A Republican political consultant's observations, advice and ramblings on direct mail, voter contact tactics, grassroots campaigning, technology and whatever else I find interesting.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Partisan Density Makes GOTV More Difficult For The GOP
Staff and volunteers placed 1,657 posters and distributed 8,963 brochures in all types of businesses that were Latino-owned or had a large Latino customer or client base, including taco shops, tienditas, beauty salons, and swap meets."
Democrats have a huge advantage in campaigns like this based on the frequent density of their voters. I don't know that I have ever heard of a precinct that is actually, baseline, 90% Republican yet it is very common in some cities to have multiple precincts that are over 90% Democratic.
Our challenge is to seek out GOP voters no matter where they are and contact them no matter how many barriers they put up.
Don't Wait For Election Day
Some states — California, for example — extended registration deadlines, in part to give would-be voters more time to sign up for the first Democratic presidential nomination race between a black man and a woman.
But some election officials say those extensions have necessitated a form of fortune telling when it comes to deciding how many ballots to order."
In Indiana we have
- 30 Days to vote absentee
- 14 Days to vote early
If you wait until election day you are making your own problems. Vote early.
P.S. Another helpful tip, if you vote early (and the campaign/party does a good job) you can avoid all those pesky Get-Out-The-Vote calls.
Why I Get Paid BEFORE Mail Goes Out
To all my clients out there who wonder why I require payment for mail up front.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
The 30 And Under Vote Does Not Watch The News.
The Second Cup - Thursday, March 27 TechRepublican.com: "Fully two-thirds of Web users under 30 say they use social networking sites, while fewer than 20 percent of older users do. MySpace and Facebook create a sense of connection to the candidates.
Between the two sites, Mr. Obama has about one million “friends,” Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, has roughly 330,000, and Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, has more than 140,000. Four out of 10 young people have watched candidate speeches, interviews, commercials or debates online, according to Pew, substantially more than people 30 and older.
Fully two-thirds of Web users under 30 say they use social networking sites, while fewer than 20 percent of older users do. MySpace and Facebook create a sense of connection to the candidates. Between the two sites, Mr. Obama has about one million “friends,” Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his rival for the Democratic nomination, has roughly 330,000, and Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican nominee, has more than 140,000.
Four out of 10 young people have watched candidate speeches, interviews, commercials or debates online, according to Pew, substantially more than people 30 and older."
If you are looking to talk to to anyone under 30 don't obsess about the evening news.
A little sneak peek for all you crackberry addicts.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Build a bigger audience for your RSS feed
RSS 102 comments This past two weeks I’ve been talking about how to make your RSS feed ‘Pop’ - to stand out from the crowd a little - however covering this topic has caused a few readers to ask RSS related questions that don’t necessarily relate to improving your feed but which are worth covering.
One of the questions I’ve been asked numerous times this week is:
How do I get People to Subscribe to my RSS feed?"
Great tips on building your audience for your blog.
I probably should actually take some of this guy's advice.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
$350 Million For Leftist Organizations To Take Over Our Government
In 2004 if you add up the campaigns, Party Committees and 3rd party groups expenditures the GOP got outspent by more than 120 million and that is just the money we can track.
The following is from CNSN News
"A coalition of liberal organizations announced plans Tuesday to move "the most expensive mobilization in history this election season."MoveOn.org, Rock the Vote, Acorn, National Council of La Raza, Women's Voices Women Vote Action Fund, and the AFL-CIO announced plans for a $350 million initiative for the 2008 elections at the Take Back America conference in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the liberal Campaign for America's Future."
The part that really honks me off about this is take a look at these partners in crime...
- Moveon.org - started to deflect attention from perjury and sex scandal
- Rock the Vote - MTV dabbles in politics
- ACORN - subsidized by YOUR tax dollars whose mission of "community engagement" is really a Hugo Chavez-like socialist organization
- Council of La Raza - largest Latino rights organization in the country, not a bad thing but is Democratic controlled White House part of that mission statement?
