Foundation
Many thanks to Zachery E. Smith for posting the following information on Facebook. It is copied here in its entirety because his input is EXTREMELY important.
Hi folks,
forgive me if the following posts/discussion are redundant. I joined this group fairly recently and have not yet seen discussion and development of a grassroots organizing strategy, so here are my preliminary thoughts (See following posts).
POST 1 OF 3:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/teamtulsi/permalink/362153601053085/
Hi folks, In recognition of the need to rapidly build name recognition, and in lieu of a fully staffed national campaign, we need to develop a certain set of data in every state to inform our activities building a grassroots campaign from scratch. Given the structure of the primary and how candidates are ultimately selected, we need to focus upon delegate math. To that end, the following data needs to be gathered:
1) The delegate selection plan for your state/territory. Most have not published the 2020 version – the 2016 plan is sufficient for our purposes.
a. How many delegates are awarded by your state?
b. All or nothing? Or proportional allocation? How are those allocated?
c. Delegates awarded by direct vote within districts vs. at-large/PLEO?
d. Balance requirements? Gender, location?
e. Are your delegates on the ballot? How many in each district? Requirement for alternate delegates?
f. Rules for minimum percentage of vote in order to be awarded any delegates at all and benefits accruing to the winner in each district or state?
g. Anything else you believe to be relevant to delegate selection, allocation in your state?
2) Rules for voting and voter registration in your state?
a. Open vs. closed [or mixed]
b. Deadlines for registration to vote in primaries?
c. Rules concerning voting in Democratic primary/caucus for “Independence Party” or similar “Independence” named parties?
d. Anything else you believe to be relevant in your state?
This data is necessary to the development of the grassroots network required to optimize our delegate count going into a potentially contested convention.
POST 2 OF 3:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/teamtulsi/permalink/362153827719729/
First Priorities:
The grassroots organization build should, initially, focus upon building the following basic volunteer staffing/capacity:
1) Three central volunteers in each administrative district (upon which delegates are awarded, at a minimum per congressional district)
2) Two election attorneys per state
The “central volunteers” are intended to build/become a largely self-directed hub that holds events, builds local volunteer networks, and holds events almost autonomously with a regional coordinator from the campaign to help guide and assist in filling unmet needs on the local level.
Long-term Strategy:
I’m mulling the development of a new model for a national-level campaign that includes a more sustained presence of colunteer coordinators on the local or regional level rather than the standard model of airdropping a data/VAN specialist in the last three weeks. Building a national or regional data team and put the emphasis on local volunteer coordinators instead of data wonks getting dropped in an area they don’t know at the last minute. The model is still a work in progress, have to put more thought into logistics and do a cost analysis though.
Thoughts?
Some initial comments...
Ethan Milich I think it should be one "central volunteer" per congressional district. Three would be hard to recruit plus would be bad for power dynamics. Unless they have different roles such as Secretary, Treasurer, Chair.
Zackery Smith Ethan Milich I find grassroots work best with a flat, consensus driven structure, but why I said three is so that there is redundancy. As this is volunteer driven, there are inevitably work and family conflict that arise and it’s always good to build a bench of good organizers in case of burnout. I’m not really envisioning a command and control style campaign at the local level.
Ethan Milich Election Attorneys wouldn't commit to grassroots organizing. Better to direct resources to promotion and let the campaign hire the attorneys and ideally the campaign attorneys can provide for us council when needed.
Zackery Smith Election attorneys are frequently volunteers and their purpose in this context is to navigate ballot access and vote integrity issues. While I typically write my own petitions, poll watcher certificates, etc, I prefer to have either an election attorney or commissioner of elections as a backstop to review document and, or course, if there is any legal challenge to petitions, etc.
POST 3 OF 3:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/teamtulsi/permalink/362153964386382/
Proposed timeline –
1) April 1: Complete identification of central organizers in all states and administrative units relevant to the delegate strategy.
2) Mid-April: Nationally televised townhall with the candidate
a. House parties/watch parties in every administrative unit
b. Cattle call for donations to get on debate stage – goal 65k donations and 200 donors in at least 20 states in one hour (create a thunderclap that the media cannot ignore – Tom Perez has already gone on national news and stated that it’s not easy to get this in between February and June debate – prove we can do it in a single hour…)
c. Take questions via Facebook live stream that are answered live on the townhall
d. Updates during the livestream on our donor numbers so we can report in real time
e. Logistics – Hold townhall in a state that is NOT one of the first four, show you’re in it for the long haul and not captive to the traditional calendar
i. First thought – Troy, NY (Gillibrand HQ location), there is a venue called Revolution Hall, which I like for the imagery, but it only seats 350-400
ii. Take it to another candidate’s backyard and create the narrative that we compete everywhere
Thoughts?
Some initial comments...
Craig Armstrong To your point about an event at Revolution Hall in Troy, NY...I’ve always believed that an SRO, overflow crowd at a smaller venue is far preferable to a larger crowd at a venue where there are still empty seats. It’s all about optics and, since most folks tend to overestimate the size of crowds, a jam-packed Revolution Hall event would be a huge “win” for Tulsi - especially in Sen. Gillibrand’s backyard!
forgive me if the following posts/discussion are redundant. I joined this group fairly recently and have not yet seen discussion and development of a grassroots organizing strategy, so here are my preliminary thoughts (See following posts).
