Candidates Hope to Turn On Voters Via Campaign Videos

Technology is playing a crucial role in the early campaign for the White House--and in a way easily missed by the media. It is the political video.

The videos, usually five to 15 minutes long, are extended commercials sent directly to people’s homes. They are also used in fund-raising efforts or for organizing and recruiting potential volunteers.

They illustrate how traditional campaigning, which centered on the candidates stumping the nation, is becoming a smaller part of presidential politics.

Two Democrats--Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin--even staged their announcement speeches not merely for the nightly news, but as centerpieces for videos.

“We’ve got thousands (of videos) out there now,” said Frank Greer, Clinton’s media consultant. “With the short campaign we are in, they are more important this year than ever.” The tapes are also cheap to produce, about $1 each.

The most telling use of videos so far came in Clinton’s victory in a straw poll taken during a gathering of Florida Democrats in December, which helped make him the party’s nominal front-runner, and, in turn, the leader in fund raising.

To win that straw poll, Clinton’s campaign sent a 16-minute video to all 2,000 delegates at the Florida convention. Approximately 1,000 who were undecided or leaning toward Clinton got extra attention: Messengers delivered a video to their homes, along with a letter from the candidate. Clinton garnered 54% of the vote.

Now Clinton is using the video in New Hampshire, which holds its first-in-the-nation primary on Feb. 18, and to campaign in absentia in Washington state, where he hopes to surprise people in the March 3 caucuses.

Before the Florida straw poll, Harkin took the early lead in fund raising, in part on the strength of his video, which he showed at more than 1,100 events.

Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey even shows his video to focus groups to test what prospective voters think of him.

Although videos will not replace candidate appearances, house signs or brochures, political professionals say they are useful for people who already know something about the race, such as those who are leaning toward the candidate, a party activist trying to make up his or her mind or a supporter trying to organize a house party.

“They are especially effective for the politically literate who want to know how a candidate comes across on television,” Kerrey adviser Michael D. McCurry said.

Three Democrats do not have videos yet: Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. and former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas. But Tsongas, unlike other candidates, has aired a TV ad in New Hampshire.

The videos produced so far reflect each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.

Clinton’s video, for instance, contains the most details. It outlines his ideas on reforming health care, requiring national public service in exchange for college loans, imposing a work requirement on welfare recipients and increasing corporate responsibility.

Harkin’s video, in contrast, emphasizes his personal history--growing up in poverty as the son of a coal miner--and his traditional values--his marriage of 23 years, his commitment to his children and his advocacy for the disabled.

As critics charge is true of his campaign in general, Harkin’s video is short on policy details, but he is shooting a new one, aimed at New Hampshire, in which aides say he will focus on the issues.

Critics call Kerrey’s campaign disorganized, and his video, although compelling, was not produced for his presidential race. It is the one he used in his 1988 Senate campaign, with footage from his victory speech added.

The video tells the story of Kerrey’s life, including how he won the Medal of Honor and lost part of his right leg in the Vietnam War. It concludes with one of the most haunting and intensely personal moments anyone is likely to see from a candidate.

While celebrating on the night of his Senate victory, Kerrey sang an Australian anti-war ballad, “And the Band Played ‘Waltzing Matilda.’ ” It’s about a young man, like Kerrey, who goes to war and loses his legs:

They collected the wounded, the legless, the maimed . . . and shipped us all back to Australia. . . . And the band played “Waltzing Matilda” as they carried us down the gangway. And nobody cheered; they just stood and stared and turned all their faces away.