Voters want to know what a candidate will do once he or she has taken office. Thus, it makes sense to make some campaign promises. The most effective way to communicate priorities and promises to voters is to create and release, in the last months of the campaign, a bold 100-day action plan or something of a similar nature.
Such a plan outlining an aggressive set of goals for the first few months in office will convey a sense of action and momentum. It can also generate some news media coverage and give a candidate something concrete to campaign on in the last weeks before the election.
Such a plan should be aggressive and forthright, but it also shouldn’t make promises that are impossible to carry out. It’s better to keep expectations in check and overachieve than to make big promises and fail to deliver. The action plan should encapsulate the priorities the candidate has outlined during the campaign, be as bold as possible, but still be realistic.
