Lake Sunapee Region for Bernie Team
Slightly less than two months ago, in the first diary in this series, I wrote that little attention was being paid in the media to the status of the ground game for the Bernie 2016 campaign in New Hampshire. In the eight weeks since then there has been a significant amount of coverage of the polling that shows him moving from fringe candidate to front runner in the Granite State, but still very little has been said about his campaign organization here.
Since volunteers make up such an important part of any political organization, and especially the Sanders movement, an update from the standpoint of a self organized group seemed appropriate. This model of the Lake Sunapee Region for Bernie, has lessons and applications that can be repeated as the election cycle goes beyond the small and predominantly white early primary states of Iowa and NH, and proceeds to states that are more demographically representative.
The status of the ground game has changed dramatically in two months time, and speaks volumes about the ability of the Sanders campaign to adapt to changing circumstances. In early August the entire organization here consisted of four paid staffers and a single field office in Concord. A brief mention in a NY Times article this past week is the most recent MSM reference I have been able to find on Bernie 2016 numbers:
Mr. Sanders has 49 paid workers in Iowa, 43 in New Hampshire, 21 at his campaign headquarters in Burlington, Vt., and 27 elsewhere. He also has 15 offices in Iowa and nine in New Hampshire.
For more on the formal campaign structure and how we have organized, join me below the fold.
Our group came about as a direct result of the July 29th on line organizing event. At a house party of approximately 20 people, we followed Bernie’s speech, introduced ourselves individually, and then took two very important steps. The first was to schedule another organizing meeting and the second was to appoint a small committee (of two engineers as it turned out) to draft an agenda. We have since found regular planning meetings to be a great help to our organization, not only in advancing ideas for outside events but also in adding to the cohesion and morale of the group. Sometimes the asides of sharing stories or experiences or a favorite article, later seem as important as the tabling event that got finalized at the meeting.
The house party group was made up of about half the people who just wanted to learn more about Bernie, and the other half who were already convinced supporters. The working group of ten to twelve regulars is made up of the latter, and has remained relatively constant in size with an occasional addition to the mix. Although only a couple months has past, I feel that these people are my brothers and sisters, all of them saying “enough is enough…it’s time to fight for our country”. It is an honor to be associated with such fine people, and I wish that everyone can know a similar sense of pride, accomplishment, and friendship that comes with such an effort.
If you are not organized and are looking to get involved, please attend or better yet host a debate watch party on October 13th, and use it to create or strengthen your own local group. There are already hundreds scheduled and listed on the website, and the campaign is looking to surpass the number of 3700 house parties held in July with a larger number of debate parties in October. Also please bookmark this page and check it out frequently, because new events and opportunities are constantly being posted in your area.
Following the house party, we held our first of six planning meetings to date on August 18th. I should say at this point that it took us that long to draw up the agenda and make contact with the campaign, who sent the first field organizers to that event. Very early on we elected officers and produced minutes and agendas which help to show us where we have been and where we are going. Our early meetings and the time between them were occupied with gaining permissions to have tabling events, establishing committees to write letters to the editor, and meeting up with other groups like ours, such as the windhamcounty4bernie VT people, or the one that recently formed in nearby Warner, NH.
In our rural segment of central NH, most of the locations that see a lot of foot or vehicle traffic are on private or municipal property and require permissions from the town Selectmen or from supermarket chains/strip mall operators. We were prohibited from tabling at farmer’s markets by the bylaws, or from town and church community centers because of the “partisan politics” nature of our activity or by the fact that we were asked to provide proof of a prohibitively high level of liability insurance. Funny how virtually nobody brought up the issue of free speech or the right to peaceful assembly. But we refused to be discouraged and held our first very successful tabling event at the town transfer station (aka the town dump) in Wilmot several Saturdays ago, with another scheduled for the New London Main Street this coming weekend. Democracy is hard work.
Tabling for Bernie at the Wilmot Transfer Station
While we pursued these avenues, the official state campaign staff was being hired and the organization was being refined. We were anxious to get started with more activities and were initially told to be patient, and that we would have to wait for the campaign to catch up with us from an organizational standpoint. This is a step in the process that fortunately will not have to be repeated to the same extent as the cycle progresses, since the model now exists. As the early primaries finish, the organization can immediately pivot to the super Tuesday states and beyond, and as the fundraising increases more states are seeing dedicated professional staff. For these reasons it is important that there be organized volunteers on the ground to help with the all important GOTV effort that is constituted by canvassing and phone banking to identify Bernie supporters and get them to the polls. So by all means organize, organize, organize.
Permit me to get on my soapbox for a moment and caution you about how you constitute your group, and especially what activities you undertake. I have written about this in other diaries and comment threads, but in the general euphoria and enthusiasm that surrounds Bernie’s campaign there are some groups that have raised cash or donations that may be ultimately damaging to the campaign or to their ability to later coordinate with it. To be brief, these groups are acting as what the FEC calls a non-connected committee, which becomes a political committee when it reaches the threshold of $1,000 in donations or expenditures. These entities cannot coordinate activities with the campaign, which means no use of official literature, signs, logos, or most importantly voter lists for canvassing and phone banking. It is much better to remain as a grassroots volunteer organization working under the guidance of the official campaign.
For a general discussion of FEC rules please see the excellent Citizen’s Guide. I also highly recommend that you inform yourself about non-connected committees and the very onerous restrictions and reporting requirements that accompany them. If you still have questions I have found the FEC staff to be very helpful, and they can be reached at (800) 424-9530.
In conclusion, from the humble beginnings of an on line event and a single tiny office, New Hampshire is now virtually blanketed by official staff. There are field offices in Berlin, Claremont, Concord, Dover, Keene, Manchester, Nashua, Portsmouth, and West Lebanon, with another slated to open soon in Plymouth. All across New Hampshire this weekend and into this coming week, I am aware of at least 16 canvass shifts and a dozen phone bank operations along with multiple organizing meetings. Most of these events are scheduled deep into the fall and all of them involve neighbor to neighbor contacts that can’t be replaced by MSM coverage, or purchased by the billionaires. They constitute the heavy lifting of electing Bernie as the next POTUS. Each of us has a part to play in this and if we do so, anything is possible. It may still be a work in progress but the chances for success are by no means a long shot. This doesn’t have anything to do with unrepresentative small white states, but with organization and boots on the ground. Together we can do this.
I would like to leave you with a comment made to our group by a Bernie 2016 regional field coordinator:
I also want to thank the whole team for your enthusiasm, and the time you've all been so willing to contribute to the campaign, and [in] welcoming us in to be a part of the community you're building as the Lake Sunapee Region for Bernie. Your story of coming together as a group is a model I've been using region-wide while talking to volunteers, and involving communities.
Please come join us in the political revolution.