The Campaign - film review

I chose the film, The Campaign to illustrate how public elections work and the many dealings behind the scenes that we as private citizens may or may not be aware of. The film is a comedy and I thoroughly enjoy the film for its comedic appeal, but it does demonstrate modern day practices for campaigning, democracy and public service in action.  

The film’s plot is about a United States congressman who has run and won four terms unopposed, but two corrupt businessmen brothers are interested in buying the election to have a willing candidate at their disposal. So they bring in an otherwise unlikely candidate to run against the current congressman, fund his campaign with hopes that he will allow them to run things however they see fit. This is the start of a wild campaign run for both men who will stop at nothing to win. Throughout the film, there are displays of honor, ethics and accountability or lack thereof, corruption in government, privatization, the reinvention of government, leadership and power.

Honor, ethics and accountability play a significant role in this film as the film is based on corrupt businessmen who want to purchase a congressman by putting him in office to allow them to operate their businesses without regulation or opposition from state or government. In the beginning of the film, incumbent Marty Huggins is the one they have chosen to run for office, but unbeknownst to Marty, they want to put him in office for all the wrong reasons. Unfortunately, I am sure this scenario happens often. Who can forget the recently ousted Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich, whose actions landed him 14 years in federal prison for trying to sell Barack Obama's vacant senate seat in exchange for campaign funds or other quid pro quo favors. Similar scenarios played out in The Campaign as current Congressman Cam Brady campaigns for votes and funds; there is one scene where Goldman-Sachs offers Cam Brady a contribution of $500,000, granted he picks up the phone whenever they call (wink). Needless to say, Cam Brady takes their offer.

The film portrays several miscarriages of honor and ethics, mostly from Cam Brady who refuses to lose his seat in Congress, but also from Marty Huggins who learns to “play in the big leagues” and is coerced by his campaign manager to sabotage Cam Brady by calling the police on him after a night of drinking at Marty's home. Cam Brady is subsequently pulled over and arrested for DUI, causing a stir in the media and a drop in the polls. Both candidates eventually hold themselves accountable for their actions in a show of morality and accountability and admit their wrongdoings to the public on the final day of the election. Marty Huggins utilizes his final campaign commercial to tell the people of North Carolina that he has lied to them and vows that if he is elected, he will be the most honest politician. Cam Brady also has a change of heart, as he actually wins the election due to rigged election machines provided by the Motch brothers, but during his acceptance speech realizes that he is not the man for the job due to his indifference about public service and what his winning really signifies. He goes on to say that he only wanted to win because he enjoyed being “Congressman Cam Brady”. Both men displayed a lack of honor, ethics and accountability during the film, but come back around to realize their faults and make things right. Like Cam Brady and Rod Blagojevich, the power that comes with a political seat went to their heads, and they were using that power to benefit themselves.

With the possession of power, comes a lot of responsibility. Especially in public offices where power influences decisions that will affect many. Shafritz states that “power is the ability or the right to exercise authority of others.” The founder of The People’s Republic of China, Mao Zdeng, said “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” however, it seems that nowadays, political power is stemming from the bank accounts of large corporations willing to make substantial donations to campaigns in order subliminally push forward their own agenda. Corporations or private citizens with deep pockets have the ability to heavily influence public policy. In The Campaign this was the essence of the film. Two corrupt businessmen, the Motch brothers, with the financial means, plan on “purchasing” the next congressman, Marty Huggins, by providing him with $100 million dollars in campaign contributions, the best campaign manager, Tim Whattley, new clothing and furnishings and anything else he may need to win. This entire film is a precise example of the external perspective of power. Even the current congressman, Cam Brady, finds himself accepting large campaign contributions from corporations, and whoever else wants to contribute to his campaign in return for favors after he wins. As I mentioned earlier, Cam Brady and other actual politicians have been at the forefront of investigations due to an abuse of power.

There is a very fine line between abuse of power and corruption in government, but there is a huge correlation. What happened in The Campaign is corruption in government. In the later part of the film, when Marty Huggins is made aware of what the two businessmen brothers are trying to accomplish by putting him in office, he decides not to go along with their plan. He tells them that he is not comfortable with selling a large part of his district to China so they can bring factories to the U.S. This leads the two brothers to seek an alternative plan, which is to reach out to Cam Brady to see if he is willing to take part in their plan, which he is, so they begin to back him with campaign contributions and support. Congressman Cam Brady accepts the offer, solely because he wants to win and remain “Congressman Cam Brady”. At this point, Cam Brady is guilty of corruption and lying, which Shafritz says are the two most common lapses of honor. Cam Brady has knowingly accepted the plan from the corrupt brothers and goes on to lie to the people of the district, all while knowing that eventually there will be a large part of North Carolina that will no longer belong to the U.S. Aside from the immediate effect this will have on the state, Shafritz says that when public officials misuse their power for self-gain, then the rule of law no longer prevails. Corruption in government illegally puts public officials above the law and removes the claim that in democracy, all individuals are equal. Both candidates in The Campaign are guilty of corruption, by leading and unsuspecting public to believe that they are voting for candidates that have their best interest in mind when in actuality that could not be further from the truth. 

