Swing State Project

Rapid Response/Research

You all remember the morning that Jean Schmidt had a press conference at 9:30 AM where she claimed she had no idea what Tom Noe (think coingate) looked like and had never met him?  Well within three hours Paul Hackett was on the courthouse steps holding a press conference of his own.  He waved documents in the air for all reporters to see, detailing an existing relationship between Jean Schmidt and Tom Noe.

Schmidt's assertion probably would have gone unchallenged in the waning days of the election were it not for that research.  She got called on it, and was embarassed even further.

And you know where that research came from?  The netroots.

Promoting Memes Into the Mainstream Media

By the end of the campaign, the swift-boating of Paul Hackett was operating at full throttle.  But do you remember where that all started?  It started online with an inocuous blog posting by some idiot who ran against Jean Schmidt in the primary and claimed to advise her on some message board on matters pertaining to Iraq.

OH-2 blog picked it up, and it was still probably destined to remain in the bowels of the blogosphere until it found its way into this community.  Atrios picked it up from there, MyDD, Swing State Project (where I cross-posted it) and the rest is history.

The next night Jean Schmidt was on the 5 PM news obligated to distance herself from the allegations.  

What might even be more impressive is that multiple Republican outlets (including Rush) took the bait we laid out for them and started to question Paul Hackett's service.  Now I was in OH-2, and there was nightly discussion about Hackett's service with valor.  I can also tell you from the call-in shows I heard, it really shined a poor light on the Republican party for attacking his service.  The media saw it again, and are beginning to learn that attacking service is par for the course in the Republican Party--and that bodes very well for us in the future.

Volunteers

When Bob and I started putting out the call for volunteers, the email boxes and phone lines at the Hackett campaign was basically too much for them to handle.  It got so crazy that I am certain the staff wasn't large enough for people to handle the requests and didn't have the experience they probably should have when in Ohio.  I don't think that says so much about the campaign, as it does our ability to mobilize in large numbers on the turn of a dime.  Online success translating into offline results.

Getting It

I want to share this story in conclusion.  The whole time I was in OH-2 working hard online to build a narrative and support for the campaign, I was very very very detached from the "senior level" effort.  I sat in the corner and blogged, wrote from the bar down the street, or stayed in my hotel room scribbling away for much of the day.

As time went by, the staff started to come around and recognize that something unbelievable was happening here.  I had to go home the weekend before the election for some family stuff, and Bob Brigham flew out to pick up the ball.  I implored the staff to give Bob a seat at the table.  Next thing you know he was blogging from Paul Hackett's home.

But the real moment of recognition came on election night.  While Bob, Matt (from actblue), and I set up shop in our own little Internet "war room" down the road from the senior staff war room, we wondered why none of us were asked to join--had we not shown enough?  We all believed there was a role for net, especially in a close election.

Then the results started coming in and the phone call came.  Bob and I were asked to join the senior staff along with DCCC and DNC representatives in the war room.  There was a stark recognition that if there was a recount, or the election was too close to call for any reason, they wanted to rapid response capabilities on their side.

In the blogs, you might have seen calls for research about Clermont County voting machines and irregularities go out online--they were responded to with great information in a matter of minutes.  That was all based on coordination between Bob and I with bloggers across the country putting out the word.  When the chips started getting down, the people in that room counted on the bloggers to pick them up if necessary/possible.

As it stands, the election was over and Paul lost, but had he not, the first media cycle would have been owned by the blogosphere.  I can promise you that.

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A few months ago I wrote a piece called, "My ATM Pin Number or On-Line Fundraising."  After working Jeff Seemann's (OH-16) communications shop last cycle, I thought it was a fun piece to write about Internet fundraising.  Specifically, campaigns I had spoken with after the election that only wanted to know how to raise money but really didn't want to listen to the importance of becoming active participants in communities like Kos.  I cringe everytime I see a candidate come on here, and in their first posts, keep asking for money (sorry Nick Lampson).  I don't know about anyone else, but it is a complete turn-off for me.  

This community deserves nothing less than candidates and causes that are willing to engage us.  And if they don't, so be it.  But I know that I personally cannot wait for candidates to come here and watch their diaries fall into obscurity because they are using the space like it's a billboard, instead of an opportunity to open up a dialogue.

I hope and pray that we are all able to sort out the candidates who are really willing to engage us vs. use us for the $20 contributions in the future.  But that is one of the greatest things about this community, or ability to filter out the junk from the good stuff (I think).

If I were to make one final point, it would be that we shouldn't necessarily jump up and down for joy because some junior staffer posts something on Kos or MyDD in the name of their boss.  We deserve more than half-assed outreach, and with a few notable exceptions, we have already seen too much of it.