Washblog || A Campaign that Builds The Party

A Campaign that Builds The Party

By m3047
Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 12:01:24 AM PST
Section: Diary Topic: Building the base

In yet another unexpected subatomic event from the whole primary election fiasco (the gift that keeps on giving), a campaign has now taken it upon itself to recruit for the Democratic Party.

I've complained about campaigns raiding the Party since I got inside enough to distinguish between the two (and I haven't been the only one, SeaBos among others have raised much the same cry).

Has something profound but good already come from this?

In the 36th District, where John Burbank is running against Reuven Carlyle for the seat being vacated by Helen Sommers, it's looking more and more like we'll have to have a nominating convention where only PCOs can vote... and we'll have to pick one of them, either Burbank or Carlyle, to be the Party nominee.

There has been some wooing of PCOs by both candidates, if nothing else they both know that the 36th District Democrats conduct pretty thorough and influential endorsement interviews and both candidates have reached out to PCOs (again, ever since I became a PCO I've been telling people to lobby their PCOs, and if they don't like the answer to run against them... mostly I've gotten cowface looks).

Something new happened at the general membership meeting tonight: the Burbank camp showed up with a large handful of PCO application forms (at least 15). That's right: they went out and recruited PCOs for precincts which didn't have any! Sure they're probably hoping that these people will vote for Burbank... but absent any actual severe moral turpitude in the applicants, how can this influx hurt the Party?

It should be noted that John Burbank is a long-time member of the Democratic Party, a PCO himself... and apparently at one point when the 32nd District encompassed large parts of what is now the 36th District he was the District Chair.

Still I haven't seen anything like this heretofore and being unable to discern the reason therefore assumed that there was some indiscernible dark matter which somehow prevented campaigns from building the Party and forced them to take, take, take.

I've seen now that this isn't so. Will other campaigns take a lesson from the Burbank playbook?

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A Campaign that Builds The Party | 3 comments (3 topical)

One other campaign I know of does this

Darcy Burner has been recruiting PCOs for months, even though they do not get to vote for her directly -- further proof that she "gets it."

We added 48 PCOs in one day in the 34th when we went through our recent House appointment.

If perception is reality, then the world must be flat and the sun must revolve around it.

by ivan on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 08:03:56 AM PST

* 1 none 0 *

the presidential caucus process...

...has been very good for PCO recruitment in the 43rd. Both campaigns have inspired new PCOs to pop up, though I suspect that more have come from one than the other.

The big question in the campaign-->PCO equation is whether the party organization affiliation "takes". By which I mean to say that campaign-based party organization members may be more likely to drift away once their favored campaign ends. Probably more likely to happen if the candidate isn't elected, but even successful campaigns may not bring "keepers" to the organization.

I'd argue that the 2004 Dean campaign brought in a significantly higher proportion of "keepers" than any other campaign in recent memory. Possibly even more of them than all other campaigns combined.

You're only young once, but you can be immature forever -- Larry Andersen
Blogging at Peace Tree Farm

by N in Seattle on Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 09:26:22 AM PST

* 2 none 0 *

Mary Lou Dickerson.... by m3047, 04/11/2008 01:19:24 PM PST (none / 0)

A Campaign that Builds The Party | 3 comments (3 topical)

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