what worked:north S.Clara county, CA

Written by: Carolyn Curtis on Nov 18, 2006 12:57 AM EST

Linked to groups: Silicon Valley DFA, brought to you by Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley

North county had its own campaign HQ; San Jose was busy with the Cindy Chavez mayoral contest & spent little time on other Dem. candidates incl. gov. South county--Morgan Hill, part of Pombo's district--had a HQ partly paid for by the McNerney cpgn & focused on that.

HQ: We used some materials sent by the Angelides campaign, ended up writing our own scripts. After some initial wheelspinning we developed a smoothly functioning HQ, with volunteers making lit.packs of 5-7 items supporting local candidates & ballot initiatives, plus stuff from the state party, and a GREAT half-sheet developed by our co.party's employee (and Dean Democratic Club of Silicon Valley treas.!), Adrienne Grey, that summarized the local party's endorsements & ballot init. stands. The packs included the TERRIFIC DNC doorhanger, which we reprinted from this spring's effort, with our county party's address instead of the DNC's (we share the info with them if we get volunteers). Starting on Oct we phonebanked at HQ most nights.
Another thing we had at HQ was Jerry McNerney items: brochures, tees, buttons. People interested in a national race were steered to that most excellent campaign. We had his brochures when we tabled also. A lot of great activists were not available to us because they were fully occupied with Jerry's campaign--with our blessing!

We showed lots of appreciation for volunteers: always welcomed & thanked & fed them. We're giving thankyou certificates (lots went out at election night party). The HQ was decorated with old cpgn posters on the upper half of the walls, with construction paper stars with vol.names on them (some saved from 2004). Made sure vol.names were spelled correctly. By Nov 7 there were a couple hundred stars up! We kept better records on who did what this time.

Voter reg/tabling: We had a robust voter reg program already in place: Adrienne runs our booth at street fairs all summer & fall in most of the county, I continued as tabling lead for a couple farmers mkts most weekends, & another great volunteer took charge for the 3 big street fairs up our way, triple-staffing every shift. She also researched other weekday & weekend sites for voter reg, trained people at HQ almost every day, & then sent them out. The HQ staff kept the tabling boxes stocked & in good order. Our state party gives a modest bounty. The voter reg program was truly awesome in 2004,  & this go-round was quite respectable; this year's leader was a veteran of the 2004 effort.  

Phonebanking: I printed copies of SCEDS & the rock star tips from Arshad's "How to Make Phonebanking Fun" for the phoners & explained them to the ph.bank leads.

Vol.recruitment: About 250 volunteers, mostly reactivated from 2004, but some new ones had signed up since then, including just a few new this campaign. No inspiration from the top of the ticket, unlike 2004 when people were tearing down our door to beat Bush.  Respectable influx of new volunteers in the last couple days before the election.

Walking: The Ang. cpgn was targeting the sometime voters in selected pcts; we doorknocked or lit-dropped about 70 (several volunteers did multiple pcts), followup-phonebanked (at HQ) all those and more, up to 90. Doorhangered (with state party-supplied doorh.) about 50 pcts Nov 4-6, pollchecked 41 on Election Day. I kept records, keeping in mind something I learned at DemFest 2005: If you can't measure it, it doesn't exist. Need to put this in place in more aspects of the HQ (such as keeping track of visitors). 

For the walking, which I was in charge of again for north county (also 2005, 2004), I started with people who'd walked their own pcts before or who were currently walking as part of the 50-state strategy started this spring. When I assigned pcts, I got people their own neighborhoods or as close as possible. MUCH more effective that way, & easier on the volunteer. Also I'm trying to build a permanent pct operation, something I don't know if we've ever had hereabouts. 

I sent a thankyou email to all vols. with email addresses earlier this week (have to pursue more now that I'm back from out of town), pointing them to a couple clubs that meet at our end of the county, to keep them involved (many are already members). I will follow up with everyone who walked in any capacity to see if they'll own their own pcts from here on out.

Not a bad campaign! Really glad we got Debra Bowen in, & defeated "eminent domain" & "parental consent." Lost a couple good ballot measures but the public just does not want to govern this way, I see this attitude more every year.

Personal note: this was the first election of Jerry's I wasn't able to walk & pollcheck (since fall 2004!), since I was fully occupied every weekend leading our own walking (ran a fundraiser for him in Sep tho), but my husband & I managed to leave our own election night party at 10pm & get over to Jerry's tumultuous party and am I ever glad we went to that historic event! Hope to get to DC to see him sworn in.

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Location: Palo Alto/Mountain View, ca 94040