The Race Is On: Press Readies Coverage of 'Hot' Mid-Term Elections

By: Joe Strupp For anyone who thinks mid-term elections are boring, take a look at the way this year's campaigns are shaping up. "This is potentially the most consequential mid-term election since 1994, and we are approaching it with that in mind," said Richard Stevenson, deputy Washington bureau chief for The New York Times.

But of course, newspapers also have a special weapon to help tackle the expanded campaign coverage: the Web. Every paper contacted by E&P noted increased Web usage, topping even what some of them had in the 2004 presidential race.

Meanwhile, some news organizations are already looking to 2008. "We've got reporters in Iowa and New Hampshire who are keeping tabs and have been writing those stories for a while now," said Donna Cassata, Associated Press politics editor in Washington.

Yet 2006 ought to be hot enough.

With President Bush's approval ratings at record lows, domestic issues from gas prices to immigration bubbling, and overseas headaches from Iraq to Lebanon in the mix, there is no shortage of news angles to take on, veteran political editors and reporters say.

Add in the first real chance for a power shift in Congress since 1994 and the campaigns have already garnered more importance than in similar past elections. At the very least, the story has a broader, national flavor than in most mid-term campaigns.

"It is more of a national story now because you've had Connecticut," said Tim Jones, a Chicago Tribune political reporter, citing the recent primary defeat by veteran Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, who most agree lost because of his support for the Iraq War. "It is a remarkable occurrence that speaks volumes."

Kathy Kiely, a veteran USA Today political writer, agreed. "The difference this year is the political climate," she said, noting Bush's unpopularity. "Two years ago and four years ago, you had a climate that was more favorable to the president. Is it a referendum on George Bush? I don't think that is always the case in the mid-term. A lot of times it revolves around local issues."

But such a mix of issues and angles also means new challenges for those covering the races, locally and nationally. Where reporters would often focus on a handful of significant races and some clear issues -- such as the post-9/11 world in 2002 and the Clinton impeachment fallout in 1998 -- this year's mid-terms are chock full of a broader range of stories.

Such a mix, from local to national issues, makes sizing up the House, Senate, and gubernatorial contests more difficult than usual. Major news organizations that spoke with E&P said they are deploying about the same number of staffers for coverage, but with a broader scope and, in most cases, more Web uses. "There is a lot at stake here, a lot of drama and uncertainty involved," said the Times' Stevenson.

So what does that mean for political coverage nearly three months before Election Day? In many cases, it is an attempt to find the overriding story, while keeping tabs on all of the underlying stories in each district and state.

For Stevenson's paper, that means stories that span the political landscape, from a piece on the Democratic Party criticizing Bush's domestic security program via its Web site to a feature looking at the sons of Democratic Party elder statesmen, including Jimmy Carter, running for office this year.

"The interplay between the big questions of the day, Iraq and national security, and the lesser issues out there create a mix in which voters and journalists consider this to be a very important year," Stevenson said. "I don't think it is a matter of how many people [are assigned], it is how much we consider the campaign in general to be important."

Don Frederick, national political editor for the Los Angeles Times, also noted the shift toward more national issues involving the local races. "More than ever, we write less about an individual race, per se, than a trend," he said. "When we focus on an individual race, it is to make a larger point."

He cited the links between local races and national issues that include Iraq and the Jack Abramoff scandal. As of Aug. 9, Frederick had published three stories on Heather Wilson, a New Mexico congresswoman who faces a tough re-election because of her ties to Abramoff.

At USA Today, the juggling of so many national issues, and a potential power shift, has meant a story one day about the impact of the immigration debate on the campaigns to another on how some anti-war congress members in military towns are faring. Then there was the story about how five female governors facing re-election are likely to do better than their male counterparts.

"You don't want to miss anything, but you don't want to overstate," said USA Today reporter Jill Lawrence, who wrote a piece last month about labor union power in the campaigns. "There are a lot of trend indicators."

The timing of coverage also continues to move up every two years, Frederick adds, requiring stories to begin almost a year before the election. "At this point four years ago, we were still on the cusp of it," he said about such coverage. "We've paid attention to it sooner and written more stories anchored in certain states than in 2002. That was a less-contentious election, less polarization."

At the Chicago Tribune, Washington Bureau Chief Michael Tackett says it's still not clear if this is a national election. That requires his staffers to keep the mix of local stories and national trends going. "Your coverage has to adapt to the political climate you're in," he said. "A lot of people are drawing conclusions on very little data. If gas prices average about $3 a gallon nationally after Labor Day, that may nationalize it."

Still, Tackett says stories with nationwide themes on the war and immigration are being written. "For our readers, there may be a limited interest in a race in Colorado," he says about his Illinois-based audience. "So you do it in a way that puts a lens on the country. What does this campaign tell us about the country?"

Another example is an Aug. 6 Tribune piece by Jeff Zeleny that looked at three incumbent Republicans in Indiana who face tough re-elections. The story had both local implications, with a neighboring state involved, and national effects, drawing a direct link to Bush's diminishing popularity.

"I personally don't like to write too many 'postcards' from somewhere," says John Harris, national politics editor for The Washington Post, describing the localized campaign stories that have little national impact. "We like to have local stories that have national resonance."

The Post has had more of those national stories this year, he says, such as the recent piece on northeast GOP candidates distancing themselves from Bush, or the story about how both parties are vying to make the national security issue their own. "This year, there are a lot of dynamics that make it difficult for Republicans," Harris added.

Another area to focus on is the looming issue of the 2008 presidential election, which some editors say is already affecting coverage of this year's campaigns. Said Cassata of the AP: "That is another layer of coverage that we didn't have as early" in the 2002 mid-terms.

Cassata also agreed that this year's coverage has a broader view with more issues. "The war, national security, and Medicare is a new issue," she said. "There are several issues that are far more prominent than they were in the past."

But of course, newspapers are already exploiting their new best election year friend, the Web. "We are integrating Web and multimedia coverage more aggressively," said the New York Times' Stevenson. "We are looking at ways to use video and audio more imaginatively."

With this year's campaigns coming just a year after the Times combined its Web and print newsrooms, the paper has already topped past online offerings with its politics blog, titled "Empire Zone," and plans to hire its first-ever Web political editor.

An online map, similar to those that tracked the 2004 presidential race, is up and running with polling data and snapshots of each House, Senate and gubernatorial race. "It is still a work in progress," Stevenson said. "But it is one way in which we can provide new, interesting and trendy information to readers."

The Post offers a similar map, along with its "Bellweather Project," which keeps tabs on what editors there consider the top mid-term election issues, from Bush's popularity to immigration to the war. "It helps readers to look at it analytically," Harris said.

The Los Angeles Times has such a map in the works, Frederick said, predicting it would be up by Labor Day. The paper also has an online link to smartvoter.org, a non-partisan site with detailed election information.

The Tribune's popular D.C. newsroom blog, "The Swamp," has ramped up for the campaign season, Tackett said. He noted that it was updated 10 times the night of the Lieberman primary loss. USA Today's Horwich said his paper has increased both coverage on the Web and about the Web. "The rise of the blogosphere is something we were not focused on four years ago," he said.