Since The Campaign is essentially about choosing a leader, I thought it was only appropriate to discuss the leadership aspects within the movie. Shafritz describes leadership as “the exercise of authority, whether formal or informal, in directing and coordinating the work of others”. Shafritz also says that the best leaders are those who can simultaneously exercise both formal and informal leadership where formal is based on authority in office, and informal is the willingness of the people to follow someone whose qualities of authority they admire. I believe that at one time, Cam Brady possessed both of these, which is why he won the election four times and ran unopposed. Perhaps the people of North Carolina felt he was doing a fine job, but it was towards the end when he began to lose his ethics and was accused of having an affair that the people and the two corrupt businessmen felt that Cam Brady was on his way out. So, they thought to bring in a new leader, Marty Huggins. During their first campaign debate, everyone thought Marty Huggins was dead on arrival, but he demonstrated that he can be a leader by giving appropriate answers and keeping the people of North Carolina in mind. He electrified the crowd and was the clear winner in the first debate instantly making Cam Brady worried about how difficult this election will be to win. People began to follow Marty Huggins for the same reason we rally behind other politicians when they campaign, we feel an informal sense of leadership. As citizens, we listen to debates, we listen to campaign commercials and slogans, and we choose sides, political parties, and agendas to help guide us to that candidate we are going to vote for. Cam Brady and Marty Huggins were displaying informal leadership and referent power throughout their campaign.  People rallied behind them because they saw special qualities within them, and followed them based on their liking and admiration of that candidate allowing them to lead on behalf of their state.

Speaking of choosing a leader, most people choose the candidate which they feel most closely represents their values, beliefs and overall “culture”. Cam Brady and Marty Huggins were two very different candidates and obviously led two different campaigns. Marty Huggins was a religious man who mentioned God often and Cam Brady had not been to church in years. Cam Brady recently had a scandalous affair and Marty Huggins was a happily married man. Nonetheless, even while both men were different in their lives and lived in different cultures, they both fell victims to the political culture. The campaign brought out behavior in both men that they were not used to portraying, simply because they wanted to win. The culture of any public administrator is very important for it will determine how future problems are handled. Do the people of North Carolina want a religious man leading them with little or no political experience, or a man with plenty of experience, but that has been accused of having an extramarital affair? Both candidates in The Campaign had to deal with the outside cultural environment. A constant pressure from the outside cultural environment is placed on the campaigners to act, behave and demonstrate leadership, charisma, intelligence, morality and achievement. They must choose their words and actions very carefully for they will surely come back to haunt them if they don’t. Both participants went the extra mile for votes, but in this film, it’s Cam Brady who stops at nothing to reach potential voters. Cam Brady went from church to church (when he is not a religious man), to hunting to secure the gun vote, and always supporting our military, to demonstrate patriotism and nationalism. Cam Brady made an attempt to blend with everyone’s culture so he may find common ground with his constituents. It may be because of this that he still wins the election, but the film hints it's because of the rigged voting machines provided by the Motch brothers (scandal), but people still felt that Cam Brady was the better man for the job because of his display of charisma, energy, and socioeconomic status. Perhaps voters were more comfortable with his culture and leadership and felt that his culture would be better equipped to handle the wants of North Carolina. 

In the end of the film, Marty Huggins becomes Congressman after Cam Brady has a moment of clarity and steps down. With Marty now firmly in control he decides to do some “reinventing  of government” of his own. He opens a case against the Motch brothers claiming they are guilty of campaign rigging and election fraud, but the Motch brothers claim their innocence and state that everything they did is legal, but they are subsequently arrested for being involved with Marty's campaign manager, Tim Whattley, who is actually an international fugitive. Throughout Marty's campaign, his slogan is “Bring your brooms, because it's a mess” referencing Washington DC’s many corrupt politicians. Shafritz states that each new managerial generation has its own ideas about the “one best way” and that governments at all levels are being forced by events to change the way they operate. That is exactly what Marty Huggins was doing when he brought the Motch brothers to court. He was trying to make an example of the brothers for their corruption and wrongdoing. Marty Huggins was rethinking how government was being run because for too long he felt that “big money” was running Washington and he wanted to change that by ousting these two brothers. While a fictional account, nonetheless, I wish more politicians and campaign contributors would be more closely regulated to avoid scenarios such as this one from actually happening.

Since this film was focused more on the honor and ethics of public administrators than anything else, The Campaign managed to touch on each of the four levels of ethics. First, the personal morality, which both Marty Huggins and Cam Brady experienced when they knew that selling out their state to a greedy corporation, was wrong. The second level is professional ethics, which says that public administrators recognize rules and norms that compel them to act in a certain way. Both candidates acted professional when it was necessary, but all of these professional norms were violated at one time or another by one or both candidates. The third level of ethics is organizational. Formal and informal rules of ethical conduct such as public laws, executive orders, and agency rules all fall under organizational. Needless to say, both campaigners did not follow the third level of ethics as they should have. With actions such as driving under the influence, accepting illegal campaign contributions, rigging public elections, these are all actions that violate the public laws and formal and informal rules of ethical conduct. Lastly, social ethics requires that members of a given society act in ways that protect individuals and further the progress of the group as a whole. This happened in the end with the election of Marty Huggins because he truly did not want to win to serve his home and community. This level of ethics was also violated throughout most of the movie since both politicians were involved in the election rigging and other inappropriate behavior such as Cam Brady's affair, which would belong to Cam's social conscience. In the movie, Cam even tried to promote his affair in a campaign commercial thinking it would get him more votes from men, which it might have had it not tested so negatively with women.

The Campaign demonstrates democracy, suffrage, the impact of media and technological advances, corruption in government, and scandals all play a role in our own democracy. As I watched this film, I have no doubt that similar scenarios have played out either in the public eye like Blagojevich or Watergate, or instances where no arrest were made. While The Campaign is a comedy, I truly believe that it credibly demonstrates what elections are like in this country. When candidates run for political office, their whole lives are investigated and brought out into the light for the public to review, and make judgment on. For those of us who have witnessed our fair share of campaigns know that most of it are lies and only half of what is promised will actually take place, if that. While The Campaign may be making a mockery of our democratic election process, it does so in a hilarious way that will surely entertain. Love this movie.