It’s another Saturday, so for those who tune in, welcome to a Saturday Diary on Nuts & Bolts of a Democratic Campaign. Each week, we discuss issues that help drive successful campaigns, and once a month we look into “Horrible mistakes you should avoid” (last Saturday of a month). If you’ve missed prior diaries, please visit our group or follow Nuts & Bolts Guide.
We’ve talked about canvass in several prior diaries, the art of making voter contact. This week, though, we’re moving forward with how we pay attention to proper canvass as well as what actually is, and isn’t canvass.
Many campaigns often mistake canvass as simply knocking a door and leaving literature—or what for the purpose of this diary series I will call “a lit drop”—while others view the distribution of campaign signage and material as part of their active canvass as well.
Since Jessica Jones has joined a coordinated campaign, she now has an office area to manage her walkers and her call time, and to store her materials. Let’s talk about how she can make it effective.
This week, I’m breaking out the video camera to give you a look inside of a campaign office and let you see how we start, our point of origin and I’m going to walk through (in video) a few of the details that go into that office. For those who don’t need to stare at me for several minutes, I want to take some time to cover the basics.
Building home base
Depending on the size of your campaign and how strong your fundraising, your campaign may have one or more physical offices, no offices, or a shared office. Because Jessica Jones is running for state senate in a mid-sized state, she shares an office with other candidates to reduce cost as a part of their coordinated campaign.
Jessica’s shared office has a lot of purposes: it can be used to store campaign materials, handouts, signs and voter registration guides; and it is also used to create a common meeting point to turn in data from your canvass in the field.
Don’t worry so much about having an incredibly nice and well decked out office; you need somewhere for people to meet and handle their duties, not somewhere people are expected to hang out all day.
Darn it, yard signs
Frequently, I hear campaigns make the assumption that the distribution of yard signs is a key function of their canvass: making sure people walk a district carrying signage or distributing signage strikes several campaigns as important.
I will say this loudly: yard signs DO NOT VOTE. They are often a tool to reward your supporters, but they do not change an individuals mind and they are not an effective portion of your campaign, as multiple studies have pointed out.
Still, many older Democratic voters and strong supporters will likely want them. These items, while not being part of your canvass, are also a campaign cash suck: they cost you money and if distributed wrong can sink a fair amount of campaign cash into something you know before you start isn’t effective.
Your home base will be a location at which you will likely store your signs and other materials. In order to make sure these campaign vampires don’t bleed you of too much of your valuable resources, encourage the idea that donors can receive signs. NOTE: IN MANY STATES YOU CANNOT SELL YARD SIGNS UNLESS YOU INTEND TO COLLECT SALES TAX. However, people in your office should make clear to those that want signs that you only have so many to distribute, and you need to reward donors.
Where do we go to canvass?
When Democratic campaigns begin to look at a canvass, they use tools like VoteBuilder combined with analysis components to determine the voter universe they should work to motivate. They will typically generate something that looks like this:
Keeping track of their voter base, they work to identify “High Propensity” voters (tier 1) and persuadable (mid & low) propensity voters. Because many of these sheets break down variables much farther, I’m using a basic output just for the purpose of this diary. Once you identify your potential universe — voters you need to turn out to win — you build targets based on the high, low and mid propensity voters.
Too many campaigns have a tendency to put their canvass efforts into high-propensity "friendly” districts, often upscale districts. Walkers feel comfortable to be there and since they can find high propensity Democrats, they can anticipate the experience at the door.
Meanwhile, low propensity registered Democrats can be the variable that makes or breaks a Democratic election — which should be obvious based on Democratic track records in non-presidential years.
Too many campaigns, though, struggle to effectively canvass those areas, which aren't as seemingly “friendly” to them and where the conversations at the door aren’t assured before they go. Let’s face it, candidates love to hit doors where they know they will be greeted with open arms, but aren’t as interested in facing down unknown voters who may or may be as friendly.
But identifying, building data, and communicating to those voters is key for your success.
Play it safe and don’t make a scene
Your canvassers may find themselves confronted with an issue at the door that leads them to seek an assist. This can often be anything from a confrontational voter to someone who has a question they simply don’t know. One of the key rules of any canvass is: unless you are the candidate do not speak for the campaign as to what your candidate’s positions are unless it is clearly stated in front of you. Encourage the voter to contact the campaign office or the candidate directly, and make sure they know that the candidate or staff will respond to them.
Having a centralized location for where your canvass will meet upon completion and return to your office or home is an important tool that can help you keep track of successful canvassers and those who might consider other work in the campaign. The centralized location to meet also gives your canvassers the ability to return and speak to each other in case their are problems.
If canvasser A discovers that her walk list is very wrong, which could include a series of bad names, a street that doesn’t actually exist or a walking order that proves incorrect, she can return to an agreed upon area and meet with others to confirm issues with her list and find out if she’s simply made a walking mistake or if they need to check the data.
DO NOT hold meetings about problems with your canvass in front of the houses of voters. This is why a common meeting space provides a chance to sort that out without looking disorganized or frustrated in front of voters. You are there to make the campaign look good; loitering around in front of voters sorting out an issue doesn’t accomplish that.
Establish a safe space to go, and confer there if you need to make changes or discuss issues.
Next week: Mail programs
Nuts & Bolts: Building Democratic Campaigns
Contact the Daily Kos group Nuts and Bolts by kosmail (members of Daily Kos only).
Every Saturday this group will chronicle the ins and outs of campaigns, small and large. Issues to be covered: Campaign Staffing, Fundraising, Canvass, Field Work, Data Services, Earned Media, Spending and Budget Practices, How to Keep Your Mental Health, and on the last Saturday of the month: “Don’t Do This!” a diary on how you can learn from the mistakes of campaigns in the past.
You can follow prior installments in this series HERE.