UPDTAE: I just heard from the campaign. They have been inundated with offers to phonebank from kossacks. Way to go, guys! THEY HAVE REQUESTED THAT WE DON'T SEND ANY FURTHER E-MAILS AT THIS POINT (12:45AM EST). THEY ARE AFRAID THAT THEIR E-MAIL ACCOUNTS WILL BE SHUT DOWN. Wow, this was fun for a longtime lurker. I'll post again in another couple of years:) Thanks all.
This is my first diary, so please be gentle. On Saturday, February 18, the person running the campaign for Ciro Rodriguez in Hays County posted a diary pleading for virtual volunteers for phone banking. It seems that a swath of the district is actually in the Austin media market, which is far more expenisve than the other media markets for TX-28. Addiitonally, the part of the district that is acutally in this market is such a small part of the market, that mass media would be highly inefficent even if it were affordable. So...the campaign is digging in and doing grassroots phone banking to connect with "frequent" democratic voters -- a highly effective and proven strategy -- and they are asking for our help.
I posted a response to that diary immediately, asking any kossacks who were more experienced than I at navigating Daily Kos, to front-page the diary, recommend it, make it a "Call to Action," etc. I also asked the campaign contact to let us know how many names he had, how many times they had to be "touched" before the primary, etc.
It turns out that there are *only 4000 names on the list and that they probably only need to be "touched" once*. So I proposed, and tried to promote in several places on the site, the idea of kossacks "adopting" this project. It would only take 200 kossacks X 20 names each to polish off the list. Or 100 X 40. You can do the math, and as anyone who did phonebanking during the last election knows, *it has a huge impact*. If you can't be in the district to be boots on the ground, this is your chance to make a big contribution.
We have already put this campaign in the netroots spotlight, helping to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars among ourselves, and helping to bring in labor, volunteers and money from other sources. Let's consider this a next step. This campaign is a first for the netroots -- ousting a DINO and putting others like him on notice that they *do* have to answer to their constituents, and that their constituents are *all democrats / progressives, regardless of where they live in this country*.
So, please everyone, *recommend this, front-page it, do anything else necessary to give this the play and support it deserves*. Early voting has begun in TX-28 and this campaign needs us. *And if you can phonebank, please e-mail Eric Heggie immediately at eh1090@txstate.edu*.
(Perhaps I should add that the campaign will provide phone lists and scripts electronically, and that good times to call are evenings and weekends, when lots of us have free cell minutes. And for those who have never done it before, it is easy and painless -- and in this part of the district, I suspect you will be preaching to the converted, so to speak.)
P.S Sorry but I don't know how to link to the original diary, so if someone could provide that service, I would be much obliged.