Training Tuesday with the DFA: 'Your Field Plan: Vote Goals, Targeting, and Field Strategy' presented, Kendra-Sue Derby, a longtime progressive campaign manager and advisor, explaining how it is 'All About the Numbers'.
Pay attention. Everything she said is important. I am adding two tweaks so that you can apply it to electing progressives.
In clip one she outlines how a campaign should classify different kinds of potential voters. I take it a step further with a look at how the base voter block changes depending on whether you are working with an incumbent, challenger or open seat. In part two she goes into how to approach, or not approach, each group... and again I take this a tad further.
Join me after the fold:
The Base: "Some people call you the elite, I call you my base."
I could start with the incumbent base because of the Bush quote and the advantage of an incumbent base during an election. Kendra-Sue Derby glosses over the differences between the party base, the incumbent base, and the challenger base. The first base is the party base. The first time a candidate runs for office he becomes an eligible user of the party base.
The party base has the list of democratic voters that is culled from the democratic primary elections run by the state board of elections or the local election boards. It has three additional lists: donors to the party, volunteers for the party and voters in primary caucuses. If you use the list you agree to help maintain it. This means identifying citizens who have gone over to the dark side or moved and your volunteers and donors when you decide not to run again.
The incumbent base has the party lists plus the incumbent volunteers, donors to this and previous elections and members of the opposition party that like the incumbent enough to make the supporter list.
The challenger list is similar to the incumbent list. The difference is we all get better with practice.
On tactics you should take with a grain of salt the division into 1, 2 and 3 and forget the 1. 1 stands for the base. If you counted the base vote in your campaign plan you need to include securing it. If you pull a Creigh Deeds it will stay home. The base is also a part of your campaign, like it or not, because a lot of voters ask one of the junkies why they should vote and who they should get their vote. The junkies are the base.
On the division into every election and this type election, you may turn a one time voter into an every election voter. This must be used with caution. Again don't pull a Creigh Deeds and concentrate on Obama voters as you run away from Obama.
There is lots of room for alternate analysis and you are welcome to offer more and better advice in the comments.