Lately, I've been watching the blogs from a different angle, and Kos hit the nail on the head earlier this week when he published a diary entitled I'm Not A Gatekeeper. The point of this particular diary was to point out that no single blogger, not even Kos, was able to help a candidate out and swing the blogs his or her way.
I don't decide who is "in" and who is "out". All these campaigns profess love for the netroots, yet none of them seem to be doing anything more to "reach out" to the netroots than sending me an email. That's not reaching out the netroots, that's reaching out to me. And I'm not the netroots. I'm a small cog in a netroots chock full of small cogs.
That's just a small sample of his brilliant essay. Check it out.
Since that diary went up, I've seen similar repeats thrown up at other blogs. I'm here to add my two cents and to offer what little advice I can to each and every candidate looking to get the support of the netroots.
I ran in 2004 for the US House of Representatives in Ohio's 16th District. From the day I filed my petitions, I didn't have a chance in hell. I had no name recognition, no money, and my opponent was a 32-year incumbent who hadn't faced a real challenge in a decade and a half. The party had given up trying against this guy, but I went for it anyway.
By the end of the race, stories had been published about my race by CNN, MSNBC, the Associated Press, and hundreds of publications across the country. This 'nobody' of a challenger forced his opponent to return early from the Republican National Convention two days early, managed to change his schedule and keep him in the district instead of going out to fundraise and campaign for other Repubs, and we beat him to the punch on TV advertisements, leaving him with no TV ads the weekend before the election. Financially, I outraised any previous Democrat in OH-16, and in the end I picked up more votes than any Democratic candidate in the history of OH-16.
I couldn't have done ANY of it without the netroots. But rest assured that I never asked anyone to help me get through to the community. Kos didn't put me on the Kos 8 because I was a Democrat, or that he personally liked me, or because I had that supposed chance in hell. If you think your race has a special edge to it and you're trying to sell it to the netroots, give up now. You'll most likely never understand what the internet community is all about. The netroots will decide who they support, and it will never be because you ask for it....it will come because you DESERVE it. Prove it to them.
I got the support of the netroots because I understood the blogosphere and I was a part of it. I've been posting on Democratic message boards for years, and I've seen thousands of everyday people do the same thing over and over and over again....they stand up for what they believe in and they do it in remarkable fashion. Become one of them. They'll support you.
I must now direct you to the best guide to online campaigning I have ever read. My former Communications Director, Tim Tagaris wrote it at Swing State Project, and I will provide excerpts from it. Read it twice. If you can't follow everything he says down to the letter, then don't bother trying.
His entire mission is to make sure that candidates don't treat the blogs like their own personal ATM, and he does an excellent job. Pay attention.
Point Number One; Be willing to communicate with the netroots
Campaigns should set aside time every week, if not day, to communicate with us directly. That time should be just as important as call-time and block-walking time. Just like a good fundraising director will freak out if the candidate doesn't make 30 calls an hour, the Internet Outreach Coordinator should do the same. Yes, all campaigns should have one of them. And they should have a seat at the table right next to the campaign manager, communications director, finance director, and field director.
The Internet is the only medium available that allows for mass two-way communication. Constituents want to hear from you, and if they can get an answer back immediately, that's all the better. They want to know what is going on in the campaign they are supporting. And you know what? They deserve it.
There were people on my staff that went nuts trying to understand this, but I HAD to have my blogging time EVERY DAY. And it wasn't me posting a press release and then disappearing. I spent time responding to as many questions and comments as I could.
Furthermore, it actually was ME writing the diaries. Only once in the entire campaign did I allow somebody else to write under my screenname, and I was over his shoulder, approving what he wrote.
Point Number Two; The netroots want to be involved in the effort
The ideas of 50,000 will almost always be better than the ideas of five people who live their entire lives inside of a campaign HQ.
This means giving your supporters in the netroots the tools available to make a difference for your effort. Give them the tools to throw a house party, create a .pdf file for the campaign, listen to them about your message and refine it when necessary.
Ever had a great idea for something but couldn't get anybody to listen to your brilliance? So do 350,000 people on this very blog. Give 'em a chance, you still get final say on what your own campaign does. But don't be single-minded on where great ideas come from.
Heck, we gave up the entire campaign for a day and allowed the blogs to vote on, schedule, and execute a 16-hour day for my campaign in early October. Try it, it was amazing. By mid-day, we were showing up at events and people were there waiting for us to tell me that they voted for me to be there. It energized a TON of people.
Point Number Three; Opinion Leaders
And the thing about these opinion leaders is, they are often a fickle bunch. The best of them (in my mind): Jerome, Kos, Matt Stoller, Atrios, Jesse & Ezra from Pandagon understand quite well when someone is just trying to cash in on the netroots and who really "gets it."
They understand it because, for a few of them, they helped invent it. If you think you are going to pull a fast one on them and use them for the supporters, think again.
Nuff said. The guy who wrote the above also wrote my best speech ever, so I can't really elaborate any better than that.
Point Number Four; Your positions on the issues/your opponent
If you are a progressive candidate, you are at an advantage on-line. These are communities filled with activists who often believe in positions that candidates might find tough to back.
Let me give two examples: First, you have someone like Jeff Seemann whose liberal (I'm not ashamed of the word) stances on the issues made it alot easier for us to gather a following within the netroots. When people would ask Jeff questions on places like Kos or via email, we had no problem giving them the answer they wanted to hear, while being honest with them at the same time. This helped.
The other example is Brad Carson. Brad had a decidedly centrist stance on most of the issues; even going as far as to align himself with President Bush multiple times on a much watched and discussed debate with his opponent on Meet The Press. People were pissed. Some flat out stopped giving to Carson when they watched the debate, saying he was more Conservative than his Republican opponent.
But Brad Carson was running against a nutcase; Tom Coburn, the doctor who likes to sterilize patients without their consent and then bill Medicaid. Which provides a great segue into my final point -- the opponent...
Yes, it helps if you have a dirt-bag for an opponent.
Again, nuff said. There are many ways to get the blogs involved with your campaign, and those were the two best. Fortunately, we're Democrats, so we almost always will have a dirtbag for an opponent....which means your dirtbag has to be especially dirty nowadays.
Which leaves us with the best advice you can hear....give them the answer they want to hear, but it BETTER BE HONEST. Ask Melissa Bean about that one. Her netroots support was phenomenal, but after her CAFTA vote, it ain't gonna happen for her in 2006.
As for me, I got lucky in 2004. I made the right move at the right time and it paid off for me in ways I never dreamed could happen. Funny thing is, I didn't do it to make money for my campaign. I did it because it was the right thing to do as a member of the blogosphere....it just happened to pay off in the fundraising category, something I never planned to happen.
And that's the key to it all....I was thinking of the blogosphere first, not my own campaign.
So there you have it. Read up, candidates. Learn your history and don't expect an easy time with these here things called blogs.
Just my opinion....discount it if you like, but just PLEASE don't underestimate my friends who happen to browse these sites several times a day.
Jeff Seemann
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