By Chris Cosci

When running for office, a good campaign can be a very effective tool. Recently, the campaigns for political parties in the Czech Republic have really started to heat up. Elections for the 200-seat Chamber of Deputies are being held this week, and parties are working hard to gain a majority of the seats. The Chamber of Deputies is the larger of the two chambers of Parliament, which is responsible for passing bills, approving treaties, and deciding important acts of state.

This year, there are four parties expected to earn more than five percent of the Chamber's seats: the Social Democrats, the Civic Democrats, the Communists and the Coalition. As you can imagine, Czech voters can't even take a breath without being exposed to some sort of campaign.

These days, however, it takes a great deal of ingenuity to win over the voters. You can't just hand someone a pamphlet and expect them to say, "Wow! I have to vote for this guy. He's giving out pamphlets." For this election, the Coalition came up with some unique ideas and certainly gained attention with their flair and gusto.

They started with photographs. Most politicians will proudly display photos of themselves shaking hands with major world leaders, or helping out with charities. How mundane. The Coalition candidates took photographs with exotic animals, like lions and camels. Now, that's impressive. Nothing says hard-working and politically active like a guy standing next to a camel.

Next, they took a swipe at the current ruling majority, the Social Democrats. In their last campaign, the Social Democrats promised to combat economic crime using what they called a "clean hands" campaign. Apparently, they were not successful in fulfilling their promise, so the Coalition came up with another brilliant idea. They handed voters soap in a box, with each box bearing the inscription "clean hands at last." Think about it - one candidate hands you a pamphlet and another one hands you soap. Who are you going to vote for?

This past weekend, though, the Coalition pulled off their greatest publicity stunt yet. During an election rally in the town of Valasske Meziricia, the Coalition handed out free shots of plum brandy to the voters. Why didn't anybody think of this before? It's a stroke of genius! How could you possibly lose with free alcohol? Unless, of course, all your voters wake up the next morning and can't remember anything.

Meanwhile, the Communist party was campaigning in the same town at the same time. They were handing out pamphlets. Realizing that the brandy was attracting more attention, they thought quickly on their feet and came up with an inspiring idea. Suddenly, voters found themselves with a whole new distraction - topless women. Candidates handing out pamphlets? No good. Naked women handing out pamphlets? Very good.

It's not often that one is faced with such a challenging dilemma. As one passerby noted, "this is something completely new." Thank goodness. If this were an everyday occurrence, it would be a shame that the Czech Republic had passed up such a great selling point for tourism. Interestingly enough, nobody seemed to complain about these unusual tactics.

Current polls show voters slightly favoring the Communists over the Coalition. This teaches us an important lesson - voters prefer naked women over free alcohol. This could be just the kind of information we need to increase voter turnout here in the Unites States. Hey - it couldn't hurt to try, right?