helped David Niezgodski win for County Commissioner in 1988.
"He was in his 20s. It was the first campaign for him too. He now sits on the County Council," said Pierce of his campaign with Niezgodski.
Since 1982, Pierce has served as a consultant to every Democrat running in St. Joseph County. His duties as a consultant primarily involve analyzing the results of surveys and providing advice on campaign strategy.
As Caldwell's campaign manager, Pierce realized he would be taking a more active role, but it was a role that he was ready and willing to assume.
"We lived across the street from one another downtown. We've been close friends for about 20 years. I feel a tremendous sense of obligation to Jim," Pierce said. "He's someone who is a very close friend and godfather to one of my daughters. He is someone who has given of himself to St. Joseph County for a long, long time."
Caldwell is also no stranger to the political life. According to Pierce, Caldwell has been the administrative assistant to the last two mayors. Pierce believes that Caldwell's experience will aid him in winning the position as County Commissioner.
"We need to have more folks like him who value public life and have a really deep and abiding concern for their fellow citizens," Pierce said. "We need to see more of those folks running for office and winning."
Managing a political campaign, local or national, is no easy task. Pierce discovered that there were many differences between advising a campaign and actually running one.
"The thing I'm learning about managing a campaign is that the details become exceedingly important," Pierce said. "In the past I didn't have to worry about the details. You could talk about campaign strategy without the burden of implementing that strategy. The general outlines of strategy I knew before — now I have to learn something new. Now I have that burden."
However, Pierce went on to explain that the campaign team consists of more than just Caldwell and himself.
"The benefit is that task is made easier for me because a number of local politicians and party activists are also involved and tremendously helpful," Pierce said. "They're very bright folks. It constitutes one of the real pleasures of managing a campaign."
As an academic, Pierce appreciates his coworkers not only for their zeal for the campaign but also for their ability to show him the gritty side of politics.
"It's awfully easy to isolate oneself at a university or college and not appreciate the knowledge and intelligence of people who have to engage in politics or business in that outside world," Pierce said. "It just keeps me focused on the things that really matter in politics and what real citizens are really like."
Pierce plans to take what he has learned from running Caldwell's campaign back to the classroom so his students can benefit from his experience.
"I think all of the political experiences I've had including this campaign furnish wonderful examples for students," Pierce said. "I always use stories and examples and illustrations in class. They make the student understanding of larger theoretical points easier."
Although managing a campaign and chairing the political science department will keep him very busy, Pierce is confident he can do both effectively.
"It's fairly early in the campaign. The early activities are mainly fundraising, setting out a general strategy and trying to discover who might run against you," Pierce said.
"This year we had to wait until the boundaries were set after redistricting. Campaigns are also a little bit like social organizations. You need to have meetings to bring people back into contact with the campaign. The campaign activity will substitute for the research activity I normally engage in. Most of the campaign activities will be in the evening."
Besides managing Caldwell's campaign, Pierce is writing a book on the politics of legalized gambling that should be completed this summer. Subjects the book deals with include the adoption of state lotteries and the legislation of casino gambling.
St. Joseph's County Commissioner serves a four-year term. Primaries will be held May 7 and the general election is set for Nov. 5.
All News Stories for Wednesday, February 6, 2002