- Women's Voices Women Vote Action Fund - credit to this group that they are actually doing something akin to their actual mission statement
- AFL CIO - yeah, kind of enough said there
The aim of these groups?
"Hogue said they would be highlighting Republicans' "wrong priorities" through paid advertisements and their field networks.Due to various tax statuses within the coalition, Hogue noted that "to the extent that we are legally able to coordinate, we will" on efforts targeting different demographics."
So am I surprised? Not really, but I am frustrated that these "not-for profit" organizations are nothing more than thinly veiled front organizations for the Democratic National Committee. Most of them take union dues or contributions from donors on one premise and then seem to spend it on another.
Does anyone think La Raza or ACORN goes to it's donors and says "We need to defeat Republicans at every level of government!" If they are then they are lying to the public by pretending to be "community organizations" if they are not saying that then they are lying to their donors.
Then the media will get a brain cramp and somehow not see these clowns for what they are - tax shelters for blatant partisan activity.
Ugh...it is not easy being right.
Geeking out with Micromedia
How Traditional Media Experiments with MicroMedia (Twitter, Kyte, Utterz): "How Traditional Media Experiments with MicroMedia (Twitter, Kyte, Utterz)
March 18th, 2008 Category: MicroMedia
I met Jemima Kiss (embed above), a technology journalist for the UK Guardian at the SXSW bloghaus. I asked her about her use of Micromedia, and most importantly if she’s using these tools to find breaking stories. I know a handful of reporters that are watching Twitter to see what folks are saying. Listen in to the
In the above audio embed, I also interviewed Joe Ruiz, of San Antonio’s KSAT news who is trying to figure out how Twitter can be used for his local TV Station."
Monday, March 17, 2008
Does it get more ironic than this?
Congratulations to my WASP brothers on the Democrat side, you are relevant! You are the root of all evil, responsible for all our nations problems and way too privileged (dripping with sarcasm) but HRC and Obama still want to talk to you anyway.
Angela Faulkner is powerful and famous.
The nonpartisan PAC committee will target and talk with state legislators about several initiatives, including the possible MBE/WBE designation of nonprofit organizations and affordable health care for small businesses."
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Obama's team reinvents Democrat Field Operations
I have slobbered on Obama's Field Operation on my blog before...and yes I will do it again.
In 2004 and 2006 the GOP utilized a system we called the Extranet, in a nutshell it sucked and seemed to have been designed by desk warriors and not Field guys. I am sure all the intentions were great but there was little if any practical application for it. In 2004 BC04 ran laps around Kerry and his allies because we used MS Excel and concrete goals and results.
Obama's team is taking it to the next level with mybarackobama.com (I admit I have an account just to check out the functionality).
"The Obama campaign is distributed and bottom-up in a way that is the clearest example of what a post-broadcast, distributed and participatory democracy is going to look like. The evolution in campaign tactics happening right now closely parallels what's happening in the military, corporations, government and other large organizations. The dropping costs and increasing reliability and flexibility of information technology is having profound effects on how these organizations make things happen."
I read Wikinomics last year and it really caused me to ask myself -- why we do some of the things we do on campaigns the way we do? Usually it always comes back to control. We love to have it. Embracing a true decentralized campaign is tough for any experienced campaigner to accept but it is necessary to evolve and win.
Some of the organic stuff that Ron Paul, Obama and Huckabee have done this year is truly ground breaking. I look forward to seeing how Campaign 08 will change and progress from 04.
Thanks to Ruffini for getting my brain moving on this. I am going to digest this article on McCain's 10 regions and blog on it later.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Dyngus Day...all the things you need to know.
Part of our proud primary tradition is Dyngus Day.
Dynga-what?
"Dyngus Day, celebrated the day after Easter, will be March 24. Although it has its roots in Polish religious history, Dyngus Day has evolved into a political holiday locally. Solidarity Day is a more recent holiday started in the black community on the same day to celebrate black heritage and promote political activism.