POST 1 OF 3:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/teamtulsi/permalink/362153601053085/
Hi folks, In recognition of the need to rapidly build name recognition, and in lieu of a fully staffed national campaign, we need to develop a certain set of data in every state to inform our activities building a grassroots campaign from scratch. Given the structure of the primary and how candidates are ultimately selected, we need to focus upon delegate math. To that end, the following data needs to be gathered:
1) The delegate selection plan for your state/territory. Most have not published the 2020 version – the 2016 plan is sufficient for our purposes.
a. How many delegates are awarded by your state?
b. All or nothing? Or proportional allocation? How are those allocated?
c. Delegates awarded by direct vote within districts vs. at-large/PLEO?
d. Balance requirements? Gender, location?
e. Are your delegates on the ballot? How many in each district? Requirement for alternate delegates?
f. Rules for minimum percentage of vote in order to be awarded any delegates at all and benefits accruing to the winner in each district or state?
g. Anything else you believe to be relevant to delegate selection, allocation in your state?
2) Rules for voting and voter registration in your state?
a. Open vs. closed [or mixed]
b. Deadlines for registration to vote in primaries?
c. Rules concerning voting in Democratic primary/caucus for “Independence Party” or similar “Independence” named parties?
d. Anything else you believe to be relevant in your state?
This data is necessary to the development of the grassroots network required to optimize our delegate count going into a potentially contested convention.
POST 2 OF 3:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/teamtulsi/permalink/362153827719729/
First Priorities:
The grassroots organization build should, initially, focus upon building the following basic volunteer staffing/capacity:
1) Three central volunteers in each administrative district (upon which delegates are awarded, at a minimum per congressional district)
2) Two election attorneys per state
The “central volunteers” are intended to build/become a largely self-directed hub that holds events, builds local volunteer networks, and holds events almost autonomously with a regional coordinator from the campaign to help guide and assist in filling unmet needs on the local level.
Long-term Strategy:
I’m mulling the development of a new model for a national-level campaign that includes a more sustained presence of colunteer coordinators on the local or regional level rather than the standard model of airdropping a data/VAN specialist in the last three weeks. Building a national or regional data team and put the emphasis on local volunteer coordinators instead of data wonks getting dropped in an area they don’t know at the last minute. The model is still a work in progress, have to put more thought into logistics and do a cost analysis though.
Thoughts?
Some initial comments...
Ethan Milich I think it should be one "central volunteer" per congressional district. Three would be hard to recruit plus would be bad for power dynamics. Unless they have different roles such as Secretary, Treasurer, Chair.
Zackery Smith Ethan Milich I find grassroots work best with a flat, consensus driven structure, but why I said three is so that there is redundancy. As this is volunteer driven, there are inevitably work and family conflict that arise and it’s always good to build a bench of good organizers in case of burnout. I’m not really envisioning a command and control style campaign at the local level.
Ethan Milich Election Attorneys wouldn't commit to grassroots organizing. Better to direct resources to promotion and let the campaign hire the attorneys and ideally the campaign attorneys can provide for us council when needed.
Zackery Smith Election attorneys are frequently volunteers and their purpose in this context is to navigate ballot access and vote integrity issues. While I typically write my own petitions, poll watcher certificates, etc, I prefer to have either an election attorney or commissioner of elections as a backstop to review document and, or course, if there is any legal challenge to petitions, etc.
POST 3 OF 3:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/teamtulsi/permalink/362153964386382/
Proposed timeline –
1) April 1: Complete identification of central organizers in all states and administrative units relevant to the delegate strategy.
2) Mid-April: Nationally televised townhall with the candidate
a. House parties/watch parties in every administrative unit
b. Cattle call for donations to get on debate stage – goal 65k donations and 200 donors in at least 20 states in one hour (create a thunderclap that the media cannot ignore – Tom Perez has already gone on national news and stated that it’s not easy to get this in between February and June debate – prove we can do it in a single hour…)
c. Take questions via Facebook live stream that are answered live on the townhall
d. Updates during the livestream on our donor numbers so we can report in real time
e. Logistics – Hold townhall in a state that is NOT one of the first four, show you’re in it for the long haul and not captive to the traditional calendar
i. First thought – Troy, NY (Gillibrand HQ location), there is a venue called Revolution Hall, which I like for the imagery, but it only seats 350-400
ii. Take it to another candidate’s backyard and create the narrative that we compete everywhere
Thoughts?
Some initial comments...
Craig Armstrong To your point about an event at Revolution Hall in Troy, NY...I’ve always believed that an SRO, overflow crowd at a smaller venue is far preferable to a larger crowd at a venue where there are still empty seats. It’s all about optics and, since most folks tend to overestimate the size of crowds, a jam-packed Revolution Hall event would be a huge “win” for Tulsi - especially in Sen. Gillibrand’s backyard!
