There was a diary recently (sorry, no link, probably not needed) where someone complained about donating to MoveOn and not seeing the kind of hard-hitting t.v. ads he wanted. Lots of people responded, with things like, "They DID air strong ads that lifted some campaigns to contention" "Maybe you aren't in a market they hit" and, my feeling, "They are running the most impressive phone bank in history" I feel strongly that this made the difference in some of the races we're celebrating.
More about that phone bank below the fold.
Here's the results: MoveOn's home page lists races we won, with the margin, and the number of calls placed by MoveOn Call for Change participants. In some cases, the # of calls exceeds the margin of victory by 20-1. From this, I conclude that without those calls, there would have been no victory. I placed some of the 80,000 calls for Baron Hill, IN-09, and his margin was 4,000 votes. That's one of the more extreme examples, but there are plenty of 10-1 margins. I have no idea what the conversion rate of calls made to votes actually counted is, but we got people to the polls.
One thing: it does make a difference that real humans, volunteering their time, make these calls. I was questioned several times whether I got paid for doing this. My sense is that I would have had no credibility were I a professional telemarketer. One guy cussed out the people who made 5 robocalls at him that day, but made time to talk to me!
The other thing: it was a strong operation. The lists were good (fewer hostiles than I expected), the script was good solid telemarketing technique, the web tool very easy to use and it nimbly jumped from election to election. I found that they ran out of numbers in most of the races - at least for certain phases. That meant they had the callers they needed to reach deep into borderline uncompetitive races. The rethugs will be fearful next time - no sanctuaries!
Something like 20,000 - 40,000 people were making these calls. That is awesome. Not a bunch of minimum wage mercenaries, not robo-callers. Money didn't drive this (though I'm sure it cost plenty). The rethugs can buy autodialers and lease phone lines, but this time they couldn't get match us with real people who had real passion.
The best the rethugs could coome up with was the usual voter suppression and harrassment. (My new watchword: Hint: if the only way you win is with chickenshit, your POLITICS SUCK! Get better ideas! ) I'm glad we can win and not need to take a bath after.
And what fills me with glee: MoveOn came into being as an email campaign to get the Rethugs to just censure Clinton over that blowjob, and Move On. Instead, they gave us a tool to kick their asses.