Open Thread: What Campaigns Are You Working On?

Are you working or volunteering for a campaign this fall – at any position up or down the ticket? (I should hope you are!)

If so, tell us about the campaign you’re working on and the work that you’re doing. I’d love to hear about it.  

65 thoughts on “Open Thread: What Campaigns Are You Working On?”

  1. I’m part of the local Team Obama here in Minnesota doing all the data work, setting up events, doing voter contact. Stuff like that.

    Also I’m doing a little bit of work for the campaigns of Al Franken (MN-Sen) and Ashwin Madia (MN-03) and helping fundraise online for Scott Kleeb (NE-Sen), Tom Perriello (VA-05), Rick Noriega (TX-Sen), Patrick Murphy (PA-08) and Darcy Burner (WA-08).

  2.    I drive from Maryland to Prince William County, Virginia most weekends to canvass for Obama.  Sometimes I end up talking about Mark Warner and Gerry Conolly too.  I amazed by how little people know about Mark Warner.

  3. The last two weeks of the campaign I’ll be helping elect Kosmas in FL-24 with GOTV operations.  Wish I had more time before then but I just don’t with work.  Most of my assistence to Democratic candidates this cycle is financial as I have more money than free time.

  4. more moneywise than time wise,  though being stuck south of Boston also gives me a decent drive to the closest place to do anything in NH.  

  5. So you’d think I have nothing to do. However since I live literally blocks away from CA-46, I’ve been quite involved with Debbie Cook’s campaign. I’ve not had as much time in the last week or so to work my heart out for Debbie, but hopefully that will change next weekend.

    OK, and I’ve also been devoting A LOT of my weekend time to calling Nevada for Obama… And Jill Derby or Dina Titus, depending on whether we’re calling NV-02 or NV-03 that day. I’ve been feeling nervous lately because of the erratic polls, so I calm my nerves by putting my ass to work on the phone. Oh yes, and I’ve scheduled three weekend trips to Las Vegas this fall to help Obama & Dina Titus.

    Oh, and before I forget…

    http://www.actblue.com/page/c4o

    My co-bloggers & I have started a lil’ ActBlue page for our favorite candidates. 😉

  6. She's a progressive running for our At Large City Council seat. If Rebecca Kaplan wins, she'll be the first openly lesbian elected official in Alameda County. If you live anywhere near Oakland, you've probably heard about our recent corruption scandals, budget crisis, and crime wave. We need help here, since the rest of the council got reelected, Kaplan is our only hope for new blood and fresh ideas.

    I've done a bunch of phoning and direct voter outreach for her, plus I'm doing online outreach for her through blogs, and I'm organizing my first political fundraiser for her. You can find out more about her at her website or on my blog.

  7. I’m working for Obama and for Mike McCracken to replace a horrible Republican – John Peterson – who retired.  Here in rural Pennsylvania it is somewhat uphill.  I have been campaigning door to door.  Two observations.  One, I am astounded that half of the people have NOT made up their mind.  What are they waiting for???  The ones who are adamant and enthused about their choice are for Obama.  But I am afraid that some of the undecided are reluctant to tell an Obama supporter what they really think because there is an unease about Obama.

    Anyone who wants to help, please send something to Mike McCracken’s campaign.

  8. I’ve been working for the Democratic women candidates running for statewide office in Montana:

    *Linda McCulloch for Secretary of State

    *Monica Lindeen for State Auditor

    *Denise Juneau for State Superintendent of Public Instruction

    All three are great progressives running in critical races.  Help support them today: http://www.actblue.com/page/mo…

  9. Flying halfway around the world in a couple of weeks to work on the Seals campaign from then until election day. Got no idea what they want me to do yet :).

  10. I have never met a candidate who is so open to grassroots support as Judy Baker and as a consequence I have suddenly found myself extremely involved in politics beyond what I ever expected.

    I have become her biggest online ActBlue bundler.

    See my ActBlue site here:

    http://www.actblue.com/page/wa…

    I have also volunteered to phone bank for her and sponsored a fundraiser for her. None of these are things I normally do. It feels great!

  11. I’m an intern with the Obama campaign but I’m also doing all I can to help out Barry Welsh. I’ve got to meet him a couple times and he’s a helluva nice guy.  

  12. Voter reg. captain for Obama and also do canvassing.

    Will be doing my first canvassing for Kay Hagan tomorrow.

    Have done some canvassing for our local state house rep. Ty Harrell. An up and comer who I think will likely be the next congressman from North Carolina if Brad Miller takes on Burr in 2010 or if they create another Raleigh based district in 2011. He’s in pretty good shape now in this swing district and I think has solidified his support now (he’s a freshman state rep).

  13. I am supporting Rob Hubler (who’s running against odious Steve King in IA-05) and Becky Greenwald (who’s running against the lower-profile but still odious Tom Latham in IA-04). The district I live in, IA-03, has a safe Democratic incumbent.

    If you mean more traditional forms of volunteering, like phone calls and canvassing, I am focusing on Iowa House district 59, where a neighbor in my precinct, Windsor Heights Mayor Jerry Sullivan, is poised to take back a seat Republicans have held for more than 40 years!

