How do you beat Washington?

I beat him first go (keep in mind, I used to play pol machine 2004, so don't feel bad). The strategy I used was to start the early game building campaign headquarters and fundraising in california. Don't stop until you're earning at least 300,000 a turn, preferably at 400,000-500,000. While doing this, also establish two facilities that will give you 7 political capital and 7 PR clout. With all of this done, you should be institutionally established.

Aim to get as many endorsements as you can with 7 clout a turn, and hire a consultant or two, and also two webmasters in one big state that washington is winning (i.e. texas). Also, make sure you hit every question mark you can find, your goal is to get a movie director (which will lessen ad creation costs). Once you've got enough awareness in the states you need to win, head over to that big state with the two webmasters, and start spamming tv ads on all the issues washington is hammering you on. Do this as many times as possible, and get your VP to hang around states you need more awareness in. If need be, creating ads in Texas might not put you over the edge in some states that go either way (i.e. ohio, south carolina), so as much as you can head over there and do some speeches.

End game, you want to keep spamming tv ads, although their location might change states depending on need, and get as many spin doctors and smear merchants as you can afford (maybe set up another building for +7 political capital). Remember, when you're paying 30PC for a spin doctor, sometimes it's alot cheaper to buy a fixer and remove one of Washington's spin doctors. It'll produce the same result.

I might have forgotten some things, but hopefully these general tips will help you get over the line and win the campaign have fun!

what do speechwriters do?

I believe they make your speeches more effective in the given state.

They increase your charisma by ten points. Charisma is factored into the bonus applied to speeches and interviews; it's one of your most important stats outside of Money/Fundraising Ability/Stamina.

Then the Fashion Consultant and PR Consultant both do the same thing for your comeliness and media bias (respectively). These are both factored into bonus calculations as well. Comeliness is very important for boosting the effectiveness of advertisements (and a small effect on interviews) and media bias has a large effect on boosting your interview scores.

Always? It would be cool to have an option to not know what effect they have until after you hire them. Maybe a random value (-10 to +10). Then you could hire and fire your staff. Even that (hiring/firing) could have an effect on your campaign!

I haven't beaten Washington yet, but I did beat his blue equivalent last night, JFK. My strategy was similar to Tim above and should work the same.. Weeks 1 - 30 I was working on getting as much weekly income as fast as possible and putting HQs down. Make sure to get some clout coming in early too because he'll start grabbing some of your own endorsements if you don't move fast enough. Once I get to week 31 I start spending my turns like ths:

1 - go to a wobbler state that could go either way.
6 - place two TV ads: 1 praising yourself on an issue and 1 attacking your opponent on the same issue.
1 - travel to a fundraising state like CA, NY, or TX
3 - get some more money for the next turn
1 - Usually another state turns into a wobbler instead of strong for my opponent after my TV ads are placed and I head there next. If I had a 14 stamina candidate I would probably fundraise once more instead.

Good luck against Washington.