New Technology Helps Grassroots Efforts

Matt Stoller has an article up on the Nation magazine website about how new technology is helping improve the effectiveness of grassroots campaigning. This is a quote from the article about why television is losing influence as a campaign medium:

Since the 1960s, television has been the primary conduit for political information, with campaigns spending about 80 percent of their budget on media. But while broadcast television can reach millions of voters, it is, as Podhorzer notes, a dying medium. "The main thing that has changed is the heading to collapse of broadcast TV and heading to dominance of systematic, organized word of mouth and more targeted communication," he says. What's most promising about the shift from broadcast campaigns to those centered on "systematic, organized word of mouth" is the possibility of activating new voters, something TV has never been capable of doing. Political scientists Alan Gerber and Donald Green, experts on election turnout, conducted an experiment in 1998 with voters in New Haven, Connecticut, showing that person-to-person canvassing when the canvassers are ethnically and demographically matched to voters can increase turnout by 10 percent with a single contact and a nonpartisan message.

The article goes on to talk about the new database system that the DNC has put together under Howard Dean. This effort by Dean is being matched by an effort of the Ohio Democratic Party under Chair Chris Redfern called Votebuilder. Votebuilder is designed to compete with the Republican database program called Voter Vault. Both rely on using databases with a lot of information about potential voters so that when volunteers go out to canvass voters, they can be more effective in their presentation.

Of course, all of this technology depends on having volunteers and paid canvassers and a party leadership dedicated to making the technology work. It is up to local Democratic Party leaders, particularly county chairs, to make sure that their local parties are using the technology being provided by the DNC and the ODP.

The Political Power of Intensity

One Saturday last October both Sherrod Brown and Mike DeWine appeared for voter rallies and campaigning in Medina County. The Sherrod Brown event drew around 150 people. The DeWine event drew six people. Think about that for a minute. An incumbent GOP Senator running in a very tough re-election campaign was only able to attract six people to the GOP Medina County Headquarters. As a friend of ours pointed out recently the above example shows the power of intensity in political campaigns.

This brings us to Senator Clinton's campaign in Medina County and Ohio. When he was recounting that story, our friend was remarking on why he thinks that Senator Clinton's campaign will have trouble in Ohio. He believes that Democratic activists will not be as emotionally committed to her campaign as Republicans will be emotionally committed to defeating her. He believes that while Democratic activists will still vote for Senator Clinton, she will not arouse their passions like other candidates such as Barack Obama.

In the link in this entry's title is a news article about Senator Clinton's speech at the Ohio State Democratic Party dinner last Saturday, April 12, 2007. In the article there is a note about dinner attendees not responding with enthusiasm when Congresswoman Stephanie T. Jones tried to lead them in a chant for Hillary. Although it is early, this incident may show a lack of political passion for Senator Clinton in Ohio. If true, that will make it much harder for her to win Ohio in 2008.