At the Democratic state committee meeting Saturday, those assembled watched part of a video (they skipped the part with former Gov. Howard Dean talking, figuring they've heard him before) on grassroots politics. It featured some interesting tidbits. To wit:
It's harder to reach potential voters by traditional means. No longer is TV the great hope for reaching voters, as the average American has 155 channels (that struck me as high, given that there are actual Americans who get no channels, but that's what the Democratic dude said) and that DVR machines allow a good many people to avoid commercials. Radio listening, too, is in decline and phones have changed significantly. First, people have caller ID and second, a growing number of people rely solely on cell phones, which are not conveniently listed in the phone book.
As for mail, well, that brings in one vote for every 400 mailings. Personal phone calls bring in one vote for every 460 calls.
The most efficient method of reaching a voter? The personal visit. That brings in one vote for every 14 visits. It's something, the Dems were told, that the Republicans have used successfully since 2001.
Which means the Dems this year will focus on personal greetings. Party members will reach out to voters in their neighborhoods/towns/regions, make the case for Democratic candidates and keep going back to those people until Election Day. Each activist will be asked to adopt 25 people and to recruit two new activists who will do the same.
They'll take the information they glean from those voters (likely to support our candidate, hell-bent against our candidate, worried about X issue, etc.) and put it into the party's voter file. That will help the party better focus its efforts - not bothering perhaps to call a solid Democratic voter or a solid Republican.
It struck me as I listened to the video that this means Democrats will be fanning out into Vermont neighborhoods over the next year, pumping their neighbors for information about their political views, writing them down and recording them back at headquarters, keeping a sort of book on every Vermont voter they possibly can. Eerie?
This is not new - the parties have been keeping voter files for years - but it is a pumped up version. And, as the guy on the video indicated, Republicans have been beating them at it, so it's not just one party keeping the book on you.
Seems to me, the party activists who are going to be doing this work might not be the most popular people in their neighborhood before the election is over.
- Terri Hallenbeck
