2014 Political Campaigns/Politics Thread: Even number years = $$$

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > 2014 Political Campaigns/Politics Thread: Even number years = $$$

gohuskies: Oct 23, 2010; I spend a lot of time making posts to justify why I'm not a self centered shithead that just wants to act like COVID isn't a thing.

Monkey Fury posted:

Gchat. Lots and lots of Gchat. And conference calls. We also had all-staff meetings once a month down by HQ, which allowed us to bond (drink heavily together). This, combined with the weirdness of campaign work, led to some really close friends of the type that you just pick it back up with, even if you haven't seen them in forever. Your mileage may vary, of course.

I definitely feel you. I was up in an office by myself for a few months before coordinated and other staff moved in, and man, it was like being on that diplomacy planet on Star Trek... well... nice town, but just really boring and a bit isolating.

Yeah, this is a truly miserable situation to be in. I have done a two man office and it sucks, alone must be a nightmare. You NEED to make campaign friends to commiserate with, long distance if necessary. Honestly I think it is an issue worthy of bringing up to your boss. Obviously they won't take steps that will hamper your work product, but stuff like coming to meetings or events in person instead of conference call occasionally are not entirely unreasonable asks. Maintaining your sanity (until like September) should be something they care at least a little about. You meet people at those events/meetings and keep up the friendship on gchat.

# ¿ Mar 26, 2014 01:53

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 12:36

gohuskies: Oct 23, 2010; I spend a lot of time making posts to justify why I'm not a self centered shithead that just wants to act like COVID isn't a thing.

Slaan posted:

Yeah, I'm still in the PC. Our CoS dates are August 15 to September 15 and early CoS is out of the question. The August dates will be taken up by people going to Graduate school in the fall, so I won't be able to leave until at least September 1st or so.

I thought it would end up being something like this, but I'll keep looking around for politics jobs in NC, several big races going on there right now, so I'm sure I can find something. I mostly want some Washington/NC gov level connections for when I finish my MPA in the spring so coming in at all would be nice.

The Kay Hagan senatorial will be such a huge campaign that I would not be surprised if they might be hiring some extra field staff starting late for the very final GOTV push. But for an Oct 1 start date you are unlikely to get any job other than paid canvasser though, realistically.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2014 02:32

gohuskies: Oct 23, 2010; I spend a lot of time making posts to justify why I'm not a self centered shithead that just wants to act like COVID isn't a thing.

Concerned Citizen posted:

Maybe if you're electing a new candidate for something like a congressional and you want to be part of the new staff answering letters or whatever. I've never seen a FO get hired after a statewide for the politician's office. Especially if Slaan wants NC, I can't imagine Hagan is going to be hiring very many of her 150~ FOs to fill all of the zero vacant spots in her slashed office budget.

But if you want a career in government, I honestly don't think campaign work is helpful for that sort of thing anymore. Especially since there have been legislative and ethical reforms to prevent exactly that sort of move.

FOs can definitely get hired, I've seen it happen many times. The trick is, they have a shot at getting hired in district or in state, not in DC. If you go for a DC job with your candidate, it'll probably be just answering the phone. In district you can get pretty decent community outreach positions, especially so for statewides. The trick is that you have to network the poo poo out of the campaign, but that's the trick for everything.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2014 18:16

gohuskies: Oct 23, 2010; I spend a lot of time making posts to justify why I'm not a self centered shithead that just wants to act like COVID isn't a thing.

Ofaloaf posted:

We are supposed to get breaks for meals, right? Like, I get that we need to devote all our energies to getting out the vote, but we should be getting breaks for lunch and dinner, right?

Do you have a primary election coming up or something? I would say a reasonable policy is no breaks for meals once you're within a month of so of the election. Before that, you maybe shouldn't leave the office for a meal but it should be okay to spend 10 minutes eating at your desk and catching up on email.

Edit: Clicked your post history in the thread. Still depends on the timing of what you're getting out the vote for but it sounds like you've had the poor luck to sign up for a pretty dysfunctional organization.

# ¿ May 22, 2014 02:16

gohuskies: Oct 23, 2010; I spend a lot of time making posts to justify why I'm not a self centered shithead that just wants to act like COVID isn't a thing.

Mooseontheloose posted:

The problem with people who want to do policy is that policy rarely wins campaigns. Sure, you want to keep your candidate informed and have their own opinion on how to do things but really people aren't policy wonks at the day. Even your hardcore activists are driven by concepts than concrete policy ideas. Take single payer for instance, lots of people on the left LOVE the idea of single payer. But really, you don't have to say much more than that. You want to have some statistics and studies handy but it's not worth having more than a two or three people on policy. And this is if you are new. If you already are an elected your policy shop IS your elected office. They do your policy, they set your policy. They don't need a campaign policy person.

Now, this is generally broad, I was on a Senate campaign that had a few policy people. But again, most were unpaid interns trying to get someone who only had AG experience to Senate. You need a few people doing research.

Most people who want to do policy have higher degrees and don't have much political experience. While I am sure they are smart people, policy can only get you so far. You need to be able to articulate (press/field) your policies to people. As someone who works on the left, sometimes we can infatuated with our idea that we can convince anyone of our amazing policy positions that will convert the Randiest of bootstrapers.

As for "other" generically things like getting into communities you can not otherwise access are important. Condo Commanders in Florida are a great example. Or being able to get into groups that the campaign might not of thought of before. Host a house party, get in with community leaders, do intel, all sorts of things. But at the end of the day voter contact rules the day.

Friendly lobbyists are also key to campaign policy shops. It's not at all rare for a Democratic candidate to have a labor lobbyist weighing in on their labor/business questionnaires and for a Republican candidate to have a business lobbyist doing the same. Similar with issues across the board. This is especially mutually beneficial for non-incumbents who don't have established policy shops - they don't have to pay policy staff to get facts from and the lobbyist gets their hooks in early.

# ¿ Jun 19, 2014 05:15

gohuskies: Oct 23, 2010; I spend a lot of time making posts to justify why I'm not a self centered shithead that just wants to act like COVID isn't a thing.

I'm just so tired right now.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 09:43

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 12:36

gohuskies: Oct 23, 2010; I spend a lot of time making posts to justify why I'm not a self centered shithead that just wants to act like COVID isn't a thing.

Concerned Citizen posted:

Don't worry as much about the frequency of your emails. What really matters is the content - if you consistently put out interesting and relevant email, people will open it. The key thing is to remember that you also want to keep the length of your emails down (people just don't like to read long email), so a weekly schedule is probably going to be more optimal than a monthly digest.

If you start using the list for fundraising, you'll want an even more robust and frequent schedule. But most likely, at your level an email program will bring in relatively small amounts of money.

And in my experience, your subject line probably matters as much if not more than anything else in the email. A great subject line is the key to a good click rate. If you have enough room in your list, test out a couple options and see what kinds of things get the best click rates, and go with what works.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2015 04:24

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > 2014 Political Campaigns/Politics Thread: Even number years = $$$