If You Go
What: Managing Political Campaigns: A Review of What Goes Into a Winning Campaign
When: 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Feb. 23
Information: Dave Hickey, UTC alumnus, staffer to former Tennessee Gov. Ned Ray McWherter, former U.S. Rep. Marilyn Lloyd; and longtime political consultant and lobbyist
Admission: To attend and RSVP for furnished lunch, email psps@utc.edu
An experienced campaign manager and trainer of campaign managers, Dave Hickey will discuss the skills and decision making necessary for a successful campaign at any level and for any political party.
He will review the decision to work for a candidate, planning a campaign, budgeting and campaign finance (and staying legal in your decisions), reading and understanding polls, messaging and the media, using scheduling to advance your message, the myths and realities of opposition research, finding and interpreting data on voters, targeting and contacting voters and then getting them to vote.
Hickey will conclude the workshop with a discussion of the realities of a career in managing politics. Whether you have no campaign management experience or have directed your own, this workshop will provide new skills and expertise in the campaign process.
Since receiving a bachelor’s degree in political science from UTC in 1983, Hickey has worked on more than 100 political campaigns at every level of government in 37 states. Originally from Massachusetts, Hickey’s political roots are in Tennessee where he worked on local, congressional and gubernatorial campaigns.
Between 1984 and 1994, Hickey was on the district staff of U.S. Rep. Marilyn Lloyd in Chattanooga and on the legislative staff for Tennessee Gov. Ned Ray McWherter. Hickey then worked for several years as a consultant on political campaigns and as lobbyist on state and local issues in Nashville.
From 2001 until 2018, Hickey was the national political coordinator for the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), representing more than 500,000 working men and women. In that capacity, he interacted with hundreds of individuals from both political parties seeking public office all over the country at all levels of government, from candidates for school board to those running for president of the United States.
Hickey also conducted dozens of campaign-related trainings with LIUNA union members throughout the U.S. and, more recently, with the campaign staff of the Sinn Féin political party in Ireland. Hickey retired from LIUNA in May 2018. Both he and his wife are U.S. Air Force veterans and have been married for more than 41 years. They live in Smyrna, Tennessee.
