Ex-Republican at Democratic Bootcamp -- III

After establishing a basic campaign outline and insisting on having one single person responsible for ?the press? (i.e., all media contacts) we were taught at Grassroots Activist Training (aka "Democratic Boot Camp") two weekends ago how to write and submit a press release and arrange a press conference complete with meticulous checklists, right down to details like making sure there are plenty of electrical outlets where you?re holding the event.  Many of my fellow students were either planning on working on an upcoming campaign, were hoping to get a job on a campaign, or were actually going to be candidates themselves, so you can imagine this was red meat.

?Keep a log!? ?Give ?em photos!? ?Have copies of EVERYTHING!? ?Know deadlines and don?t nag a reporter at deadline time.? ?Don?t get the reporters up early if you can help it!? Basically, help the press do their job? which reminded me how some reporters have taken to re-issuing Republican press releases, passing them off as if they were their own write-ups of the news.

Of course, you can also set up a strong Letter to the Editor program, since this is the only section of the paper over which you can really have some control, getting out your message reasonably unedited. This section of the paper is actually the second most read page in the paper. (I wondered which was first, the front page or the comics? They didn?t say)

Remember, one of the three resources for a campaign is money, which means Fund Raising. Telephoning is often the key, therefore schedule time every day to phone bank, and make your candidate commit a  definite number of hours every day to this project. Many candidates shirk this chore, to their ultimate detriment, so be firm. Think of the universe of donors as a series of concentric circles, starting first with your and the candidate?s family and close friends, the next circles would be business associates, church and civic associations, ideological donors, and so on.

You will have three possible budgets: one budget as if you have no money, another as if you had all the money in the world (the way Republicans seem to operate), and the real one you can live within the real world. Whether by phone or by fund raising letters, ask for specific amounts, specific things. Aha! I thought, that explains one of the more annoying features of the begging political letters I receive daily, ?send $500, or $100, or even $50,? repeated at least four or five times and salted throughout the letter. This has been especially true for the mailouts from Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore, and Republican Senator George Allen, both of whom seem to have the same writers who are hung up on the terrible possibility that Tim Kaine will, gasp, bring a ?Hollywood limousine liberal? into the Old Dominion to campaign for him, so please send ?$500, or $100, or even $50" RIGHT AWAY to save us and preserve Virginia?s values.

Yuck, do they have any idea how shop-worn, out-of-date, and tired this fear-mongering sounds? Don?t they realize we can recognize a straw man in the Hollywood limousine tag when I see one? I prefer the approach to raising money that we were given in the seminar: your donation to the campaign is an investment, a hope for the future. In making phone calls, have a script; if the prospect ?can?t afford it,? talk issues... and listen to their objections, give them a reason to support the candidate.

Experience has shown that face-to-face fund raising has a 50-70% rate of success resulting in a cash flow within 1-7 days; telephoning has a 30-50% success ratio and is cheaper to do; letters, surprisingly, initially have only a 1% response rate, generally require a re-solicitation, and are more expensive. The cheapest solicitation is by e-mail, which has a low but very fast rate of return. I was glad to hear that the awful robo-call is regarded as useless, even counter-productive (yes!)--- unless it is done as an endorsement by a Really Big Guy, that is.

Lunch is served! We lined up in the back of the classroom, just like boarding school, only this time, no peanut butter and jelly.

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