    I’m big on Democrats getting involved in state legislative races:

    http://www.bleedingheartland.c…

  14. Not nearly as much as I would like to do. I am interning for Debbie Cook, duh, and I’m enjoying every minute of it. Especially if I can get it to count as a class I very much need to graduate. lol i mean, I’m doing it anyway. Might as well get something OTHER than the deep satisfaction I would get from sending Dana back to Huntington Beach. I just wish I had more time to do help other candidates and causes. Stopping Prop 8 which will eliminate same-sex marriages in California would be my next big mission, i just don’t have the time with 18 units AND 30 hours a week at work.

  15. I am volunteering for Sean Gatewood, a core Democrat in an open, core-Democratic district (no Republicans since one-man-one-vote – that core).  One thing we do that may be different than a lot of others is Election-Eve and Election-Day door-to-door to Democratic voters for whom there is no phone match.  There are always a fairly significant number of such people, but not so many as to make the job impossible.  On Election Eve we deliver an invitation to an Election Watch Party.  On Election Day we offer a ride to the polls.  Often some of the people for whom there is no phone match really do not know that it is Election Day.  And most always they do go vote.

  16. I went to make my usual monthly payment on my Stafford student loans racked up during college and noticed my interest rate dropped from 7.22% to 4.21%!  According to a new chart it applies to anyone who graduated prior to 6/30/2006. The new rate goes into effect for one year.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S…

    Graduated Prior to July 1, 1998 : Rate drop 8.02% to 5.01%

    July 1, 1998 to June 30, 2006 : Rate drop 7.22% to 4.21%

    More money saved on interest = more free money I have to donate this year.

    1. That makes sense. After all, I’ve seen the same problem in Las Vegas. With so many people moving in & moving out & moving all around Southern Nevada, they may not all know who Harry Reid, Jim Gibbons, Jon Porter, and Dina  Titus are. And since so many new residents are flocking to Northern Virginia, the same may be happening there as they don’t all know who Mark Warner and Jim Gilmore are.

  18. I’m the Campus Vote Director for my school, the Univ. of St Thomas in St. Paul.  The job is through the Youth Coordinated Campaign (a sub-group under the Coordniated Campaign) that was started last election cycle as the nation’s first youth targetted Coordinated Campaign.

    I’m also chair of my school’s College Democrats and the other chair is basically my job but with the Obama campaign.

    Our goal is organize our school for Obama.  We’ve been clipboarding since school started and are already at 600 Obama supporters with our election day goal being 1200.  One girl put it as Obaminating.  ðŸ™‚

    I also organize events through College Dems as a means to get the campus aware of the election and energized to vote.  My fave thing is doing a lecture series with Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer to discuss Energy/Environmental policy (guy who ran against Franken in the endorsement), Thomasin Franken to discuss Education policy (daughter of Al), Elwyn Tinklenberg to talk about the economy, and I’ll hopefully solidify tomorrow Rep. Betty McCollum for the Iraq War.

    I absolutely love getting to do this.  My entire college career has basically lead up to this, student/community organizing for progressive causes and I can’t wait to see how we do on election day.  I’m expecting my college campus to turn it out for Obama and we’re a moderate Catholic rich white school with a predominant Republican/religious right lean. That is the beauty of organizing, we’re out there every day and people are basically sick of us while the McCain camp is doing absolutely nothing.  We’ll win on McCain territory because we put the energy into it.

    God, I’m just so damn excited for this shit to get kicked into high-gear!

  19. I’ve been involved in Frank Kratovil’s campaign for a little over a year now and am continuing it in college helping mobilize students to phone bank and canvass in the district. I read this site a lot but usually only post pertaining to his campaign.

  20. When this post forced me to ask myself that question (“What campaigns are you working on?”), my answer was “None.”

    I didn’t like that answer.  I tried to justify it, by defensively arguing back (to myself) that there aren’t any competitive races where I live… and although that may be true, it didn’t help to assuage my discomfort at not taking any action.

    Thanks, SSP, for spurring me into joining GObama RI and the Drive for Change program!

  22. Clear Lake area, currently evacuating from Ike. I’m retreating back to Denton, TX right now (DFW area) and will return at the end of the week. I have been the campaign’s field coordinator and pretty much walking houses 24/7 for the last 2 weeks. Hurricane has changed our plans drastically.

    Meanwhile, Nick Lampson has just won his re-election form this storm. He’s everywhere; this includes having been in charge of the fuel trucks along the major highways, making sure evacuees have gas. It seems Reps. Gene and Al Green have stepped back and are letting Nick have all the face time he wants. Sheila Jackson Lee (D; CD-18) and John Culberson (R; CD-7) have also been out. County Judge Ed Emmett (R) may have saved his hide in this disaster and Mayor Bill White (unaffiliated, but he’s a D) has the chops now to possibly beat Hutchison in a Governor’s race in 2010.

    Only real failure, Ron Paul (R) who represents Galveston Island and is still on his kick about how FEMA just shouldn’t exist as his constituents try to evacuate and find shelter.

  23. There’s a new TV ad out in WV-02 with Sen. Byrd. You can see it here along with an analysis from Politico. I think it’s pretty effective.

    Barth has enough money to be competitive, but could use even more to put ads like this into heavy rotation.

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