Now, some fairly small part of the job will involve the John Kerry for Senate campaign of next year, but that is not our main focus. John Kerry is running a national campaign (no, he is not running for President). More to the point, he is running multiple national campaigns. But they are not to get him elected; they are campaigns for causes, campaigns for our country. He (with our support at JohnKerry.com) is running a campaign to get a new direction in Iraq and set a deadline to start bringing our troops home, a campaign to get solutions to our world’s energy and climate crises, a campaign to get our veterans the fair shake they deserve, and other campaigns to get our country on a more sensible, progressive footing. And we need help to achieve all of this. This is a classic situation where you get paid while you do work you believe in. Well, at least it is if you’re a progressive reader of BMG … if you’re a conservative reader of the blog, I guess that would not apply (and, I suspect, neither would you).
Anyway, here is the job description:
The team at JohnKerry.com seeks a strong writer to further our progressive political goals through Internet communications channels. We have one of the largest email lists in progressive politics, and we need someone to help make it into the strongest force for progressive change it can be. This job will also have responsibility over the various JohnKerry.com blogs in our soon-to-be-released projects.
A successful candidate will be able to write very strong copy on a short turnaround, implementing the goals and strategies of an overall communications plan. The candidate should also have a familiarity with email communications to large groups in a professional setting and be able to demonstrate an understanding of the best practices in email list management. Experience in political online organizing a plus. Duties include:
Design and implement email communications, online written communications, and online advertising. Measure and produce reports on effectiveness of all campaigns using spreadsheets and other databases. Test, analyze and optimize email campaigns’ rate of opens, click-thru and overall response. Work closely with Data Steward to segment lists for maximum communications efficiency. Manage content on multiple blogs, including comment monitoring.
So, there ya go. Since I am an Internet activist who managed to end up in this job, I wanted to make sure to get the word out to the MA Internet community about this. If you have a blog, feel free to post about this job … anyone interested in applying should send a cover letter, resume, and writing samples to setadeadline (at) gmail (dot) com.
Thanks
I notice the soapblox bug is still active … just insert an apostrophe or a quotation mark where a lot of those ?s are …
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I’ll try to fix ’em, but iirc, it’s a bug I can’t control as a user …
OK, I took out all the contractions that were getting messed up … your reading should be unencumbered by stray question marks …
Do you write in MS Word then transfer over to this platform?
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This isn’t a bug — it’s a difference between encoding systems. Word’s default setting is to change regular quotes and apostrophes — ‘ and ” — for which there are ASCII codes to “curly quotes”. It does the same when it turns two hyphens into a dash. These “features” can be turned off.
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Unfortunately, there is no ASCII code for dashes, or “curly” quotes and apostrophes. So, if you port stuff from MS Word format over here, the characters come out as question marks because the program doesn’t know how to interpret them. Writing in .txt format eliminates this problem.
I wrote some in the blog here, and some I copy-n-pasted from a Word doc (the job description). It popped up in both … and, actually, some of it is copied from a dKos post I did, so it’s from all over. The insertions didn’t seem to follow any pattern …
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I thought I saw a mention of this problem last week here, or was it another soapblox blog?
and is therefore a bug.
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Assigning blame (MS app vs. SoapBox vs. W3C standards vs. particular browser) is tricky, but it doesn’t behave well, and is therefore a bug.
Kerry should add staff to answer constituent questions via phone inquiries and forget the Blogosphere He is out of touch with the average voter, that is why Ohio is a painful memory.
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I have called his office twice in my lifer regarding Iraq armament and unemployment benefits. Both times, I was dumped into a voice mail…
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Yet I received a fundraising call from somebody in California for Kerry. . I asked why the senator was nor employing
When the oval is not marked, it is ME!
I guess we can take it Skipper will not be applying for this position. Willy Gilligan, The Professor, Ginger, Mary Ann and the Howells will have to fight it out.
I should be on the look out for your resume?
Ifn you gots such good ideas… put ’em to use.
John Kerry, for all the affectionate ribbing we give him on this site, is an excellent fellow and a credit to his country and his state, in MHO. This is a terrific opportunity for anyone interested in getting more involved with Democratic politics in general and Massachusetts politics in specific. Grab it.
