THE CAMPAIGN MANAGER (AKA THE ORGANIZER)
As an electoral organizing campaign manager, you have a very unique vantage point that no one else can see. Perhaps the most important quality of any organizer is their ability to relate. To relate to all kinds of different people and all kinds of different roles. In order to achieve your dual goals of winning the campaign AND building the movement, you’ll need to have these on your radar at all times.
Candidate (or spokespeople, if it’s a ballot measure) face time with voters
Field Numbers: voter contacts, support IDs, volunteer shifts filled
Fundraising: $ raised, # of donors
Budget: how to make up a deficit & where to spend a surplus
Media: social & conventional (paid & earned)
Opponents campaign: exploit weaknesses, avoid strengths
Volunteer base, Electorate, Public Sentiment (don’t confuse one for the other)
From being able to relate to the stresses of the candidate being in the public eye so much. To relate to your most ardent supporter who just can’t fathom why someone wouldn’t vote for your side. To relate to the data and field managers who are up late cutting turf and de-duplicating and uploading lists. Even to relate to your opposition’s supporters, to understand what compelled them to choose them over you. All while leaving yourself enough time and capacity to be patient and wait for opportunities to arise, and be prepared to seize them when they do. In electoral organizing, no one election cycle matters more than another, it’s how you build from one to the next, and what you do with your time in between. Just like a good community organizer, it’s not about the housing campaign, or the rate payer fight, it’s about how you’re using each of them to build upon each other to build something greater: Working Class Power! Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
