Pre-election forum
Nationally-known political journalist Sasha Issenberg to speak Oct. 20
Nationally-known political journalist Sasha Issenberg will be featured at a pre-election event at Monmouth College. And the timing couldn’t be better.
The author of the critically acclaimed book The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns, Issenberg will speak at 7 p.m. Oct. 20 in the Whiteman-McMillan Highlander Room of the College’s Stockdale Center. The talk is free and open to the public.
Issenberg’s talk will be held the day after the final scheduled presidential debate – Oct. 19 at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
“Sasha is one of the most outstanding experts on campaign analytics,” said Monmouth political science lecturer Robin Johnson. “He’ll be coming straight from the final presidential debate, and he’ll be able to offer fresh insights as to where the campaign stands as it enters the home stretch. It looks like the debates are going to be critical in winning over the undecided voters.”
Johnson called Issenberg’s The Victory Lab “the Moneyball for politics.”
“I have the book, which I had assigned to my ‘Campaign Methods’ class,” said Johnson, who met Issenberg a few years ago at a conference in Iowa, where he was speaking about The Victory Lab. “It focuses on analytics on campaigns, measuring what works. Very few campaigns actually go back and look at what works – the television advertising, mail, all aspects of reaching voters.”
Johnson invited Issenberg to speak to one of his recent Monmouth classes via Skype, where Issenberg told the students he “stumbled into” what he called the “geek subculture of micro-targeting techniques” while covering politics in Philadelphia in 2004.
Although campaigns wouldn’t let reporters witness behind-the-scenes activities such as prepping for a debate, they allowed Issenberg to tag along with canvassers who knocked on doors or with campaign workers who staffed phone banks.
“I really developed a curiosity to understand how ground-level, street-level politics work,” Issenberg said.
When writing The Victory Lab, Issenberg said he tried to “let readers understand what the state-of-the-art would be for the 2012 campaign, without focusing on the specific candidates.”
Issenberg is a contributor to Bloomberg Politics and is the Washington correspondent for Monocle, where he covers politics, business, diplomacy and culture. He has appeared regularly this campaign season on Bloomberg Television and MSNBC.
Issenberg covered the 2012 election as a columnist for Slate and the 2008 election as a national political reporter in the Washington bureau of The Boston Globe. His work has also appeared in New York, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Washington Monthly, Inc., The Atlantic, Boston, Philadelphia and George, where he served as a contributing editor.
The author of the critically acclaimed book The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns, Issenberg will speak at 7 p.m. Oct. 20 in the Whiteman-McMillan Highlander Room of the College’s Stockdale Center. The talk is free and open to the public.
Issenberg’s talk will be held the day after the final scheduled presidential debate – Oct. 19 at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
“Sasha is one of the most outstanding experts on campaign analytics,” said Monmouth political science lecturer Robin Johnson. “He’ll be coming straight from the final presidential debate, and he’ll be able to offer fresh insights as to where the campaign stands as it enters the home stretch. It looks like the debates are going to be critical in winning over the undecided voters.”
Johnson called Issenberg’s The Victory Lab “the Moneyball for politics.”
“I have the book, which I had assigned to my ‘Campaign Methods’ class,” said Johnson, who met Issenberg a few years ago at a conference in Iowa, where he was speaking about The Victory Lab. “It focuses on analytics on campaigns, measuring what works. Very few campaigns actually go back and look at what works – the television advertising, mail, all aspects of reaching voters.”
Johnson invited Issenberg to speak to one of his recent Monmouth classes via Skype, where Issenberg told the students he “stumbled into” what he called the “geek subculture of micro-targeting techniques” while covering politics in Philadelphia in 2004.
Although campaigns wouldn’t let reporters witness behind-the-scenes activities such as prepping for a debate, they allowed Issenberg to tag along with canvassers who knocked on doors or with campaign workers who staffed phone banks.
“I really developed a curiosity to understand how ground-level, street-level politics work,” Issenberg said.
When writing The Victory Lab, Issenberg said he tried to “let readers understand what the state-of-the-art would be for the 2012 campaign, without focusing on the specific candidates.”
Issenberg is a contributor to Bloomberg Politics and is the Washington correspondent for Monocle, where he covers politics, business, diplomacy and culture. He has appeared regularly this campaign season on Bloomberg Television and MSNBC.
Issenberg covered the 2012 election as a columnist for Slate and the 2008 election as a national political reporter in the Washington bureau of The Boston Globe. His work has also appeared in New York, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Washington Monthly, Inc., The Atlantic, Boston, Philadelphia and George, where he served as a contributing editor.
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