(Note: This post is the beginning of a discussion meant to inform partisan candidates & staffers of what this job entails on the "Ground." I would hope the following job description disabuses staffers of unrealistic expectations.)
Each Candidate & Campaign differs, but in essence a Campaign Manager is the public face of the Campaign who provides the glue that structures & executes the ground-game. Specifically, you will wear a dozen or so hats. One way to look at it is that you want to work yourself out of a job by structuring the campaign, its tasks & volunteer resources better & better as the weeks go by. A previous Candidate I worked with put it another way: “I like efficiencies 'cause I enjoy being lazy.”
Depending on your race, & where you are in the election calendar, this job requires 40, 60 or 80 hours a week. Of course some weeks won't require this at all, but you won't know until you plot out the time-line of completion for tasks & goals for the campaign. You will be in never-ending pursuit of building the better political mouse trap, so put the initial Campaign structure together now.
A Political Campaign in Oregon is two separate entities that compliment each other: Media & ground-game. They should be seen as relatively independent of each other, but always complimentary to one another. You are one of three architects for a massive endeavor. The other two are the Candidate & the Media consultant. Thankfully, you don't have to design & schedule the Media. Plus, the Media consultant's job really starts after the primary. This is all you & the Candidate right now.
A race I worked in 2008 never had an original ground (or other) plan. I pulled one out of thin air at the beginning of August with help from the people I brought to the table to bounce ideas off of. They kept me motivated & productive. Additionally, I had seen good management up close on other Campaign's, which allowed me to close a 20 point name ID gap with our opponent in one months time. If this had not been accomplished the donor Lobby would certainly have closed their wallets.
After my first two months we had 1800 hours of direct voter contact. This was done with nothing more than organization, volunteer labor & palm cards. We canvassed an average of 18 hours a week the first month & 12 hours a week the following month. Some of what was required of me in the 2008 Campaign:
• Developing & executing targeted & blanket canvasses with volunteers.
• Continually growing & accommodating the volunteer base.
• Attending community & area-governmental meetings for candidate.
• Researching voter trends to adapt volunteer resources.
• Coordinating preparatory work for fundraising events.
• Organizing forums in-concert with area civic groups & local businesses.
• Composing outreach documents for press, donors & voters.
• Directly managing the candidate's continually shifting schedule.
• Defining & managing the duties & work product of three staffers.
• Chasing & inking endorsements.
• Delivering, placing & maintaining yard & field signs
• Checking PO Box & Depositing/tracking donations.
Going into this, you need to count on your personal & professional relationships to provide you with emotional & material support. The only way for you to be successful in this is to put together a campaign structure & schedule, stick to it & constantly build on it. You need to manage the candidate's time well & chase what you can control.
The “Ground” consists of minding the Campaign store-front, scheduling your Candidate & the Campaign. The ground game Campaign is Retail Politics potentially at its finest. One great benefit to having a muscular ground campaign is that you can feel the energy by being closer to voters & getting direct feedback without waiting for polling or news articles.
You set the tone each week for the ground game. Scheduling & communicating with the Candidate, volunteers, donors, press. Though the Candidate makes the ultimate decisions, you are the primary “decider” of where the Candidate & Campaign are gonna be on any given day. Always remember the political truism: Campaigns are not won on organization alone, but they can be lost for lack of one.
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