Америкалық саяси консалтингтің негізін қалаушылар: Клем Уитакер мен Леоне Бакстер

American political consulting organization
Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter were a husband and wife team that started Campaigns, Inc., the first political consulting firm in the United States. Based in California, the firm worked on a variety of political issues, mostly for Republican Party candidates. They both supported conservative ideals. During the 1934 California gubernatorial election, they engineered a smear campaign against socialist Upton Sinclair in an effort to prevent him from unseating incumbent Republican Frank Merriam. Sinclair ultimately lost. The couple developed strategies and tactics such as media advertisement buys and direct mail campaigns that are still widely used in today's campaigns. Their public relations work not only revolutionized politics in the modern era, but also deeply impacted political issues that remain relevant today.

Clem Whitaker was born in Tempe, Arizona, on May 1, 1899, the son of a Baptist minister. He was raised in Willits, California, where he submitted his first news story, for the Willits News, at age 13. He began working for the Sacramento Union at age 18. Following a brief stint in the Army during World War I, Whitaker became city editor for the Union before moving to the Sacramento Examiner at age 21. Over the next 25 years, the firm handled over 75 campaigns and initiatives, spanning topics such as taxation and finance, pensions, and legislative reapportionment, as well as teacher's salaries and railroad crew issues. These four formed the core staff, along with several other staff members. In 1959, when Clem, Sr.'s health began to plague him in 1959, and Whitaker and Baxter sold the firm to Clem, Jr., James Dorais, and Newton Stearns. The two original founders then formed Whitaker and Baxter International, after which Whitaker died in 1961 and from which Baxter retired in the early 1980s. Clem, Jr. wrote in a letter on October 31, 1991, "Years ago when I assumed management of Whitaker and Baxter we phased out of the campaign management business. Our last candidate campaign was the election of Senator Robert Griffin over Governor Mennen "Soapy" Williams in Michigan in 1966. We ceased ballot issue campaigns in 1973." This agenda is especially significant because of the subsequent, direct offensive strategy employed by Campaigns, Inc. was unheard of at the time. In their first major election, Whitaker and Baxter were able to lead Merriam to a victory over Sinclair, 48% to 37%, with a third party candidate taking 13%. Arthur Schlesinger called this the first all out public relations Blitzkrieg in American Politics, while Sidney Blumenthal considered it a landmark in the development of the political consultant. They spent $1.1 million in advertising on behalf of the AMA. As part of their messaging, they began calling the president's healthcare plan "socialized medicine," was experiencing changes and developments throughout the 1920s. These changes came from the overall development of commercial mass marketing in the beginning of the century.</blockquote>

Whitaker and Baxter, and their work on the 1934 election involving Upton Sinclair, is the basis for the play "Campaigns, Inc." by Will Allan, which premiered at TimeLine Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois on August 11, 2022. The play is a 1930s screwball comedy revolving around the Campaigns, Inc. team and the smear tactics they developed to take down Sinclair's campaign. The play was both a critical and financial success. It closed on September 25, 2022.