Moveon.org's Operation Caught Red-Handed!

[Pryderi]

Is anyone planning on being on a team?

http://moveon.org/team/redhanded/background.html

When MoveOn members expose the corruption and misdeeds of the Republican Congress through local media events, it can make a huge difference. We've seen this with the success of our "Caught Red-Handed" ad campaign. Polling has shown that these ads really helped tighten up some key races. We're taking the message of corruption and misdeeds to the most competitive Republican race in the country with Project Red-Handed.

Here's what Project Red-Handed looks like: armed with giant red hands and signs, MoveOn members will follow their representative to town hall meetings, appearances and fundraisers to let fellow voters know how their rep's allegiance to special interests is hurting all of us.

If the candidate is speaking at a steel mill, for example, we'll be there to show that they've been caught red-handed taking Big Business contributions and then voting to outsource American jobs. At another event, we might highlight the fact that they’ve been “caught red-handed sending our troops to war but voting to cut their veteran's benefits.” At another, we might hold signs saying they’ve been “caught red handed taking contributions from pharmaceutical companies and then voting for a corrupt Medicare drug program that harms seniors."

The common thread is your representative’s allegiance to special interests over the people of your district, and their close connection to the mess that Republicans have created in Washington. The “red handed” metaphor provides an iconic image to link the charges we’re making, and help them stick in the minds of the media and the public.

But we won’t just show up outside events. We'll fill the newspapers with letters to the editor and call into local talk radio with more examples. It'll be powerful—and fun.

We're poised to win big in November if voters in these key target districts connect their representative to the mess in DC. With Project Red-Handed, we'll be able to do just this.

We're jumping in now, before the story of the race is written, so we can insert our message of corruption, special interests, and the need for change in November. As the election draws nearer, we'll switch gears and focus on turning out progressive voters in key races around the country.

[Awsi Dooger]

1. Has MoveOn ever considered a positive ad?

Sorry, but it wears thin with me. I loved that organization at the outset until I realized they were doing nothing but falling into the ignorant desperate handbook, attack the opposition and pretend that's the secret, that's plenty. The other side gets away with it so it must be the brainstorm solution for us.

Newsflash: the public already knows the GOP has been caught red-handed. That's the reason for the generic polling heavily in our favor.

The positive ratings of our party and our candidates is what is dragging us down, like a natural regulator. If we concentrated in that area and provided a few simpleton positive themes and catch phrases for the public to gobble up and remember, that's where we win big in November.

Sorry for the rant but I abhor inept handicapping and IMO we're not going to fully capitalize unless we focus on us, not them. Remember, the bogus Contract With America was fluff proposals the GOP said it would emphasize and implement. It wasn't called Contract Against Clinton. We ignore that at our own peril.

[greenman3610]

2. how are positive ratings dragging us down?

don't get it. what's your point?

[Bretttido]

8. Actually, a lot of the public still thinks they're squeeky clean

Not until they're bombarded with the facts about GOP corruption will many of these people even begin to question them.

[Pryderi]

11. Worked for "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth"

[acmejack]

3. I certainly would like to participate.

It all depends on how my ongoing back repair proceeds. If it works out well I will be all over this effort if things remain as they are I am afraid I will have to remain on the disabled list.

I think it is a good campaign, things like this catch the voters attention, face the facts, playing nice doesn't translate to sound and video bites, we've played nice and what has It gotten us? A minority & or present state of affairs.

[itzamirakul]

7. I, too have been on that list, so I know what you mean, but I am

just now finding out some info about a telephone project where folks like us can still help out. It may be somewhat limited depending on how long you can sit or stand and be on the phone, but you know "every little bit helps.":)

As soon as I find out more about this phone project, I'll post it on DU

Meantime, hope that back gets better soon! If your doctor approves, maybe you could try some lightweight yoga...surprisingly, it helps!

[cally]

4. There's three competitive house races within two hours

I could have fun doing this.