One of the most noted Dyngus Day visits occurred in 1968, when presidential candidate Robert Kennedy stumped through the city (you can already hear the Obama comparisons).The primary election schedules were different then, without all of the early primaries and caucuses. Indiana was viewed as a key state in the contest for delegates.Kennedy was involved in a close race with Eugene McCarthy, and favorite son Gov. Roger D. Branigan also was on the ballot. All three visited South Bend at some point during the campaign."
It has pretty much devolved into a political sausage/beer campaignapalooza. The highlight of the day will be when we all gather at the Westside Democratic and Civic Club for lunch. You pay $7 to get in and that entitles you to a plate of kraut, hard boiled egg, fresh sausage and a cold beverage of your choice.
Then the real fun starts.
By around 12:30PM the club chairman takes the stage and welcomes everyone (including the Republicans...even though they won't let you touch the microphone). Then he introduces the candidates one by one. Inevitably at least one of the local ones will be half smashed and will slur insults at the President and Republicans in general. Good times.
Because of the tradition the media will ALL be there. Tradition? Oh yeah, it was actually a religious holiday at one time.
"Dyngus Day or Wet Monday (Polish Śmigus-dyngus, Lany Poniedziałek, Polewanka or Oblewanka) is the name for Easter Monday in Poland. In the Czech Republic it is called Velikonoční pondělí or Pomlázka. Both countries practice a peculiar custom on this day.
In Poland, traditionally, early in the morning boys awake girls by pouring a bucket of water on their head and strike them about the legs with long thin twigs or switches made from willow, birch or decorated tree branches (palmy wielkanocne); however, the earliest documented[citation needed] records of Dyngus Day in Poland are from the 15th century, almost half a millennium after Poland adopted Christianity."
If you are lucky you might still see a local Democrat chasing young girls with cold beer intent on, well something.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Lazy voters, we will cater to you...
Apparently it rained kind of hard in some areas of Ohio today and some people may have not made it.
I preface my rant with the fact that I think voting is vital and everyone should do it…once per election.
In Ohio you can cast a ballot up to 25 days prior to election day. On election day you have 12 hours to vote.
Every month people plan and schedule to pay their bills, attend worship services, buy groceries, pick up their kids and record their favorite TV shows. Don’t you think they could make a little time to plan on voting…even if it rains.
I personally have worked on campaigns in other places and countries where people travel for days to go vote. Countries where people wait in line under threat of violence for 6 or more hours to vote. Countries where people get killed on election day. And I am not just talking about Lake County Indiana.
It is completely stupid that we coddle some of our fellow Americans who need parental supervision and, apparently, a court order to go and play on the field of our American Democracy. It is shameful and insulting to the millions around the world who would risk their lives every day for just a taste of American democracy when we have some who were born here who don’t participate because they can not get it super sized or through a drive thru.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Obama's self organizing grassroots.
Groundswell (Incorporating Charlene Li's Blog): Could the Social Network Create An Obama Win?: "There's lots of talk in politics about 'energizing the base.' my.barackobama.com is the base for Barack Obama. I still feel there's a flaw in this social network of Obama supporters -- I've seen no evidence that Obama is listening to anything they say. But terms of taking a base of supporters and turning them into a force to accomplish your goals, this may be the most powerful example there is."
I am going to be sick...
Obama now over 1 million individual donors. Someone get me some Tums.
Patrick Ruffini :: Obama $70M?: "Remember this graphic? The one we used to power the crowdsourced spreadsheet?"
Sunday, March 2, 2008
How the sausage gets made.
How the sausage gets made - John F. Harris - Politico.com: "The exchanges show the speed and ferocity with which operatives inside presidential campaigns argue even the slightest nuances of stories they believe could be damaging. They also show the hectic, on-the-fly judgments that journalists make as they try to abide by standards of fairness while pushing back against dubious spin.
Among a volley of staff members and surrogates for Obama’s campaign to call Mahtesian, the most combative was deputy communications director Dan Pfeiffer.
Mahtesian, who has written about national politics for nearly two decades, said Sunday he was taken aback by Pfeiffer’s bellicose tone.
'Who are you? I've never heard of you. What's your background?' Pfeiffer demanded to know, Mahtesian recalled."