Canvassing and related GOP info

More GOP ideas for campaigning and canvassing...


Five lessons to learn before the Primaries (or Caucuses):

1: Talk (literally talk) to the SuperVoters
A "SuperVoter" in the canvassing world is an individual who has voted in a particular election three (or more) consecutive times. So, if you are looking towards the NH Presidential Primary, a SuperVoter is someone who has voted in the last three NH presidential primaries (04, 00, and 96). These special individuals are the holy grail of grassroots canvassing and direct mail. Why you ask?

Well, a newly registered voter has, lets say a 50% chance of voting in an upcoming election. Now, when you compare that with a SuperVoter, who consistently has a 90%+ probability of voting in said election, so it's obvious who you should spend your time on. It's the SuperVoters who matter! Believe me. You convert a SuperVoter to Ron Paul and that's easily worth a $500 contribution to the campaign. And also remember that voters (especially SuperVoters) are pretty likely to encourage their family and friends to vote the same way. SuperVoters usually have SuperVoter friends.

You can get lists of SuperVoters to contact from the official campaign. If they don't have the records to give to you, you can get them from the VoterListsOnline.com service. You'd need someone from the official campaign to vouch for you in order to gain access, but from there, you can make a small selection of voters, purchase the list (for the campaign), and begin to contact the right voters.

2: Time to go offline (and hit the precinct canvassing trail)!
I don't even have to mention how great the internet is. But, for the vast majority of us, you can blog, survey-spam, YouTube, podcast, SecondLife, and twitter yourself to death and still not make a difference in this election. While the internet is a great vehicle for fundraising and media distribution during a general election, during the primaries, it's all about reaching out and talking to potential voters. Please continue to use the Internet to help organize, fundraise, and share information... but simply understand that the internet itself will not win an election. Knock on doors, Knock on doors, Knock on doors (and let the campaign handle mass communications over radio and TV).
3: Money is the key to mainstream acceptance (contribute by 9/30!)
We all dislike the influence that money has in politics. But it's here to stay and is a way of life.

You need to contribute to the campaign. You absolutely need to... especially before the September 30th deadline. I can't begin to explain how important it is for the Paul campaign to show a healthy fundraising quarter to the media. It drives everything... from media coverage, to more support, more donations (people donate to a winner), and more advertising when it counts.
The Paul campaign has proven themselves to be frugal and smart about the dollars they've raised so far. It looks like they are saving it for when it really matters. And that's a good thing... it means that your dollars will be well spent. There is no reason NOT to give right now.

4: Stop fudging about or discounting the polls
There is the tendency for supporters to see a new poll come out that has Ron Paul in the low single digits, and immediately exclaim that the poll is biased or inaccurate.

For the most part, pollsters are professional and competent and stake their name on the accuracy of their polls. They've spent a lot of time and money on getting the formula for administering a political poll just right. They continuously tweak and modify their methodology to account for changes in the demographic. And they double and triple check their work before they put it out there under their banner. Everything you can think up that may invalidate poll numbers, they've already thought about it... 10 times over. Bottom line here is that when a good, independent poll results are released, chances are, it's closer to the truth than to fiction.
So, if you see Ron Paul polling in single digits within a month of the first primary, then you need to realize that, Yes... less than 10% of voters in that area support Ron Paul. Don't wait for a rush of new voters that the pollsters are missing because of cell phones or what have you. They're not there. They didn't come out for Dean, they didn't come out for Kerry (over Bush of all people)... they are not going to come out for Ron Paul at the last second.


5: Start convincing the mainstream voters
Let?s chill out with the protest-style chants, the CFR talk, and the 9-11 ?inside job? talk, etc. It's turning off some of the voters. We need to talk to appeal to all voters with Dr. Paul?s positive messages of hope, freedom, liberty, and being a true fiscal conservative and Republican!

People are aware of the campaign, and now is the real chance to convince voters. Once you hit campaign politics, the nature of what you're doing is taking someone who does not support your candidate, and convincing them do otherwise. That means directly marketing to them, where they are at, without turning them off in the process. Remember, your average primary Republican voter is not the 20-something year old iPod user who dreams of an end to the war. You're dealing with moms and pops, church goers, the elderly, soccer moms, NASCAR dads, etc. The more you speak to them at their level, the better it will be for the Ron Paul campaign.

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So, there you have it. My two cents what the Ron Paul campaign can do to gain real traction in the upcoming months. Fortunately for him, it's already started to happen. But there's much much more to be done. Until then, I'll see you in January.
The author is a political operative, with a lengthy experience in Republican campaign politics. Primarily in the southeast, I've managed, consulted, and volunteered on nearly 20 campaigns, with the vast majority for federal candidates (ie U.S. House, Senate, and Presidential campaigns). I've consulted with a couple of international political operations. And as of now, I'm a senior director at one of the largest and well-established political technology firms in the nation (also the reason why I'm not officially involved with any of the Presidentials right now). So, not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'm pretty confident in what I'm talking about here.
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