Inside Look at the Clinton Ground Campaign in Nevada

Huffington Post has an article up about the Clinton ground campaign in Nevada. The ground campaign started about a year ago and involved volunteers talking with voters and recruiting potential volunteers. The article makes several good points. One is that good organization tends to be ignored by the media because they can't see it and its effects aren't known until the end of the campaign. Another point is that ground campaigns tend to be organized and run by relatively young volunteers because it is physically and emotionally and it helps if you don't have a family and/or a full time job stressing you out in addition to the campaign work.

According to the writer of the article these were the goals of the Clinton campaign:

The purpose of the organization Mook was building was to accomplish a very specific string of results: (1) Recruit a competent and dedicated leader for every precinct; (2) Test those leaders to make sure they are capable of recruiting and leading other caucus goers; (3) ID and turn out as many Clinton supporters to caucus as possible; and (4) Train precinct leaders to make sure they know how to lead their caucus attendees on the big day.

Quite frankly that should be the goal of every Democratic county party in Ohio. Find dedicated precinct leaders; train them and test them to make sure they know what they are doing; identify voters who will vote Democratic in their precincts; and make sure those voters vote on election day. Too often precinct committee persons positions have been treated as if their sole function was to elect the county chair and governing committee. Consequently in many counties Democratic candidates are on their own when it comes to building a grassroots structure and in every election cycle the work has to start all over again. Folks, that is no way to run a railroad.

If you are interested in grassroots organization, check out this article. If you are involved in a successful grassroots organization, let us know how your organization works. You can email us at webmaster@medinacountydemocraticactioncommittee.org.