Michael Ashcroft Quotes

Part of the reason I am so evangelical in our campaigning work is that I had an unshakeable faith in Labour values, but we needed a machine worthy of the message. I grew up with a peerless Conservative machine, with vastly superior resources.

In the U.S. - and elsewhere - successful parties need a storyline that voters can relate to, an intelligible plot of some sort, especially now that so many older, formal ideologies have lost force. For proof of this, one has only to look at Margaret Thatcher's career and ideas.

The Conservative party's always been a broad church, and I can appeal better than any of the other candidates to the centre ground to unite the country, and to voters who will ultimately deliver a majority so we can really get things moving.

Simply because you're a Democrat doesn't mean you can't speak to these issues in language that appeals to voters, particularly independent voters.

When New Labour came to power, we got a Right-wing Conservative government. I came to realise that voting Labour wasn't in Scotland's interests any more. Any doubt I had about that was cast aside for ever when I saw Gordon Brown cosying up to Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street.

To be a statesman, you must first get elected.

I guess my natural inclination is to finish what I started. We have a Conservative government in Nova Scotia. What I want to see is a Conservative government in Ottawa.

One of the problems we saw in the last presidential election in our party is that our nominee, while winning the election, which we ought never to forget, often lost sight of the difference between strategy and tactics.

I see my job simply as helping disseminate the message of Barack Obama, working with the communications team to make sure that we're true to the ideals and the values and the programs that he wants to advance in this country. And that's the extent of my involvement.

The test of leadership for David Cameron was actually to bring the British Conservative Party back in to the mainstream.

It's hard running as an independent. I wouldn't have won the Senate election if I hadn't been governor. I had credibility. The hard part is getting voters to the point where they think it's thinkable and not a waste of time.

How it is that within 60 days of a general election issue, groups can no longer tell voters that a Member of Congress votes pro-abortion, against guns, against the environment or whatever else is beyond me.

I have considered voting Conservative because I am so against the Labour party.

To be a party you have to have a national message.

Practical politics is the politics of the coming election.

Democratic politics—that is modern mass politics—is a battlefield in which the most important move is that which decides what the battle is about, what the issue is.

Democrats fell in love with the idea that winning elections was a matter of talking to voters about the one issue we think impacts them, instead of our plan to move the country forward as a whole.

My advice to Republicans: Stop worrying about the 'Hispanic' vote. Focus on being true to your party platform, because the party that can deliver economic opportunity along with traditional family values will prevail with Hispanics - and most other Americans.

The Social Democrats have to listen to people who are attracted to the AfD party. That isn't a mistake at all. You can also win them back. Of course, there are a lot of angry voters who are ideologically charged. But there are also a lot of quieter voters who plan on voting AfD to send a message. We can never give up on them.

Everybody runs for political office knocking somebody, and very few run on 'This is what I stand for. This is what I believe will solve these problems.'

Once Brexit is delivered, we then need to think about how we can make the Conservatives look new and sound different.

The Conservative Party tries to avoid important but controversial issues of concern to Conservatives and Canadians in general. It is afraid to articulate any coherent philosophy to support its positions.

Brexit has given us the start of a conversation with people who perhaps haven't traditionally voted Conservative.

I would do whatever I could to make Jeremy Corbyn more electable, but you've got to give me something to work with, mate.

Oh my God, don't ever start a political party. It's exhausting.