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The local organization a campaign creates is so important because
it is involved in all of the key activities the campaign participates
in, from fundraising to voter contact to getting out the vote. The
organization is integral to winning the election. In fact, a local
organization may be better suited to carrying out these activities
than any other campaign apparatus because of one distinct advantage:
proximity. The local organization is simply the closest contact
the campaign can make with the voters. Think about it: who would
you rather give money to, or vote for? The guy who calls from campaign
headquarters reading your name from a list, or your neighbor down
the block who tells you how wonderful his or her friend, the candidate
is?
The Plan: Winning Elections with Strong Local Organization
There are three main components to creating a local organization
that is strong and effective: preparation, recruitment, and contact.
Each component must be completed to keep the local organization
potent.
Preparation
Before recruiting volunteers for the campaign's local organization,
the campaign team must decide what it is that it expects from it's
volunteer precinct captains and leaders, and what shape the organization
will take. Local organizations are often broken down by the smallest
possible electoral unit: the polling place (precinct.) When the election
is for a local enough race, the campaign should aim to have a captain
in place in each precinct, who can (and should) recruit additional
volunteers to help with the local tasks. When the election is for
a higher office (statewide, major city, etc.) the campaign will still
want to have a volunteer leader in each precinct, but may only select
leaders for a broader area (ward, district, etc.) and leave precinct
recruitment up to them.
The campaign must also decide what activities will be left up to
the local organization. Such activities are based on the campaign
strategy, and generally include circulating nominating petitions,
literature drops, get out the vote activities, door to door campaigning,
working the polling places on election day, and fundraising activities
(such as small group meetings or selling tickets to a fundraiser.) Local leaders should also keep the campaign abreast of political
developments in the precinct.
The campaign should prepare a packet of necessary materials and directions
for completing activities, including "street lists" (lists of registered
voters in the precinct arranged by block -- usually available from
the local board of elections.)
Recruitment
Possible volunteers abound, and the campaign should look for them
in all of its activities. Sources for potential volunteers include:
the campaign staff's friends and family, local leaders, friends
of the candidate, people who have called the campaign asking to volunteer,
politically active neighbors, political science students at the
local college, etc.
After recruiting a local precinct captain, the campaign should make
sure to detail all of the activities that the captain should perform,
as well as give him or her the packet that was previously prepared.
Winning elections requires informed precinct leaders. The captain
should be encouraged to recruit other responsible volunteers, as
well as utilize those provided by the campaign. Often, campaigns
also give the captain a "vote goal." That is, if the campaign strategy
calls for 200 votes in a particular precinct, the captain should
be given this number (or a slightly higher one, say, 225) as a number
to shoot for -- then the campaign and the captain should talk about
how that number of votes can be garnered from the precinct.
One other strategy that few campaigns use, but which proves highly
effective and is highly recommended, is to host a "campaign school"
for its local precinct captains and/or volunteers. This "school"
should be held at a convenient time and limited to a relatively short
period of time (one to two hours for local volunteers, longer for
actual campaign staff) During this seminar, the campaign team could
bring in local political experts, consultants, or highly knowledgeable
staff or volunteers to teach the captains strategy for winning elections,
and provide them the tools necessary to reach the voters. For great
tips and information you can use in your campaign seminars, sign
up for The Local Victory Newsletter. It's full of valuable information
you can pass on to your volunteers.
Contact
After the precinct captains are out in the field, it is extremely
important to maintain contact between them and the campaign. The
volunteer coordinator or applicable staff should check in regularly
to make sure they are doing what they should. Remember: the goal
is winning elections by using the local organization. So use it!
The captains must be kept abreast of campaign development, either
by newsletter or e-mail. The candidate's visits to their area should
be coordinated with the precinct captain. In short, the local organization
needs to be kept engaged and active. Doing this will ensure that
the organization is chugging along towards its ultimate goal: election
night victory.
Joe Garecht is the editor of "Local Victory - Your Republican Guide
to Winning Local Elections." Local Victory provides free tools and
information to Republican activists to help them win more elections.
Check out the Local Victory site at LocalVictory.com
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