Barry Goldwater’s Campaign Legacy

Arizona Republic: “Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign, which is getting new attention because 2014 marks its 50th anniversary, made plenty of mistakes in the Arizona Republican’s landslide loss to Democrat Lyndon Johnson. But one lasting innovation was its practical application of large-scale direct-mail fundraising to national politics, an idea that contributed to the conservative movement’s subsequent successes.”

“Direct mail allowed the anti-establishment Goldwater and his conservative supporters to circumvent the wealthy benefactors who at the time were relied on to bankroll White House campaigns. In the GOP primaries, Goldwater’s main rival was moderate Republican New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, who was tight with the big-money crowd. Instead of focusing on a few big donors who could write a check for a large sum, the Goldwater campaign reached out to larger numbers of potential supporters who could contribute smaller amounts.”