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.3525 By the 1980s virtually all statewide contests and increasing numbers of26 county and even local elections were depending heavily on television to27 convey the messages once transmitted by local intermediaries.In fact, as28 the comparative figures in table 4 demonstrate, the new media techniques29 (extensive, sophisticated public opinion surveys, forcing television and radio30 advertising to be crafted accordingly) have become by far the heaviest31 weapons in today s campaign arsenals.In 1946 the only broadcast media32 available was radio, to which only 8.7 percent of the campaign budget was33 allocated.By 1994 television and radio consumed 56.7 percent of Jim Guy34 Tucker s campaign budget, and if professional and consulting fees (many of35 which relate to what is broadcast and when) are added to this category, the36 percentage rises to 72.5.37 Table 4 also clearly reveals the soaring costs of running a statewide38 competitive campaign.Since the number of voters has also escalated enor-39 mously during this time, in part this is the necessary price of reaching a Table 4.Democratic Gubernatorial Campaign Expenditures, 1946, 1982, 19941946 1982 1994Newspaper advertising $40,000 Television $372,201 Television $1,217,266.69Radio advertising $10,000 Radio $91,615 Other Advertising $249,827.53Printing $12,500 Professional fees (polls $75,507 Professional fees $400,726.63and contract services (polls, research, etc.Salaries $5,000 Other advertising $70,356 Salaries $129,737.21Postage $4,000 Salaries $32,765 Postage $29,495.23Travel expenses $2,500 Headquarters (rent, $30,664 Headquarters (rent, $90,852.96supplies, equipment) (supplies, equipmentTelephone & telegraph $2,500 Direct mail $29,453 Fundraising $76,255.87Auto & loudspeaker rental $2,000 Telephone $24,082 Miscellaneous $82,146.76$2,276,708.88Headquarters rent $1,000 Travel $20,130$79,500 Newspaper $19,530Election day activities $10,200Miscellaneous $6,941$783,444Note: Figures for 1946 are estimated expenses; those for 1982 are reported expenses; 1994 figures are reported expenses compiled fromadding each monthly expenditure with the exception of the February 1994 General Election Report, which was missing.Source: 1946 figures in V.O.Key Jr., Southern Politics (New York: Random House, 1949), p.465; 1982 figures from Bill Clinton CampaignCommittee, Report of Campaign Expenditures, July 8, 1982 filed with the Secretary of State; 1994 figures from Jim Guy Tucker CampaignCommittee, Campaign Expenditure Report Page 2 filed monthly with the Secretary of State during the primary and general elections of1994.Arkansas Politics and Government/ BlairKimE University of Nebraska Press / Page 54 /393837363534333231302928272625242322212019181716151413121110987654321*494.0pt[54],(20)PgEnds: TNormal Pa Lines: 301[54],(20) E Traditional Politics and Its Transformation 551 larger and more attentive public.Nevertheless, many political scientists have2 strongly suggested that the new media politics has gone a long way toward3 depopularizing politics.4 Political campaigns, it is argued, were once giant battles between con-5 tending armies, with victory going to whichever army could place the most6 foot soldiers in the field.The new media politics, in contrast, is a battle7 between advertising agencies, with victory going to the product, or candidate,8 who can select and afford the most skilled professional talent.The old9 politics was labor-intensive; the new politics is capital-intensive.The old10 politics consisted of parades and rallies, of crowds who gathered at the town11 square to the strains of gospel music to be personally touched by lengthy12 appeals from the candidate himself.Thousands of indispensable, dedicated[55], (21)13 grassroots workers assisted by spreading information about local issues and14 opinions upward to their candidate and personally carrying the word about15 their candidate s virtues downward to their precincts and neighborhoods.TheLines: 301 to16 new politics, it is argued, has made these thousands of human intermediaries 17 between candidate and voter superfluous.Scientifically constructed opinion0.0pt PgV18 surveys can reveal much more about the likes and dislikes of voters and 19 the range and intensity of their opinions (plus all the correlations withNormal Page20 demographic variables) than the old political squires ever dreamed of doing.PgEnds: TEX21 Skilled consultants can precisely tailor media appeals around these docu-22 mented strengths and weaknesses.And since Little Rock television stations23 now reach 80 percent of the state s viewers, why spend months touring the[55], (21)24 small towns and countryside when a sixty-second prime-time spot can reach25 infinitely more people?26 Though much of this is undeniably true, any broad distinction between27 the participatory glories of the old politics as compared with the technocratic28 impersonality of the new politics simply does not fit Arkansas reality.First,29 it must be remembered that traditional Arkansas politics involved very few30 Arkansans
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