Javelina partner Catherine Alonzo recently sat down with “Getting Elected,” the #1 campaign podcast on iTunes, to discuss the world of political consulting and optimizing a political consultant in your campaign. Here are the highlights:

• Should you hire a campaign manager or political consultant
• Do all campaigns need a political consultant
• The different types of political consultants
• Using your Kitchen Cabinet to subsidize political consulting
• Use your political consultant to fill the “missing pieces of the pie”
• Where do new candidates find the right consultant
• How to choose the right political consultant and setting the expectations
• The consultant is sizing you up as much as you are them—you need to impress the consultant—what are the questions you need to be able to answer
• What should the candidates focus be on
• The things a consultant will be looking for in a candidate
• Keys of a strong candidate
• The big misnomer of mail
• How do you optimize mail in a race
• How do you decide the message on the mail when you send multiple mail pieces
• The campaign bubble—how do you persuade the margin voters
• Mail pricing—how much does it cost
• Inside information on lowering the price of your campaign mail

Reprinted from Getting Elected.