Dean, Trippi, and handwritten letters to voters

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

http://homepage.mac.com/megruber/Politics/iMovieTheater79.html

I'm listening to Trippi give a stump speech about the Dean campaign, and he's telling the story of how they got Dean voluteers to write hand written letters to voters in Iowa asking them to support Dean. It was an amazing example of political organizing, a simple way to promote person-to-person links, and democracy in action. Regardless of your feelings about Dean, that's pretty amazing.

So why can't we all do this? How about we at DU organize a letter writing campaign to independents, unregistered non voters, and voters in general as a get out the vote drive?

We can help each other make lists for our own zipcodes, and post different ideas for letters. If Dean is nominated, it's going to take a lot of hard work to beat Bush.

How can DU register new voters in the next few months?

[LSparkle]

1. Trippi is a political genius

I'm not firmly in Dean's camp but, love Dean or not, Trippi is this season's James Carville (if not moreso).

[pruner]

2. I got the impression from Trippi's speech that…

putting together a list of undecided voters and getting their contact info is no easy task.

[slinkerwink]

4. yeah, as someone who worked in database this past summer...

it is no easy task in putting together a list like that.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

5. You can always buy a list from spam companies, marketers, etc

Let's go in the opposite direction. How difficult would it be for someone to get say 50 names and addresses in your neighborhood. Not just friends and family, but neighbors you might never see or talk to.

I bet a simple campaign of each person hand writing a simple note to 20-50 neighbors, mailed or dropped on a front porch, would swamp the Republicans and they would never see it coming.

As Dean and Trippi have figured out, the main advantage Democrats have is numbers.

I'll do it.

[pruner]

6. if it were so easy, don't you think other campaigns would be doing it

I mean, none of them have really demonstrated an aversion to copying Dean's ideas.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

12. I can do it in 30 minutes with whitepages.com

Look up 50 people in your zip code or neighborhood, hand write some letters and send it too them. Include contacts for the local Democratic party and emails and websites for Dem causes.

Send a voter registration form with the letter too.

If it is hand written, it won't be tossed as junk mail - 99% of the people would open it. Maybe 10 out of 50 will wind up sending in the voter registration. Maybe 5 out of 50 will wind up voting in the general election? What does it cost, 50 stamps and an hour of time? We could all do it.

[pruner]

13. obviously you can get people's contact info from the telephone book…

but you wouldn't know who is a registered Dem, or who among registered Dems is undecided.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

14. I don't mean for the primary, I mean for the general

Send them a voter card. Do what you can to get them to register and vote Democratic in the general election. Dean's campaign had a great idea, and I think the Democratic party should follow their lead.

[pruner]

15. Dean's campaign is only writing to people who've been identified…

as undecided voters in IA & NH.

the letters are intended to convince these undecided voters to decide to vote for Dean.

it's not so much about GOTV, though I imagine they might have something similar to what's currently being done planned for the general election.

[pruner]

3. what exactly do you mean by this?

If Dean is nominated, it's going to take a lot of hard work to beat Bush.

do you think it'd be a walk in the park getting any of the candidates elected over Bush?

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

10. calm down, pruner

It's not supposed to be an swipe at Dean, it's a reflection of reality. Yes, it will take a lot of work to beat Bush, regardless of the candidate, no doubt about it.

[JNelson6563]

7. You highlight an important tool for us Dems

and how we can use if for party building. I sit on my local Dem board and Chair membership. I did our first annual mem. drive recently and in the letter I sent out I included ways for folks to volunteer. I included letter writing to newspapers/legislators. Got a great response and am currently organizing our first meeting. I have pushed letter writing at every board meeting I've attended too.

The list I worked off was our newsletter subscribers. Our local party does have comprehensive lists of all kinds of voters etc. and I am working on organizing it. Adding info on tasks folks have offered to help with etc.

I look forward to using this all to Dean's benefit in the near future but for now, am very content to make good use of it to build our party and encourage participation. The more people become involved in their party the better it will reflect them. To have a party of the people needs the input and effort of those people. I have learned from recent first-hand experience (especially in these times) that all one needs to do is invite folks to get involved and they readily will.

Kudos to you for your post. Hope the campaign is coming along well. Is there more than one Dem running for the seat you're running for?

Julie

[Clark Can WIN]

8. Clark volunteers are doing it too

And we didn't have to wait for a trippy to ask us to do it either.

I don't know if any of the others are doing it.

[pruner]

9. you didn't have to wait for a "trippy" to ask you because…

you copied the idea fom Trippi.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

11. Good, Clark should be doing it

I've done a bit of Clark promoting among my moderate, Republican, or non political friends and family, and a de-centralized (that's the key) letter writing campaign would do wonders for Clark's campaign.

[TLM]

16. If Clark supporters are writing letter to Iowa....

maybe they need to check the meme blog a bit more often... Clark pulled out of the state weeks ago for fear of the damage a big loss would do to his campaign.

Dean won the unions because Dean's outreach is "shockingly" more devoted and active than any of the other candidates.

[Demobrat]

17. The Dean campaign makes it extremely easy.

At meetup they give out kits with names, addresses, paper, envelopes and stamps, and sample letters, and they have boxes of pens available. All you have to do is sit down and write. If you're extremely motivated you can get addresses from HQ also. These people are not leaving anything to chance.

[pruner]

18. you don't need to be extremely motivated to get addresses from HQ…

all you've gotta do is click on a link and fill out a form.

[Demobrat]

19. By extremely motivated

I meant motivated to write lots of letters. I didn't mean they made it hard. Some of those people are letter-writing machines. They make me feel guilty because I've only done it at meetups so far.