(Teaser - President Clinton’s Senate and the US Supreme Court are at stake.)
FINALLY: Bayh starts his field operation!
I am finishing knocking my 12th precinct this weekend, and have been collecting data for both John (our gubernatorial candidate) and Evan all along. (Well, Baron Hill before that.) We opened up our local office in Lafayette at the same point that John’s campaign started working. (Here is a list of John’s field offices — is there one near you?)
My IDP sources tell me that there will be a coordinated campaign, quite possibly run out of John’s field offices and those run by county parties and/or IDP. Originally, I was told that my supporter IDs for the senate race could not be used, due to FEC restrictions. (The way to get around that is to have federal candidates pay part of the costs for the staffers etc. who are running the coordinated campaigns. But until today, I had not received official confirmation.)
What can you do to help?
- Sure, you can donate money. (Links are in the quoted portion at the end.) But how about contacting your local county party office, John Gregg office, or whatever, and figuring out what they need. Lots of offices have donation requests. It could be something as simple as loaning them a coffee maker, a dorm fridge or a microwave. Printer supplies, etc. Just ask. This is a great way for people of modest means to have an impact on the ground, where it counts.
- What about food? (Please, no pizza or doughnuts!) Home cooking rocks, it’s a huge moral booster! You can whip up a nicely-seasoned pot of rice and beans for very little money. Or you can buy stuff, like granola bars, soft drinks, etc.
- Maybe they need some light office work? Entering data from walk and call packets helps. I know from my own experience that John’s literature is of uneven height. That is, a stack of it will be unstable (the top part is thicker than the bottom). So canvassers need literature packets in which the first piece is right-side-up, the next one is upside-down, and so forth (alternating). Then you rubber-band ‘em. This makes it easy to hand “lit packs” to canvassers. (There may be other examples of light office work that you can do, just ask!)
- Phone banking and canvassing go without saying. The research clearly shows that one-on-one voter contacts are vastly more effective than “carpet bombing” the air waves, or sending direct mail. Canvassing is far and away the most fruitful form of voter contact, because you’re looking the voter in the eye.
Why should you help?
- If you’ve been to 538, you doubtless realize that Hill’s chances of winning Indiana are fairly negligible. And if she wins here, she probably won’t need our 11 EVs. Hill needs the Senate a lot more! (And did I mention that we need a D gov. after 12 years of horrors?) This is your chance to make a real difference in a way that genuinely matters.
- These are both winnable races. (That link will take you to a Monmuth poll that shows Bayh ahead by 7 points, and the gubernatorial contest as a statistical tie — Holcomb up by one point. There’s quite a bit of anecdotal evidence that Bayh's popularity in Indiana is enduring. (I can vouch for this in my own canvassing experience, if it matters.) And tying Lt. Gov. Holcomb to Pence is not hard — every voter to whom I’ve spoken who dislikes Pence is on board with that.
- Our senate seat is probably essential for the Supreme Court. Your work could have an impact for decades to come, just on those grounds alone. Also don’t forget that the Senate alone approves treaties, as well as Federal judges and cabinet/agency appointees in general. The Repubs can make a lot of mischief with 51 votes. And given McConnell’s past reprehensible behavior, does anyone doubt that they will continue their intransigence?
- Twelve years of Daniels and Pence are quite enough. I don’t have to tell you, my fellow Hoosier about all the reprehensible damage that they’ve done to the state. Starving infrastructure and education, passing hate bills, going after unions. The list goes on and on.
- We have not elected a governor here since 2000. We have not had two senate seats since 1976. We have not had both senate seats and the governor’s mansion since 1968. Time to make history in Indiana again — remember 2008?
For completeness, here is the e-mail I just received from the Bayh campaign:
Raj --
The coming weeks of our campaign will be the most important of this entire election. Our team has only two-and-a-half months left to reach out to voters across Indiana and get them excited about Evan’s plans to bring common-sense Hoosier values to Washington.
All that is going to take a strong volunteer effort. Will you sign up today to volunteer with Evan’s campaign?
Sign up to volunteer!
We’ve made a lot of progress in the last couple of months, but dedicated supporters like you will be a critical part of our path to victory in November. We’re looking for enthusiastic Hoosiers who are ready to knock on doors, make phone calls, and register new voters.
Here’s the deal, Raj: You and I know that Evan Bayh is the right person to represent Indiana in the U.S. Senate. But we need to get that message out to as many people as possible -- especially with all the Koch-sponsored attack ads flooding the airwaves.
So, will you help us spread the word about Evan’s campaign? Sign up to volunteer
Thanks,
Peter Hanscom Executive Director, Evan Bayh Victory Fund
P.S. Not able to volunteer? Donating to Evan’s campaign is another great way to help.
BTW I would be remiss in not mentioning the great race that Shelli Yoder is running against “Tennessee Trey” in CD9. By all means, if you live down there, consider helping Shelli!