Listen up Steve Grossman and Don Berwick: Both of you have run atrocious field programs. I heard from y’all back when it was likely I’d be a delegate to the convention, but not till well after I’d started hearing from Kayyem. Haven’t heard from either since February or so. Which says something. Over the years I’ve put in tons of volunteer hours for candidates and given a decent amount of money. I don’t believe in days off, so giving my weekends to a campaign is the most natural thing in the world. If you were running competent campaigns, you’d know this.You’d want volunteers like me, who can bring in more vols and votes. And you’d be smart enough to talk to locally experienced political operatives and powerbrokers who could point you to the people like me. But you haven’t even tried. I wasn’t a delegate, so you lost interest in me. Which says something about the overall quality of your field efforts.
So here’s the challenge: whichever campaign calls me first gets my vote. It’s that easy. No persuasion required. You can leave a message if I don’t answer. I vote in every election, so I should be on your target voter list already. Just come and get me.
jbrach2014 says
I’m just a volunteer for the Berwick campaign, so hopefully leaving a comment will suffice. I am sorry we never got in touch with you Seamus. Please consider signing up to join Team Berwick here: http://www.berwickforgovernor.com/volunteer
jconway says
You shouldn’t have to sign up, the field operation should have contacted guys like Seamus months ago. I have enjoyed interacting with a lot of committed, dedicated, powerful Berwick canvassers and democratic organizers through this site and also on facebook and elsewhere. I regularly get updates from them, and they are so hopeful that Don will turn the corner. But, I also know ward captains in Cambridge he contacted personally before the convention that haven’t heard from him since. It’s a bit of a rudderless campaign.
Deval made sure he got great people to run his campaign and it was the smoothest operation in the primary. Doorknocking won that campaign, not ads, but you need a sophisticated coordination for doorknocking to work. I see scattershots from Berwick, whereas Deval used laser targeted precision to get voters. I think the post-mortem will show that this campaign had momentum going into and coming out of the convention squandered on a bizarre strategy as it relates to actually winning primary voters. Reddit? Really? And who is writing the ads that are actually airing?
jconway says
It seems that Coakley had an early and often canvassing strategy from dedicated people with experience, some of whom post here, some of whom don’t, and she got the right people on her team to actually win the primary. We will see if Grossman can break through, and maybe Berwick, after some more debates, but he is looking like Reich redux, not Deval.
seamusromney says
I haven’t seen any Coakley canvassers anywhere I’ve been. Haven’t been called since Dec but I can’t gauge the strength of that since I told her people I was anyone but Coakley. Though last time part of Coakley’s problem was calling (some people) too often. Her people didn’t bother tracking who got calls, so some people would get multiple robocalls and live calls the same day and be pissed.
seamusromney says
Good try, but that would be too easy. The point of this challenge is the campaigns don’t know who I am. If they’re competent, they’ll find me, because I should be a targeted voter in a primary.
markbernstein says
I’ve actually been impressed with the number of times I’ve been called by the Berwick team. I’m nowhere near as prominent as Seamus, but I’ve had three invitations to meet and greets, two calls inviting me to summits, a call every 2-3 weeks asking me to canvass, and a few other contacts.
Every field organization will miss some people, either because the screening list was poor or because One Of Those Things happened. Perhaps Seamus was marked erroneously as strong Coakley at some early point in the campaign, and the Berwick team simply doesn’t want to annoy him. Stuff happens; no call to generalize or assume it’s either incompetence or incapacity.
rcmauro says
You must be the one person on earth that actually wants to get those calls.
seamusromney says
I am kind of obsessed with politics.
Donald Green says
If you are as active politically as you say, Don Berwick has shown up at many Town Committees. He tweets and has a facebook. Over 60,000 doors have been knocked or received phone calls using a list of people who are likely to vote in the Democratic Primary. Sorry the campaign did not get to you yet. If you do want him to be governor over the other two candidates, you will have to swallow your pride, and accept a belated invitation to join the campaign. As a volunteer meeting weekly, canvassing, and phone banking I heartily invite you to help us out. Like others, the website http://www.berwickforgovernor will get you to sign up, and you will get information to become part of the team and meet some very interesting, informed, and collegial people to boot.
seamusromney says
60,000 door knocks/phone calls? One hard-working field organizer could make that many calls in 4-5 months. They shouldn’t, because finding volunteers to do it is usually a more efficient use of time. But seriously, with the size of the field staff they have, that number is pathetic. If Grossman’s campaign can confirm his numbers are less weak I’ll vote for him even if I don;t get called.
Christopher says
Berwick’s can be found on his website and you can sign up for one in your area. Grossman’s campaign for whatever reason doesn’t keep the website listings updated, but you can contact their field team through the website.
seamusromney says
Do their staffers only work an hour a day?
Christopher says
…is at least a couple of three hour shifts per day, and spending the rest of the time accompanying the candidate within their turf, preparing walk packets, volunteer recruitment, data entry, etc. I’ve been there – these jobs are easily full time plus.
seamusromney says
They have a TON of field staff. The staff alone should have had no problem exceeding 60k. With volunteers they should blow those numbers away. The Warren campaign did more than that every week!
Christopher says
My guess is with EW, everyone was involved, but now you have 11 candidates in contested statewide primaries. I know plenty of staffers on several campaigns and they are working their tails off. I really don’t think you can second guess them from the outside.
seamusromney says
As someone who has managed a Congressional campaign or two in my day, I know how to set goals for field staff. And Berwick has at least 10 field staff, as of when I counted in June. So even if the entire number is post-convention, that’s 600 doors/calls per week per field staffer. Which means even if they have zero volunteers, zero interns, and are relying entirely on the paid staff to do all of the voter outreach, they’re still not meeting reasonable targets.
rcmauro says
What do you consider more effective, leaving messages and reaching fewer people, or no messages and talking to more people? Campaigns seem to have differing strategies when it comes to this.
JMGreene says
on who you’re calling.
Christopher says
For ID or pursuasion you will have to re-call them anyway so you might as well move on. For GOTV or volunteer/event recruiment messages can work.