The next time someone asks you "Do you think you could do a better job?"

[brentspeak]

campaigning for a Democratic candidate, just completely ignore them like you would the worst troll on the internet. Then go out in the field and do as you would want your candidate to do (but isn't).

Whenever I urged "attack" and "fight back" during the presidential campaign re. Kerry, there was always five or six apologists who would respond "Do you think you could do a better job than his advisors?" or "I suggest you just sit back and let the real professionals get the job done". And, of course, there was the "Relax. Kerry knows exactly what he's doing."

But as we all know now, Kerry did not know what he was doing. And all his advisors and campaign apologists were imcompetents and elitists.

2006 will be the year that I will make campaign signs, try to get local media attention, and just plain fight for my Democratic candidates in any way I feel I want to -- regardless of the opinions my candidate or his other supporters have.

[JNelson6563]

1. I would say "Why yes. Yes I could"

And the first thing I would do is arrange for my candidate to have a backbone put in. Then I would teach them what is wrong with constantly being on the defense and the wisdom of being pro-active over reactive.

That would be for starters.

Julie

[Mabus]

2. Amen. Grassroots all the way

Grassroots efforts do work. And once you get started you'll find a lot of people willing to help. People will come and go according to their schedules but the first thing to do is to let others know you want to get something done. Find people, find out what they can do, what areas they are interested in and connect them together. The only reason I suggest evolving your efforts into a group one is so you won't burn-out doing it yourself.

My first "radical" move was to call some friends and ask them to join me at the main post office on April 15 to hand out voter registration forms to tax filers. I thought it was a great move to have pople, while they are waiting in line to mail their tax returns, to fill out a voter registration form and mail it in too.

One friend suggested we branch out so we all contacted various local groups to join us at the Post Office with their pamphlets. Before we called the groups we called the local Post Master and worked out what was permissible, where we should stand, etc. We also contacted the candidates that were doing nominating petitions and got official copies from them to get signed. We also handed out information on HAVA requirements explaining the ID requirements and other information. It ended being a party atmosphere.

The funny part was when our local RWing nut came to mail his taxes. He looked around at everything, the girl from the Young Dems dressed in a Donkey Suit handing out voter registration forms, the people handing out information on Kerry's tax plan versus Bush's, the anti-war people and all the people standing around talking politics and bolted. He came back with his sister and two GOP candidate signs. The funniest thing was they were so scared and paranoid they wouldn't engage in conversation with anyone or look at anyone directly.

As the year progressed I began taking campaign literature to parties. At first I felt a little weird about doing it but after the idea got cleared by the hosts, I realized, these people are my friends. I talk to them about politics all the time. So I took nominating petitions, made my own literature from newspaper clippings tailoring to the other party goers (when I was hanging with my teacher friends, I took candidate quotes concerning education, when it was a party with friends in the unions, I took materials pertaining to the candidate's union positions/support, etc.), I had bumperstickers and yard signs in the back seat of the cars to hand out, I took the candidate's mailers and (with some coordination from the candidate's campaigns) I got volunteers to hold house parties and I held a couple of my own. I took copies of polling maps and contact phone numbers.

I'm sure a few people thought I was a nut but I kept doing it. I had a box in each car with all my materials. Finally, everywhere I went I also took several clipboards in a backpack. I had one for people to sign up as campaign volunteers for candidates (coordinated with campaign people as to format, i.e. contact info, do you want a sign in your yard? would you do phone calls? and the usual stuff), one with voter registration forms and HAVA information, one with my a sign-up sheet for a friend's community news group, and one for signing up for the local Dem e-mail list. My friends did the same thing.

Throughout the spring and summer we worked together. We all had our own "kits" of candidate materials, bumperstickers and yard signs. We also made it a point to try to have regular meetings. Mostly we just went to all the Meet-Ups we could and signed people up for the e-mail lists, gave them hand outs of what was going on, who to contact and URL's to find information. We were a group of Kucinich, Clark, Dean and Edwards supporters. We just kept going.

By the time September hit we had made connections with so many people who wanted to do something but didn't have a lot of money or time and with the local community groups that we had developed a really healthy network of grassroot political activists. If I ran out of materials at a party or event, there was always someone else around with their supplies. We'd meet whenever we could. We worked together to make our own candidate materials, shared flyers on the internet and just generally shared ideas.

We kept in daily contact via e-mail. We wrote to the local newspaper editor in support of our candidates and called into local talkshows. We monitored the local forums to combat spin, we went door to door doing lit drops (we got lists and materials from the candidates and the Dem party). We made floats for our candidates, made it a point to get people out for candidate rallies/appearances (that does miracles, people notice) and to volunteer to man booths at fairs and local community events. We leafleted to students at football and basketball games and any other event we thought appropriate (not overbearing). We made our own buttons and t-shirts. If there was an event we made sure we had as many people there as possible to do voter registration, hand out campaign literature and to find/recruit others who didn't know where else to go or what to do but were itching to get involved. We also did our share of freeway blogging after getting a group of artists together. We had a great time.

When October rolled around we were pretty much the staff of volunteers at the local Dem party and at the various candidate headquarters. I kept in touch with the local MoveOn and ACT coordinators throughout the election cycle and referred people who went to help out in Iowa and Missouri for the last weekend/election day GOTV efforts. Those of us who stayed in town were treated to a great election watch party. The end result for our county was an almost complete sweep of Democratic candidates into local offices and a strong Democratic showing on the national level where we retained our sole seat. And we aren't stopping.

Right now the network is gearing up for the city elections in a couple of months. The local progressive coalition is actively recruiting candidates. We've already got a supermajority on the city commission and expect to retain it this spring.

Best of all, I've got a great new set of friends and found out I had a lot in common with more of my neighbors than I ever imagined. Now when I walk the dogs there's a different sense of community in our neighborhood. We know each other's names and we're helping each other out more than before. The neighborhood still isn't perfect, far from it. But at least now we're talking to each other and I found out a lot about myself.

[brentspeak]

3. Kansas could have used more campaigners like you

Good luck in the city elections, Mabus.

[Mabus]

4. Fortunately it is a GROUP effort

and I'm only a part of it.

When I went out and "put it all out there" I got a lot more support than I ever expected. Through friends I found other people who were willing to help. The best part is that there were others out there doing the same thing. We just ended up finding each other and working together.