[Pryderi]

5. Take a video camera in case Rethuglicans show up DeLay/Lampson

[Awsi Dooger]

6. Here's some evidence that focusing on GOP corruption doesn't work

I mentioned in the first reply that I think MoveOn's mission is well-meaning but too negative and the handicapping generally inept.

The paragraph below is from MyDD.com today, an exhaustive questionnaire-based analysis of why Francine Busby lost the special election in California. It basically refutes MoveOn's entire premise with this Red-Handed campaign, that emphasizing GOP corruption is vital and can make a "huge difference". Instead, it describes it as a failure. Precisely. And one that will continue to waste time and money. If you look at the entire post from MyDD, corruption should only be emphasized in extreme cases where corruption defines the opponent, like a Tom DeLay. I can tell you from posting on a couple of balanced political sites that we are wonderfully ignorant if we believe the swing and independent voters view us as much less corrupt than Republicans. MoveOn doesn't seem to get that. We need to define ourselves and our message.

http://mydd.com/story/2006/8/2/1119/55538#commenttop

"Culture of Corruption: The "culture of corruption" message, on which the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee based most of it's multi-million dollar advertising budget in the district, and which was a pillar of the national Democratic message going into the Busby campaign, failed. In an open-ended question where poll participants gave reasons for their vote, less than 2% cited Republican corruption as a reason for voting for Busby (Q9). Further, while people in the district viewed Bilbray as more corrupt than Busby (Q18b), Independents in particular still view Democrats as being corrupt, and as such do not believe Democrats can solve the corruption problem in Washington (Q20a). Yet still further, the "culture of corruption" message may well have been responsible for what was very low Independent turnout and for Independents to break heavily for third-party candidates (since they think both major parties are corrupt). Thus, for Democrats, the culture of corruption message quite possibly did more harm than good in this district. In a district with a 3-2 Republican registration advantage such as the CA-50, in order to win Francine Busby needed both high Independent turnout, and a large win among Independents. She received neither. She failed to define herself as a clear alternative with strong views (Q18c), instead running against a criminal, but incarcerated and retired incumbent."

[liberaldemocrat7]

9. The Republican economics Stupid.

Yep, Staunch Republicans will vote their party because of the economics. They hate welfare queens, social security beneficiaries and unemployed people. They don't want their tax money going to them.

They also hate Spanish people, blacks and anyone not white wealthy and Republican.

Yes they will bring up those moralizing sexual issues Republicans bring up at election campaign time but they really appear as excuses. They go for the money and for those who will help maximize their income and further business to the extent that businesses abuse people in various areas.

As long as no dead body comes up as a result of a Republican candidate they will vote Republican. I call them pink elephant Republicans. Their biases appear as real as a pink elephant.

As for independents and swing voters to an extent they also hate people on welfare, social security beneficiaries and the unemployed and spanish and blacks but they also hate big business and religious fundies and they vote Republican realizing that the social sexual issues get used by wealthy Republicans to fool religious idiot bigots into voting Republican and that they ignore the catering too much to big business because their taxes may stay low.

[gratuitous]

10. So start an organization that does what you want it to do

Busby was running in a heavily Republican district, one that probably would have returned Duke Cunningham to his seat from jail if that was an option, and she lost the special election by a pretty thin margin. To say that she lost due to one factor is to ignore the odds she was running against. Turnout by independents was low in this special election, which isn't surprising, and I'm not persuaded that independents sat out the election based solely on a perception that Bilbray was just as corrupt as Busby or vice versa.

But to extrapolate one factor from an off-year special election in a heavily Republican district and conflate it into a blanket nationwide statement is a non sequitur. While the theme of Republican corruption probably won't play very well in districts where incumbent Republicans are not corrupt, it can certainly figure in as part of any Democratic challenger's overall campaign strategy (thinking here of Jerry Lewis, Ron Pombo, Tom DeLay, Dennis Hastert, and several others).

And finally, MoveOn is doing what it thinks will help progressive candidates. You aren't required to sign on to their work or their strategy. Find a group that pursue a campaign strategy that you think is right, or if no one is doing that, start one of your own.