It’s not “ribbing” Sen Kerry, it’s flat out deserved criticism when Skipper points out a real problem with the Senator’s office. And that is as it should be. It’s also not “ribbing” when I and others point out his shameful duplicity in soliciting gay people for campaign contributions all the while insisting that we shouldn’t have even one of what he’s had 2 of (civil marriages). If Kerry doesn’t take legitimate criticism seriously, he can kiss jolly ole ribbing goodbye. Ribbing is something you do with those you respect.
Skipper stole my comment. Sen. Kerry’s constituent services are worse than abysmal. He gets elected, then the folks who elected him can kiss his derriere. Time to pull chocks spend summers on Naushon and winters in Paris.
Time for a vaca from the trials and tribulations of all that arduous work on Capitol Hill.
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BTW, how is Joe Bangert getting along?
I am a strong supporter of Sen. Kerry. I spent a lot of time over the year and a half working on his campaign for President. I even traveled to Iowa on my own dime twice. So, I say this with the best intentions.
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Skipper actually is saying something I have heard a number of times about Sen. Kerry’s office. I think it is great you are posting the position on this site and I think it is great that Sen. Kerry recognizes the value of the internet and blogs, but he or his chief of staff really needs to pay attention to what Skipper and others are saying about his staff’s responsiveness to his constituents. He needs to acknowledge the problem and then do something about how his staff handles calls and inquiries from his constituents. Too many people think it is a problem for it to be ignored. Maybe his staff can get some training or consultation from Sen. Kennedy’s staff.
I read all the replies to everything, and I do take what’s said and pass it along, generally speaking.
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Of course, your comment is much more likely to get passed along than is skipper’s, but that’s the nature of things … not because you are a supporter and he is not, but because a straight pointing out of a problem gets my attention, while an attack does not.
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Thanks for the heads-up on the problem, and I’ll talk to folks …
“I read all the replies to everything, and I do take what’s said and pass it along, generally speaking.”
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Obviously you can’t do anything, but pretend you can. “generaly speaking” means you ain’t even trying.
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Your next paragraph attacks a constituent who is irate at the constituent service from the Senator’s office. What do you do? tell him you don’t like his atitude and therefore no help from you. Nice.
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You are like the 911 operator who won’t send out the firetrucks because the person on the phone is screaming she is on fire. “Mam, yelling is not goung to help. Lower your voice”
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I wouldn’t want you working for me. I would not get re-elected.
I just responded that I read everything and make sure it reaches the right people when appropriate. I don’t handle constituent mail, so I’m not going to say, “I’ll take care of it!”
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As for “attacking” … well, I guess that’s your viewpoint. I was merely pointing out that when I get a statement of concern that’s couched one way, I can hear the original concern better than when it’s couched another. I’ve been around the Internet block long enough to know that not all criticisms are coming from a desire to actually make a situation better. I still hear and read everything on my post. I read skipper’s point, saw what he said, and when it was emphasized by someone else, I responded to that comment.
Well Bri- Were the kids bad to you at school today?
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I called Kerry’s office to inquire if he was supporting Biden’s bill to produce Humvees with extra armorment that will deflect the effect of IEDs in Iraq. I could not get a straight answer only double talk politicalese until they transferred me to a person that would have all of the answers and it went into a voice mail—never to be acknowledged.
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You see old Skipper has two sons in the service both cycling in and out of the Middle East and Iraq.
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Biden needed support because Bush the piker thought the costs were too much. Why aren’t the Bush twins, or Romney boys (6) in the service if they love the war so much?
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What is your job to frame the message and keep it on task and positive? Are you on the public payroll? Kerry and his office staff are and they are useless….
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Kennedy, Delahunt, Lynch etc supported the Biden bill.
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If I have a particular dislike for the junior senator it is for all the right reasons.
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By the way —these are the type of messages if I were the senator I would like to hear! You can always find the boot lickers.
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To quote Paul Harvey- “Now you know the rest of the story.”
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Go forth and frame some positive stories it is safer than the truth. Pretty soon you will be the head suck-up!
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For Immediate Release
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The internet community is the voice of tomorrow today. With the help of visionary leaders like Sen. John Kerry the everyday man is empowered with the freedom of communication.
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The internet is the engine driving progressive thought. The fuel feeding it is drilled from the heads of forward thinking leader like John Kerry.
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If we are going to get the message out we must speak as one united blog community. Please join John in this campaign for respect, dignity, and self-awareness. If we don?t do this, who will?