2015 Political Campaigns Thread: Killing time to New Hampshire

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > 2015 Political Campaigns Thread: Killing time to New Hampshire

G-Hawk: Dec 15, 2003

gently caress off years, and gently caress local parties.

Anyway i posted a bunch in the old thread(s) but I do lots of campaigns. Mostly field and targeting stuff so far. I've worked in 5 states and counting, and have done stuff from paid canvassing for state house candidates to field directing statewide coordinateds, mostly stuff inbetween. I can answer lots of questions especially about field and careers within field.

# ¿ May 17, 2015 15:48

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 11:39

G-Hawk: Dec 15, 2003

gohuskies posted:

98% of men who work in campaigns want to be Malcolm and are Jonah.

The rest want to be the lovechild of Josh Lyman and Sam Seaborn?

# ¿ Jun 14, 2015 15:58

G-Hawk: Dec 15, 2003

Direct voter contact, mail, and digital are all going to be way more effective than yard signs regardless of race size. On local races raw name id is more important than big races sure, but yard signs are not a particularly cost or time effective way to raise that.

Honestly the main reason to get yard signs from a campaign manager pov is because candidate+candidate friends+volunteers will freak out if you don't get yard signs. But even that is starting to change.

# ¿ Jul 3, 2015 01:57

G-Hawk: Dec 15, 2003

Jackson Taus posted:

One of the more frustrating things to me about local politics is that it's sometimes a challenge to distinguish the vainglorious incompetents from the stealthy operators from the humble "nose-to-the-grindstone" grassroots types. Like not that I can't tell them apart when I'm working closely with them, just that that doesn't scale to my level (across a Congressional District). For instance, it's really clear if I'm running a canvass who the braggarts are and who the hard workers are, but usually staffers run canvasses and at best VAN shows "shift completed" or "flake", not who did how much work. For example, I frequently see slacktivists post half a dozen "I'm going canvassing" pictures on FB and assume they're useful only to discover that they knocked about 20 doors while the quiet guy I usually ignore did two packets.

This isn't just a field problem - I see it on the leadership side too, where people talk a great game about how they're doing X, Y, and Z but until you show up at their event it's not always easy to tell how full of poo poo they are. And of course I'd try the "ask other people", but other people seem to have the same problem: I've had multiple people tell me one guy is the biggest slacktivist alive only to watch him recruit a few people to my canvass and knock a packet and half himself. And of course it's even harder on the political side where this stuff is unseen by design - exactly whose fault is it that we have a weak candidate slate? If I ask Person A, it's Person B's fault. If I ask Person B, they'll say it's because Persons A and C are undermining and backstabbing them, or they'll say "well I put a lot of effort into recruiting for races X and Y, only to have my recruits stepped on by the Legislative Caucus". Or whose fault is it that a moderate-Dem decided to run as an independent? Joe'll say "Mary basically talked him into it by mishandling him" and Mary'll say "Joe never liked our candidate in the first place, he probably did it".

Like I realize that that's the game and that most of these people are self-interested and this was never going to be easy, but are there red flags or best practices or something for distinguishing the helpful from the vainglorious and the loud idiots from the clever? Obviously "talk to staffers" works for some of it, but that doesn't really scale when I've got a few dozen campaigns in my area and there's stuff staffers can't really say (or won't really say until (a) they really trust you and (b) it's way after the fact).

I guess this is mostly obvious but be it your own staff, other staffers, volunteers, activists etc one of the most important things to do on any campaign of any scale is to establish who is competent and able to get things done as early as possible. Try to create a situation where people can succeed or fail where the stakes aren't too high so that when the stakes are high you know who to rely on. So when Bob says he "knows everyone" and can get you "tons of people" its like ok cool setup some non crucial and low effort event or canvass for him to do it, if he does you know he can do it for bigger stuff later on. Yeah that means you're going to have to waste some time but the only other thing you can do is rely on what other people say or try to suss people out by talking to them. Most people can only bullshit so much and if you dig a bit it'll be obvious.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2015 19:36

G-Hawk: Dec 15, 2003

Yeah, I'd say there are a couple different things to do before running that are important, this is mostly echoing the post above:

1. Establish viable funding. This is the most important. I promise you won't win without money. Look at the race(s) you're considering, check out comparable and previous races. How much did the candidates raise? If it is 100k, you should probably expect to need similar. You don't need that all on day one, but you should probably be able to raise a good amount of that quickly from self funding, friends, family. If you can't, figure out how to build a network you can raise money off of. Be prepared to beg everyone you even slightly know. Be prepared to beg people you don't know. Don't get sucked into thinking you're gonna grassroots your way to victory, obviously volunteers and hard work and door knocking matters, but you will not win without money.

2. Figure out what you want to run for. What seat and what location? Why? Is it winnable? Are you walking into a district thats 20 points partisan? Or against a 20 year incumbent? Do your research. Figure out why you're running. You don't need a full on message on day 1, but if you cant answer the question why are you running for x, you probably shouldn't be. Figure out what issues are relevant to the race and where you stand on them. Don't get sucked into knowing every policy point ever, but don't run for office because its a thing to do.

3. Build political relationships. This is somewhat connected to 1, but build relationships with local electeds, committee people, donors, volunteers, etc. This can be through volunteering, through going to fundraisers, through committee stuff, etc. You want to have your partys backing and have some strong supporters who can point you in the right direction and open some doors.

4. Talk to voters - this is where volunteering (or I suppose, field organizing) beforehand could be a good idea. Spend a lot of time talking to voters for another campaign, it gives you a realistic idea of what voters know and care about. Spoiler: they don't know much and probably don't care much either and want to go back to watching TV. This is an important lesson for first time candidates in that when you're running for office you need to be realistic about how much people will pay attention, especially on the local level.

And yeah, don't rush it. It may be better to not run for 5 years and have the ability to win then than to run in 2 years and get run off the field because you weren't ready. Think long term.

# ¿ Aug 13, 2015 18:16

G-Hawk: Dec 15, 2003

EvilElmo posted:

I'm going to be helping a candidate's team out with some video editing. Any tips on how to make videos interesting and get people to watch more than a few seconds while they scroll through their facebook feed?

keep it as short as possible (15 if you can, 30 otherwise), have solid visuals (many will see it without audio playing), get straight to the point. Basically most people are going to not watch more than a few seconds regardless but those will help you drive your points to the most people possible. If you're putting paid $ behind it try other mediums besides facebook, pre-roll on youtube or other sites is way way better. If its all organic, facebook is the best you can do probably but completion rates will run below 20% most likely.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2015 21:10

G-Hawk: Dec 15, 2003

For the record there is a reason every serous campaign uses van even though everyone bitches about it. The alternatives are way, way, worse. Nationbuilder is genuinely awful, I haven't used PDI but I've heard it is too. I wish ngpvan had competition, it needs competition, but it doesn't exist right now.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2015 00:12

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 11:39

G-Hawk: Dec 15, 2003

Spacebump posted:

I'm new to an area and need to recruit reliable paid canvassers, any advice?

college campus. community colleges are usually the best. walk around and sign people up. you'll have plenty of flakes but eventually build a solid crew of people.

# ¿ Jan 7, 2016 02:23

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > 2015 Political Campaigns Thread: Killing time to New Hampshire