GOTV - Part 10 - Semi-Pro Volunteers

by: Grebner

Mon Jan 24, 2011 at 00:39:13 AM EST

Today's post isn't mainly about GOTV, but a necessary excursion into typology of volunteers.  

One measure of failure of our GOTV methods is treating all volunteers more or less interchangeably:  hand them a list and a stack of flyers, and send them out to cover their precinct.  Whether they're a 16-year-old novice, or a retired state representatve makes no difference.  We don't have time to coddle them, or inquire into their abilities or preferences.  What drives us is the need to cover a certain amount of territory, to pass out a certain number of leaflets, to make a certain number of phone calls, and everybody is treated as equally valuable in advancing those objects.

Which means we waste more effort and talent than we put to productive use. 

We need to recognize a critical resource:  the semi-professional volunteer.  I don't have a precise definition, but every campaign has some.  These are people whose life is largely dedicated to politics, who know many of the players, who have personal histories going back at least several elections and sometimes several decades.  We need to recognize their potential value as supervisors and trainers, as people who can carry out complex tactics, who can be trusted to perform what other volunteers might fail to do.  In short, we need to take advantage of these semi-pros in order to create a rudimentary management structure for our GOTV.

I'm sure everybody who reads this can think of additional sources, but here are the ones my experience brings to mind: 

• Elected officials - usually low-level, such as township trustees or county commissioners. 
• Staff members from the offices of elected officials - around Lansing, the state legislature staff is ubiquitous.  Elsewhere, their abundance will depend on who controls local government as well as the role of local officials in hiring.  Wayne, Kent, and Clare Counties have very little in common.
• Unions officials and staff, as well as rank-and-file.
• College interns.  YMMV.  Some are highly committed, and some are barely competent to hand out leaflets.  
• Paid campaign staff. Well-heeled campaigns sometimes have staff who can be temporarily, or even permanently, assigned to GOTV as a way of helping the ticket.  This is particularly common when a candidate is able to raise a large amount of money but faces only token opposition.
• Paid part timers.  It's possible to "promote" some casual volunteers into semi-pro status by applying a relatively small amount of money.  The typical case is somebody who is a true believer but who is forced to limit their volunteer time in order to work a part-time minimum wage job (fast food, retail, whatever). Even if the campaign doesn't literally match the lost wages, it's often possible to obtain a huge amount of time for a very small salary.
• Retirees.  Every campaign seems to have a few regulars who staff the office or organize canvassing, who devote a substantial number of hours out of a mixture of loyalty to a cause and desire for company.
• Enthusiastic young people who are discovering politics, and who may devote dozens of hours if they find the right niche.
• Business staffers.  It's not unknown for a business owner who supports a given candidate or cause to let employees know volunteering would be "appreciated" in a general way.  (That is, in a way that doesn't bring the attention of legal authorities.)  On the Democratic side, this mainly means law firms.  On the Republican side, the diversion of business resources into political channels is well-established practice.