Last year I was lured from my cozy lair in New York city to canvas for Obama-Biden in Northeast Philadelphia. On the first morning out, carrying a few signs and few neighborhood packs and a few bagels stuffed in my backpack, we came upon a group of Northeasters sitting on their porch. With a wave of his hat, one of them stood up and shouted,"Obama!"
"Finally!" I said to my canvassing partner. "Friendly vot--"
But before I could finish my sentence, the guy on the porch finished his,"...is a douchebag!"
We won Northeast Philly, even though we probably didn't win that one vote. And in that moment, on that street corner, an idea for a Netroots Nation panel was born:
Fearless Campaigning
(more after the jump)
Fearless Campaigning, Door-to-Door and Beyond
Friday, August 14th
3:00 PM - 4:15 PM
Room 303
The past year saw thousands of online activists putting reams of campaign rhetoric to the test, particularly in the daunting arena of face-to-face voter persuasion. This panel will transform this collective, real-world knowledge into practical tools for fearless campaigning. Beyond analysis of framing on blogs and in books, how can we feed the lessons gleaned door-to-door back to the Netroots—for greater success in campaigns and stronger cohesion across the progressive movement? We’ll begin by engaging geographically diverse participants in a conversation about words that worked and words that did not.
Like so many Kossacks, the last election cycle gave me some life-changing experiences on the campaign trail. I certainly did not clock very many hours--mostly a weekend warrior. But the exposure to a well-organized, well-funded, smart, and fast campaign was amazing. After talking about rhetoric for years and writing several books, the '08 election gave me a chance to balance what I knew in my head about campaign communications with what I could feel in my heart and my gut.
And I ended up meeting and working with truly amazing people who had dedicated so much of their lives to the kind of difficult, often thankless door-to-door work that made such a huge difference.
Fearless Campaigning is a chance to bring a few of those great people together in one room and create an opportunity where we can all share our experiences from campaigns.
This is a ground-up panel where I will do little more than introduce the presenters and feed them questions from the room. As the least experienced campaigner on the panel, my job will be to listen and field questions.
Here are the amazing panelist:
Paul Delehanty: Paul Delehanty began writing as kid oakland on the website DailyKos in 2003 and is the author of numerous diaries on politics and culture. Paul's writing also appears on the blogs k/o, MyDD and Calitics. A veteran grassroots volunteer, in 2008 Paul wrote a series of widely-read essays in support of the campaign of President Barack Obama before moving to Nebraska to work as Internet Director for Scott Kleeb. Paul is the founder of BlogsUnited, a national community of local bloggers, and created the blogger scholarship program at YearlyKos2007. Paul currently works for NUHW, the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
Janice Caswell: Janice Caswell was a key grassroots organizer for Obama in New York. She also volunteered in four states during the primary and organized weekly canvassing trips to critical swing districts in Northeast Philadelphia for the general election. Throughout, she provided blog commentary on the ground game, encouraging bloggers to move from online to offline activism. Janice continues to organize in New York City on issues like health care reform.
Susan Smith: Susan Smith is a activist from Tampa, Florida. She is Chair of the Campaign and Precinct Organizing Committee for the Hillsborough County Democratic Party, and an Organizer for DFA Tampa Bay. Susan sits on the Advisory Board of Progress Florida, and is a board member of the Florida Netroots Coalition which named her Netroots Activist of the Year in 2007. She is responsible for training precinct leaders, and she is organizing a Netroots training for the Florida Democratic Party’s State Conference in October. She also co-hosts a Blogtalkradio show and blogs for the Florida Progressive Coalition.
Elizabeth Winter: Elizabeth Winter has been involved in Native American issues for over 30 years, including the start up of an Environmental Program at one tribe, supervising another one, and various other planning, fundraising and publicity roles. She also has experience with voter registration, poll working and GOTV efforts on-reservation. She volunteered for the Obama campaign, starting before Super Tuesday, blogging about campaign events and issues in New Mexico throughout 2008, and moderated a panel with New Mexico Congressional candidates at Netroots Nation last year.
Adam Ruff: Adam spent the last election cycle serving as Gary Trauner’s campaign manager in one of 2008’s most field-intensive Congressional campaigns. Opening 11 field office and staffing 19 organizers, it was the first in the nation to receive DCCC field funding. Previously, Adam honed his skills organizing Story County for the Edwards campaign in Iowa. Having also served as a Field Director for a Congressional race and an Attorney General race, Adam knows real numbers don’t end in 5 or 0. A recovering attorney, he now manages political business development at Blue State Digital.
Incredible group of people with a range of experiences that is humbling. These folks are the very top of the grassroots and what they have to share about door-to-door communications is amazing.
But beyond the amazing folks who will be on the dais, all of us agree that this is a chance for everyone who experienced something incredible in the campaign to come out and share it. We cannot possible have time to answer all questions, but this will be a huge opportunity to learn from and connect with grassroots campaigning experts who spend far more time pounding the pavement than punching the keyboard (although some of them punch that keyboard incredibly well (ehem...Paul).
If you had a powerful experience volunteering for a campaign this last election cycle, but never had a chance to talk about it: come to the Fearless Campaigning panel!
If you had a really great field campaign manager who taught you amazing door-to-door communication techniques: come to the Fearless Campaigning panel!
If you're involved in a campaign right now and are looking for some takeaway tips from some of the best campaigners in the netroots: come to the Fearless Campaigning panel!
If you just want to listen to what promises to be a fantastic, informative, and inspiring conversation about getting out there and making a difference: come to the Fearless Campaigning panel!
We look forward to seeing you there!
(If you have any questions, please send me an email: editor (at) frameshopisopen dot com)