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Book Review : Mean Business
by Joe Garecht, Local Victory

Mean Business : The Insider's Guide
to Winning Any Political Election

by Matt Towery and Pierre Howard
Longstreet Press, 2000
Hardcover, 199 pages

Mean Business is a unique book written by two former rivals for the same political office.  The authors, one a Republican and one a Democrat, once ran against each other for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia.  After getting out of politics, they decided to write this book together to talk about what really happens in modern political campaigns.

Mean Business is not a step-by-step "how-to" book that will give a political novice all of the information they need to run for office.  Rather, this book gives an overview of the process that is valuable for novices and veterans alike.  The main theme of the book is to show you how to run better campaigns by running your campaign as you would a business.

Towery and Howard start off by laying down the "basic rules" for the campaign, including the campaign set-up and financing.  They proceed through the campaign plan, message, image and communications.  The book provides a good overview of the various job descriptions that must be filled to make sure the campaign is successful.  The book ends with a look at some "tricks of the trade."

I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the "insider" view of politics.  Towery and Howard lace their book with stories and anecdotes from their days in politics, which provide good illustrations of proper political campaigning.  Campaign novices and veterans alike would benefit from the book's look at the ways in which running a campaign truly is like running a business.   Click here to purchase this book at a discount from Amazon.com.