By Richard Lee

A number of years ago, around the time of the Major League All-Star break, I wrote a column suggesting that political campaigns take a similar three-day break from their regular routines. 

As with baseball, a campaign break would provide a welcome respite from daily competition and provide time to plan and recharge for the days ahead. 

You can read the column with my full rationale here. 

Of course, the idea was more fantasy than reality. But since it’s fun to speculate, let me ask what if political campaigns had a trading deadline like the MLB?

Campaigns do in fact shuffle staff members and retool as circumstances dictate, but imagine for a few minutes what it would be like if that process was more structured. 

For the sake of argument, let’s use Labor Day, long considered the time voters start focusing on November elections, as the “political campaign trading deadline.”

If your candidate is ahead in the polls but needs an extra push, maybe you can pick up a seasoned consultant or strategist from a campaign that has little chances of winning. 

Conversely, if you’re waging one of those no-win battles, you can follow the lead of struggling baseball teams and trade for “prospects” who may pay dividends in the future. Adding a few bright junior staffers could lead to a change in fortune down the road. 

Knowing which campaigns are buyers and which ones are sellers would add a new dimension of transparency, although it also would diminish the drama leading up to Election Day. 

Likewise, knowing which prized staffers are available for rentals as hired guns and which ones are off limits would provide some intrigue and insight.

While it’s fun to speculate, the truth is the worlds of politics and baseball have too many fundamental differences to make a campaign trading deadline realistic.

Perhaps, I should search for something more feasible — like adapting the 15-second pitching clock for candidate debates.

Categories: Jandoli Institute, Media, Politics, Richard Lee, Sports