More notes from RootsCampDC...

 

No Money, No Name, No Staff

How to win a state legislature race in a crowded primary

(Viewed: times)

Cammie Croft

 

Overview:

Campaign Manager for Jamie Peterson, District 43 in Seattle, WA

Urban neighborhoods in Seattle, progressive, liberal, hippy. Solidly Dem. No Reps in last 30 years. The Dem who won primary would win election.

 

8 total candidates: 1 Rep, 1 People’s party, 6 Dems of various expertise and qualifications, many with Dem party experience.

 

Won race by 229 votes, 22% of votes.

Likely voters – 7,000 votes of 22,000. But got roughly 5,000 votes

 

Candidate is national leader on Gay Rights, lead lawyer on gay marriage bill on national level.

 

Needed about $60,000 to win race, possibly less. Peterson raised 3x that mount, spent 65% on voter contact. Worked out of basement, no office, saved tons of money on monthly costs. Phone banks out of LGBT groups and offices. Hired NO staff, thought had planned to.

 

Mail – LOTS of mail by all candidates. $80,000 mail costs, but did a lot by hand done mail with volunteer help. Universe, 22,000 or less each got about 6 pieces of mail.

 

Field program – lots of door knocking by vols and candidates. Cheap, but time consuming.

 

House parties – 2 kinds

Meet and greets by house party hosts (created training kit for hosts).

Fundraisers (up to $15,000 for some parties)

 

Candidate time - Candidate was not shy about making phone calls and asking for money. Great work ethic. Outside of fundraising, didn’t want to do what was required for campaign – so needed to knock on doors and build name recognition. At first only gave 2 days for campaigning, wanted lots of family/down time. But just needed to get out there.

 

Ultimately knocked on over 15,000 doors. Took sabbatical from work and did 60-65 hours per week. Once he got into it, was really happy doing it, loved knocking on doors.

 

Starting in July, went back to doors Peterson had already been too as a “reminder.” Total of 23,000 doors as a campaign, 15,000 individual.

 

Likely voters – 7,000 votes of 22,000. But got roughly 5,000 votes

 

“Shock and Awe” Yard Sign campaign – only candidate with yard signs in homes, not in public spaces.

 

Press – Only candidate to get front page news. David Savage (of Savage Love) hates Jamie Peterson. Picked on Peterson through blog posts during race. Eventually blog scandal made front page news 3 times about “gay infighting.” Press always refered to Peterson as “gay candidate” and was only candidate to get bad press. Created name recognition, but people did forget about that specifically.

 

MySpace page – thought it would get vols but didn’t. However, it did get front page news b/c of large number of sign ups. Would mention the MySpace when canvassing.

 

“Massaged” the base with a Gay Bar Tour – the community rallied around him because they wanted a gay leader.

 

No Staff –

No Volunteer coordinator. Recruited college interns for entire summer. They served as full staff for 90 hours of work every week. Doing it for school credit helped with the reliability factor, as opposed to if they were unpaid.

 

Tech team – done by volunteers. Direct mail $30. Email program was free and easy to run.

 

House Party hosts – worked 2 months in advance, had invites out 1 months out. Trained the hosts on every aspect of how to host, set up and run a party. If you train vols and give htem tools to succeed, you will have great parties. Some raised upwards of $15,000.

 

Volunteers – hand addressed over 15,000 pieces of mail.

“Mom” mail piece, had envelopes written in cursive so it looks authentic. Had it drop to seniors on the day absentee ballots dropped and then went to senior centers. People really thought she wrote to them directly.

 

Specialized mailings – sent “sorry I missed you” note to folks who weren’t home when canvassing. Integrated mail with field program. Very cheap, but labor intensive.

 

Starting in July, went back to doors Peterson had already been too as a “reminder.”Total of 23,000 doors as a campaign, 15,000 individual.

 

300 vols total – all got handwritten Thank you note from Peterson after campaign.

 

Conclusions:

Start early. Started 2 months before other campaigns had staff. Gave them a head start in the race.

Personal touch from candidate - Hand address envelopes, thank you cards, knocking on doors, house parties, etc was what put them over the edge. Very personal campaign that was hands on with the people.

 

 

The Labels and Lists I used.  My race was in Washington, so I used their services for that state.  http://www.lalnet.com/

 

 

Questions:

 

Q: 
A:

 

Q: Did you use state voter file?

A: Used labels and lists. Voter file is purchasable, but not as up to date as needed.


Q: How do you keep track of all of the parts?
A: Loves the chaos. Loves keeping track of all of the parts.

 

Q: How much was online? 
A: Google calendars was helpful, vol spreadsheets so vols didn’t double call

 

Q: How did you recruit vols
A: Colleges, Petersons’ church and law firm – called through for vols. He also had a good history of helping others, so people were willing to help him.

 

Q: Respect/help from Dems?
A: The “inner core” didn’t really like him. They liked the other Dems who had been a part of party politics.

 

Q: 
A: Follow up with people when you say you will. They remember and will come to help if you are responsive.

 

Q: How do you differenciate and message your candidate when you have a crowded field?
A: All had similar answers and message. They talked about Peterson’s record, his youth and vibrance as an asset. Had to offset other candidates experience and name recognition.


Page Information

  • 1 year ago [history]
  • View page source
  • You're not logged in
  • Tags: operations field Issues

Wiki Information

Recent PBwiki Blog Posts