How to win a political election - remotely!
GrowSF Clubhouse series
How to win a political election - remotely!
When: Wednesday, March 3, 5PM PT
Guests:
Hosts:
Notes
What is a CA Democratic Delegate
- Delegates make decisions for the Democratic party; there are 3000 in CA
- They elect the officers of the CA party, endorse statewide candidates and propositions
- Some delegates are elected, others appointed
- Elected delegates will vote/endorse positions based on conscious; appointed vote/endorse based on whom appointed them
- The position is important, because endorsements can move elections by 8-10% of vote
- They tend to run on a slate - delegates will run as part of a group
Why did you enter politics
- Nima: during Iraq War, inspired to ensure it doesn’t happen Iran, his country of origin; successfully got CA Democratic Party to pass a resolution against it
- Mike: didn’t see many people who shared his values in office, so decided to run
- Jane: also didnt see representation for herself based on the issues she cares about like housing, or as a trans individual
What is the infrastructure to setting up a campaign
- Most important facet of a Delegate campaign is you run as a slate of people
- Similar to School board elections
- You assemble a group of candidates who share your values, and have people vote for you as a group
- Each individual brings in 50-75 votes, allowing the group to bring in 1000+ votes for each other
- Getting out the vote
- Theres a process to voting for Delegates
- Traditionally had to get people to turn up in person, and vote on specific day at specific place
- Now in a remote world, all the process was digital - request ballot, and then submit ballot
- Campaign Manager
- Primary person who keeps you in line, follows up with candidates to make sure they complete work
- Helps get endorsements
- Get endorsements
- The endorsing organizations will then phone bank and email their list-servs
Most effective activity on the campaign
- The slate is the most important activity for Delegates
- Collecting a group of people with shared values who together command a larger voter base
- Ensuring voting discipline
- Ensuring each candidate’s voters will vote for the other candidates
- Using every campaign medium possible
- Send emails, social media, etc
- Message each person 5-6 times before the election, via a variety of channels
- Make sure those who get a ballot actually submit it back
- Running more than once
- It usually takes 1-2 times to win
- Need to build relationships
Most difficult day on the campaign
- The day the ballots requested was counted, it was a lot larger than expected
- Expected it to be couple thousand, but was 6700+
- They could only account for 2000 ballots amongst their own slate, so made it feel like the remaining 4000 were from the competition
- Resolved it by moving forward, and just ensuring as many of their own 2000 ballots were actually submitted
Online Discourse and Elections
- Delegates discussed how social media has been helpful or unhelpful in politics
- Jane indicated in a shelter-in-place world, online discourse was a necessity
- Sharky (audience, and also an ADEM AD 17 delegate) tweeted about a stolen van, and 6-9 months later the Governor signed related orders
- Also noted you have to be careful of the Brown Act as a public official - work related conversations are required to be in public
- Some indicated Twitter could be a distraction, you’re not going to change someones opinion; so focus reaching an audience
- Social media can help find the hundreds / thousands of votes you need to swing an election
Getting Involved
- Delegates recommended others to get involved in an issue you care about, and the rest should follow
- You’ll never succeed at running just by deciding to run; you need to go through the slog and build relationships