“If you get the votes,” Stu Spencer advised a persistent young reporter during the 1980 U.S. presidential campaign, “the map will follow.” Spencer, the top political strategist for Ronald Reagan and one of the best ever to ply the trade, was suggesting that the fixation on the Electoral College and key battleground states is excessive. … The more important focus, Spencer suggested, are swing voter groups. [cont.]
Albert R. Hunt, Bloomberg News