"Why should I vote? Democrats never do anything for me except bother me at election time." Joel Feinman was going door to door in his 2016 campaign for Pima County Attorney when this statement struck a nerve. As chief public defender, he knew this to be true for many of his clients - though in their case, the first time government lifted a finger to help them was often in the form of a legally mandated public defender after a crime had been committed. Yet these same criminals had often been victims for years, suffering from abuse, neglect, untreated health problems and addiction. Our communities are full of needs that cry out to be addressed now, whether or not we can get Democrats into a majority in 2018.
Its not a new idea. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords dedicated her staff and her office to the idea of constituent service. Congress on your Corner, the event at which Gabby was shot by a mentally unstable man, was not a numbers game - she really wanted to be accessible to constituents to hear about their problems and address them. This philosophy was also reflected in her campaign, and that of her successor Ron Barber, whose experienced campaign staff in 2012 not only asked for votes, but collected constituent issues and tried to address them. Helping people is a winning strategy in the long term - sometimes a political win, but always a win in the sense that solving problems is the real end goal.
Especially this early in the election season, addressing real problems is key to avoiding burnout. Candidates already ask constituents for their concerns and needs, and promise to solve them if elected. But sometimes we can solve them before the election.
Its a simple formula: at every meeting, every event, find out what the problems are, in a detailed and concrete way. Talk to schools, for example - find out if a school in the district needs more tutors and mentors, if they want help with landscaping or with music programs, take notes and share them with campaign staff. Then when volunteers are canvassing supporters in the neighborhood of that school, encourage them to start conversations with the community members about the needs, and organizing interested people to fill them. Perhaps a school has no budget for it but a motivated teacher would love to have a community garden for the kids to learn and work in, and the teacher who is happy to lead the project has no time to go out and recruit volunteers. Campaign volunteers are already walking the neighborhood door to door and talking to people. Make it mean something, beyond 'please vote'. Communicating with people has real value, and if we leverage it that value can multiply.
Sharon Girard, running for the first time in rural and purple Arizona legislative district 8, is enthusiastic about the concept. "This way we can mobilize more people, not just to turn out the vote but getting people excited about something in their community." Girard was the co-founder of the Robson Ranch Democratic Club and feels that clubs will be open to a deeper involvement. "There's a big feeling of 'what are we gonna do now, I want to help but what do I really do?' People feel that they want to be of service, but don't know how. Can I make a difference in a bigger way?" Anything that supports the community and mobilizes voters is a good thing. "Connecting with people more than just getting out the vote is going to be important. People want to feel like stakeholders."
So how to get started?
Feinman lost in 2016, but he and veteran campaigner Jay Lasher formed a Community Projects group through the Pima County Democratic Party. They made an offer to the executive committee that they couldn't refuse. "We basically told them, here's the project, we're going to do everything. We're not asking for time or money, all we want is your blessing." And that is a relatively easy sell. Lasher started organizing the LD's and got T-shirts printed up, and the projects have been expanding steadily since the election. "Democrats already do a lot in the community. We already volunteer, people just don't know we're democrats. So doing it as democrats, lets us really show what our values are."
Finding the projects is easy - reach out to neighborhood associations, nonprofits, churches. Yes, churches. "We've abandoned all religious groups to republicans," Feinman points out. "I'm not religious, but I've read the Sermon on the Mount, and those are Democratic values. “ People don't vote with their minds, they vote with their heart. And we have those values, of family, of country and community, of freedom and democracy but we need to claim them and demonstrate them. The mere act of going to these groups and saying, hello, we are democrats, we don't have a lot of money but we have time and energy and we want to help. What can we do for you? That alone is incredibly powerful. It changes the conversation.
Lasher emphasizes the need to ask people rather than assume what they need. His experience of asking a neighborhood association what the biggest problem was and finding out it was a dirty one - doggy poop - resulted in a creative solution: dog poop bag dispensers, sponsored by the Democratic party. (The county already has a program in which privately installed bag dispensers are regularly refilled.) Schools know what they want, and it varies - one school in an impoverished neighborhood had all their food needs covered, but they were short of books for their library. But Reading Seed, the literacy program, has all the books they can handle, and needs volunteers to read with children. So asking is key.
Asking ourselves, and each other, to step up is also key. How many conversations have you had this year where someone complains about what 'they' are doing, or not doing, or goes off on a rant on what 'the democrats' need to do. I don't know about you, but I'm one of 'the democrats' and I'd better get busy.
Frustrating as national politics may be, we have more power than we think to make change happen. Would love to hear if similar efforts are underway in different areas of the country, what tools you find most useful, and if anyone needs something to get this started in your area, please ask. Talk to a Democratic club, offer to organize volunteers for a campaign, or just start with yourself and a friend. I know many readers are already doing a lot, but I think that by sharing experiences and specific techniques, we can be even more effective. Asking more of ourselves and each other is ok — many people are out there waiting to be asked.