A movement is growing at Daily Kos to fix a major problem in our party — regardless of whether Hillary or Bernie wins the presidential nomination. We’ve launched the Crowdsourcing the 50-State Strategy and we are recruiting activists to join us in this bottom-up rebuilding process. |
When we talk about ways you can help campaigns, you often hear the same roles for you to play. Many of these roles will sound familiar to you, but I want to talk today about the unique new roles that avail themselves to members of the Daily Kos community — and that you may find attractive & rewarding.
In the past few weeks, we’ve spent time discussing John Bel Edward’s well-received “Patriots over Prostitutes” ad. These TV advertisements seem out of reach for most smaller campaigns. But what if I told you that isn’t always the case?
In a quick check of fees for cable broadcast ad time in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska and Tennessee, I discovered about what I expected: cable TV ad slots can be purchased for as low as 39 cents a slot — that is 39 cents for every time an ad airs. In more prime slots, a fee of between 90 cents and 3 dollars per ad run.
There are reasons for this, most notably that many of these media markets will go untouched by the broader presidential campaign race. There simply hasn’t been an effort to reach people in say, areas of Utah, Idaho, Montana, Kansas, Oklahoma ... so ad brokers and cable companies still release ads at bargain-basement prices in off seasons (like now) and continue the low pricing with discounted political rates closer to election day.
For years, this has allowed right-wing organizations time to run infrastructure-building ads year around aimed at solidifying their base. Whether they are terribly produced attack ads on the president, slide-shows with voice-overs, or simply pro-conservative Republican meditations.
The cheap cost of advertising made it a great buy for those conservative groups wanting to maximize their reach. Democrats, however, were held out of this game for one reason: while airing these ads was incredibly cheap, original production is not; average production costs can run from $4,000-$15,000, higher than most small candidates can put together in a hurry.
This same expenditure problem exists for a lot of Democratic campaigns from local to federal. These hurdles could be overcome if only initial value costs were not such a huge factor.
And this is where that good old thing called capitalism sinks in. With newer and easier to use tools and more people competing for work, production costs can come down — and that’s where we need you.
Campaigns often need people with these skills:
Graphic & Web Design Support
Do you know WordPress? Joomla? Or any other simple content manager that you can build a campaign website with? Maybe you’re willing to help with graphic design work ... or maybe you know something about how to maintain and upkeep those websites. Small campaigns often rely on either good friends or others to slip together websites. As a result, the budget can sometimes end up with websites that look like this. Web designers and graphic artists willing to “crowdsource” a website and support it can lower the cost to a campaign, which can be significant and still stay within the ethical rules. If you’re in a candidate’s district and you think: “I can’t give a lot of money, but I’m good at (skill), I should offer help,” in-kind donations of your professional help (and hey, maybe even some dollars coming your way) can both help the candidate and help you build a résumé if this is your line of work.
Video Production & Management
Are you good with Adobe Premiere? Can you manage video production tools? Are you able to put together effective slide shows, YouTube videos? Maybe you know something about GoAnimate and can turn in something cute and funny. Or, say that you are great with a video camera. If you are and you are willing to lend time and resources to a campaign, definitely consider it — campaigns can often put this to work, even “low-budget” campaigns can take your video production (if good) and circulate it via Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, DailyKos, whereever, at absolutely no ongoing cost to help get their message out. If they are in the right district, your ad can air on local cable and broadcast networks.
Voice-over and Voice Production
In 2014 and 2015, several members of Daily Kos helped campaign staffs in multiple states with voice production work. Voice production work means providing voice-overs and unique content for radio ads or as a backdrop for video slide shows produced for youtube/etc.
In some cases, the voice-over work was deployed on radio and in at least one case, TV. If you have a good to great voice and you’re willing to read a script, consider it. Your voice may make an impact in states far away from you and the fact that it doesn’t sound the normal radio announcer reading a sheet of paper can lend a new perspective.
This category is especially true for fluent Spanish speakers, women and men with deep voices.
Tracking
Republicans make heavy use of district attention while they are in office. It’s one of the things I strongly commend them for, as most Republicans make their way back to their home districts and hold town halls or public meetings with those who elected them. It not only is good constituent services, but these meetings are often unbelievably conservative rallies that unified their base where.. let us all be honest ... crazy things get said. Tracking, the process of audio and video recording public meetings, is something almost every campaign works on. Making sure that we catch the right moment with opposition candidates to know what they are saying, and if there is a miss, taking advantage for our candidates by amplifying that miss.
But in off years, and in the time period where there is no candidate, who is watching those who govern? Well, this is a task up for individuals like Daily Kos users. If a Republican is holding an open to the public meeting in your district GO. Take with you a small camera — I usually recommend the Flip, even though it’s been discontinued, over a cell phone as it won’t ring and lose recording capabilities and can be found on Amazon/etc., for less than $50.
George Allen was undone by a citizen tracker. Mitt Romney’s 47% comment? A tracker. When captured on video, these events made public can be the undoing of a political career.
If you plan to go and record an event, I always say the following: be quiet, be respectful, don’t ask questions or get involved. You want your recording to be “clean” without your voice loud on it (you are closest to the camera so your voice will sound louder than others) and simply let others ask the questions. Republicans will often ask the crazy questions themselves, and you just get to capture the answers.
In your own district you can help knock doors, make phone calls, donate and raise money — but if we want to Crowdsource the 50 State Strategy we must look at the strength of our members and ask them to help bring those talents to where they are needed.