Campaign Manager Must's: Keep Perspective & Keep it Civil

(Note: Given the nastiness of the election cycle so far, I would hope Campaigns, Media Consultants & Staff take some ownership by their lonesome. Barring this sort of miracle, I do hope this post might influence at least a Candidate or staffer to conduct themselves as if they respect the office they are seeking.)

As a Campaign Manager you are advocating for your candidate. A political opponent is just that: Your opponent in a political contest. You are in the business of drawing legitimate contrasts between your Candidate & his opponent. You can better advocate for your Candidate if you're not preoccupied with your personal dislike for the opponent. Believe me, I know how tough it is not to take a jab when the opportunity presents itself.

A political campaign is persuading the electorate that your Candidate is the better person for the job because of a, b & c. Even if your Candidate isn't always respectful about their opponent in private, you have to keep proper perspective in public & in private for your Candidate, for the volunteers, for the partisans already on your side. Being the representative for the Candidate to the public, you help set the tenor & affect the level of civility or incivility in the atmosphere that surrounds your Campaign.

You are a public face for the Campaign &, win or lose, it is the Candidate's personal & professional reputation that is on the line. Remember that you & the Candidate have relationships here that you both value. You will take these relationships & your reputation to Salem & through the rest of your life.

This can be a very lonely job. This is one of the toughest you're likely to have in your working life. Few people outside of politics can understand the pressures & even fewer people will fully appreciate the inherent tensions that exist within a partisan Campaign.

Probably the most immediate thing to put together for yourself is an emotional & intellectual support system. You need trusted people around you to bounce ideas off of (not just a significant other). They will provide you, the manager, with moral & directional support so you can in turn keep the Candidate & the Campaign as a whole directed & working properly.

If you haven't already, try setting up a weekly meeting with Campaign Managers you respect. They could be friends, acquaintances, past or present peers. Vent to them. Problem solve with them. Eat & drink with them. This is a support structure that will help you to keep perspective as the election calendar eats up more & more of your time.

This is a hell of a job you're doing & it can be very taxing. This job can lead you to go into politics yourself (Haley Barbour) or lead you to diabetes (Joe Trippi). So, take care of yourself & enjoy.

Campaign Management... for Dummies

Crafting the Campaign structure, chasing votes & keeping momentum.

(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.

Civic Introduction

A little about me & why I decided to begin this blog...

I have volunteered on a number of campaigns for public office & I'm still a romantic when it comes to civic engagement. Though it has cost me hair, it has led me to a fuller appreciation of my neighbors, my country, form & function of our governments & political campaigns. It is both a rewarding & maddening endeavor that I continue to participate in.

It's astounding to think of all the ways one can participate during the election season: Voting, poll watching, donating labor, sign waving, phone banking, fundraising, message crafting, canvassing, candidate management, volunteer resource management, pounding in lawn & field signs, attending city council, talking with neighbors, swaying strangers, chain smoking while returns are coming in... When you do it right, a Campaign can be the hardest work you have ever done. It is a field open to all comers. It is a place where all talents are welcome. It is representative democracy & it depends on good people standing up.

I grew up in a sort of "McGovern-Goldwater Ticket" of a family which is where I began to develop respect for & a genuine interest in hearing from persons who hold differing opinions. I understand the perennial importance of reaching out to disparate groups & believe most persons engaged in the political process are dedicated to better outcomes for their neighbors & State.

That being said, if someone is attempting to engage politically I expect them to listen & engage with persons they disagree with in a civil fashion. I view this blog as a chance to share some of the positive & frustrating things learned while working in state & local politics in Oregon.