Who is smart enough to run ads on Bayh? Not Dems...

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Monday February 15, 2010 · 10:53 AM PST

2010/02/15 · 10:53

So, Evan Bayh is announcing his retirement today. Setting aside the babble about motivations, implications, and reverberations-- seriously, given his track record, who didn't know that Bayh was going to do something to kneecap the Democratic Party on his way out the door-- I was pleasantly surprised that one campaign had the speed, intelligence, and sophistication to take advantage of the situation.

Of course, it's right-winger Pat Toomey's campaign, and that sucks, but it highlighted once again the continually-widening gap between Republicans and Democrats online.

Dunn

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Sunday November 15, 2009 · 11:49 AM PST

2009/11/15 · 11:49

Recently, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the interactive landscape in general, and about the various races I've handled interactive communications for over the last two years, primarily the Gregoire/Rossi Washington State gubernatorial rematch in 2008, and Corzine/Christie gubernatorial campaign of 2009.

I've been thinking about what we did right, what we did wrong, what surprised me, what we didn't take advantage of, what we thought would work that didn't, etc, and, most importantly, where Democrats and online political communications go from here.

I'll be the first to admit that, though I do this for a living, I don't have all of the answers. But the reality is that Election Day 2010 is one year away. It's time for campaigns to start gearing up, and Interactive needs to play a bigger role than it did in 2008 or 2009.

So what follows are 10 brutally frank things campaigns need to think about as they plan their campaign strategy for 2010.

Dunn

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Monday November 02, 2009 · 10:09 AM PST

2009/11/02 · 10:09

It's hard to believe that it's been a year since Barack Obama and Democrats from coast to coast delivered their historic and epic electoral beat down. I suspect that the memories and the experience was so intense that many if not most Americans feel as if it was yesterday, like a lingering campaign hangover from a really good election night out.

Dunn

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Friday August 21, 2009 · 8:11 AM PDT

2009/08/21 · 08:11

Obviously, there's a gut-reaction answer to a question like that, and I have a feeling that if I put a poll question up, the only real question would be how far into the 90's the NO responses would go. (So, instead, I've included another question).

Every two years, we have 150 (give or take) competitive races in the House and Senate, in addition to Governors races, and yet, by a weird alchemy that we try to define but is never followed, a handful-- maybe 5 to 10 percent or so-- are lifted onto the shoulders of this community and the "great orange smoke monster" comes alive, raising money, writing about them on the front page, and the multitude of us follow their race closely, even when it lies outside of our state and/or district.

And so, as a guy who is often asked by campaigns how can they can get the progressive online community excited and interested in their race, it's a puzzling question: What makes a Netroots Hero?

Poll

22 votes Show Results

What'd be your first piece of netroots advice to a hypothetical Dem House challenger?

22 votes Vote Now!

What'd be your first piece of netroots advice to a hypothetical Dem House challenger?

Focus on reaching the front-page writers, to advocate for you

2 votes

Raise the profile/odious nature of your opponent

1 vote

Stay on your local blogs, push them to take you national

0 votes

Highlight the winnable/flippable nature of the race

1 vote

Embrace a front-line progressive issue and ride it

10 votes

Attend Netroots Nation, blog on Kos & other sites regularly

5 votes

Hire someone with roots into the community to work for you

1 vote

Advertise heavily on the sites progressives read, highlighting your cred

1 vote

Hope for a Macca moment, but focus on other aspects like email and ads

0 votes

Build your network via other new-media tools and sites, but leave the engagement alone

0 votes

Tweet, tweet, tweet.

1 vote

2008 Redux, right now: The Plumber & the Minutemen vs Mitt & Rudy vs Barack & Joe.

Dunn

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday May 29, 2009 · 8:58 AM PDT

2009/05/29 · 08:58

The race for Governor in New Jersey is one of those situations where I expect to see some involvement and interest at Kos, but when I try to summon up some of that righteous outrage myself , the situation is just too absurd and it keeps the boil from really getting going.

So I've been waiting, waiting for the great orange smoke monster to rise up and see what's on the line and get things moving--the way that orange smoke monster has been known to do-- but so far, very little (Steve's post yesterday was a good start). I guess that's to be expected, but it's almost time to suit back up.

I dunno if it's the off-year nature of the election, the fact that it's a state race, or the fact that Democrats are somehow (somehow!) able to separate campaigning and governing so that we're not locked into the Republican's endless pundit spiral of doom in which everything becomes a spin, schlock, and shout match rather than a substantive discussion of policies and values that, oh, I don't know, MATTER!, but the Kos community isn't paying attention to this race in the way that you should.

And that's a shame, because you're missing some really great shit.

RSS

Who is smart enough to run ads on Bayh? Not Dems...

Winning Online: 10 Tips for 2010 Campaigns (Part II)

Winning Online: 10 Tips for 2010 Campaigns

Could Arlen Specter become a "netroots hero"?

2008 Redux, right now: The Plumber & the Minutemen vs Mitt & Rudy vs Barack & Joe.