Getting More Progressives Elected -- And Where You Fit In
Hi, this is Adam Green. I recently left MoveOn to get some new ventures off the ground. The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) was first reported here at the Huffington Post. That resulted in kind words of endorsement around the progressive blogosphere from folks like Chris Bowers, David Sirota, Digby, and Atrios.
I figured it would make sense to go into detail about the rationale for this new group -- and to let you know where you fit in.
First, the PCCC mission. As our mission statement points out:
In 2008, one first-time progressive candidate in a key congressional district went through four campaign managers before losing.
Another spent $47,000 to retain a media firm that never produced a single TV ad. Another spent $40,000 on field consultants -- enough to pay 10 field staffers for two months, but which only bought a few hand-holding consultant calls. And others wasted thousands of dollars and weeks of staff time designing C-rate websites.Every election cycle, inexperienced candidates who run on bold progressive ideas -- candidates who political insiders predict "can't win" -- come within a few points of victory. But too many lose winnable races due to the mistakes and inefficiencies of their campaigns.
Who is getting the backs of these progressive candidates? Who is helping them run competent, efficient campaigns so they can win? Right now, nobody.
...The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) will fill this void - providing needed infrastructure and strategic advice to progressive candidates so they can run first-class campaigns and win.
(Stay in the loop with us: www.BoldProgressives.org)
One thing I realized at MoveOn -- and that many folks across the blogosphere have written about in recent election cycles -- is that it makes no sense for the progressive community to raise tons of money for candidates who then spend it inefficiently, including on bloated consultant costs. We need to step up and help progressive candidates not just raise money, but run effective campaigns and win.
So, what's the PCCC going to do specifically? Here are the top 3 jobs in the short term:
Job #1 -- helping candidates find super-competent, progressive campaign managers. Too often, folks hire their "political friends" or inexperienced staff. Every relevant decision of the campaign will stem from the campaign management -- including whether to spend money wisely and whether to campaign progressively. And to the extent that consultants are needed, we'll introduce campaigns to outside-the-box-thinking progressives like Bill Hillsman (Paul Wellstone and Ned Lamont's ad guy) and Steve Eichenbaum (Russ Feingold and Tom Perriello's ad guy).
Job #2 -- working with campaigns to implement best practices. One top progressive campaign in 2008 went months with a large field staff that had no daily metrics for success. Basic stuff like that can't happen.
Best practices also means innovation. Technology gives us a golden opportunity to replace some formerly-needed consultants with modern-day people power. As I said in the Huff Post piece, paying TV consultants thousands of bucks for a YouTube video is a waste of money. Opposition research consultants will someday be replaced by the wiki. The examples go on and on. Campaign spending must transform to account for and embrace people-powered technology. Our team of former MoveOn organizers, labor and campaign organizers, and the co-inventor of RSS & Reddit is uniquely suited to help campaigns know how to use the Internet to run people-powered campaigns. And we'll show candidates how to work as partners with the blogosphere and overall progressive community.
Job #3 -- economies of scale. As mentioned above, why do so many candidates spend weeks of staff time and thousands of dollars designing a lackluster website that doesn't have people-powered functionality? It makes no sense. Why not just have a progressive entity that designs the perfect website once and gets it to progressive candidates? There are a bunch of similar economies of scale that can be had to avoid reinventing broken wheels.
(There are also some cool technology-revolution things we have cooking for the long term, but that's for a different day.)
The net result: Progressive candidates save tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of dollars in campaign costs, giving them a competitive advantage and allowing them to run more effective campaigns and win.
So, where do you fit it?
Lots of ways.
First, sign up to stay in the loop with us. If we can't communicate with folks who agree with our core mission, we're in trouble.
Second, donate. Thanks to everyone who has given in the past few days. Some people have given $10, while others have given $50 or $100 -- some even opted for monthly recurring donations. I assure you, every bit of support during this tender start-up phase really goes a long way. If you agree with the goal of helping progressive candidates run effective campaigns and win, please consider donating today.
Third, we need your thinking. Does the mission above seem on point? Do you know other examples of inefficiencies that we should be highlighting? Do you know of any amazingly competent and progressive campaign managers that we should be recommending to candidates? Are there any prospective 2010 candidates we should be thinking about? Do you know any progressive video makers, graphic designers, etc. who could help candidates without ripping them off? Do you want to just pitch in and volunteer with the PCCC?
Feel free to respond in the comments below, or email us any time.
The bottom line: There's a lot of important work to do to get more progressive candidates elected. PCCC will be a vehicle for that goal, but it will take all of us to make it happen. It's totally doable. So, let's do it.
(Stay in the loop and donate: www.BoldProgressives.org)
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Excellent idea. I was just a part of one of these campaigns; help is needed.
See Adam Green's Profile
which campaign? got any stories?
One more thing..
Did I tell you that Murphy voted FOR GWB?
Talk about database...I've got AlGore.orgs..that's what I did for a year.
Continued...
My problem with Congressman Muphy's staff answer?
Well, I used to be a Technical Support Rep for Panasonic and I know full well that, from time to time, there are laws called "Telecommunications Acts" that deal with phone service and other equipment such as fax machines.
I should know this because I did have to mention, quite often, the "Telecommunications Act of 1991"
(Which made it a legal requirement that if someone calls you , their corp or private name and or their phone number MUST appear)
I was told by the Congressman's office that it wasn't a Federal type issue...
Holding one's phone number so that the customer in question can NOT go back to his prior phone service isn't a Federal issue?
I beg to differ since apparently, according to the Verizon field rep that got our service finally going...
"They all do this".
Couple of more things you should know...
My mother is handicapped and has cancer.
So is this guy a progressive?
I think not.
I think someone needs to define "Progressive"...
Here's my story...
I have lived here in Bucks County (8th CD) since 1981.
We used to have a good Congressman, his name was Peter Kostmyer.
I worked on his campaigns, served with him as a fellow delegate to the Democratic
National Convention in 1984, gave him my hard earned money for his campaigns...
Peter was defeated in 1992 and since then we've had 3 Republican Congressmen until this guy
Patrick Murphy was elected 4 years ago.
Funny thing about Mr. Murphy is that he voted against Al Gore.
Another funny thing about Mr. Murphy was that he was a tried and true carpetbagger from Norheast Philly not a real resident until he decided to move here after his time in the service and then, quite promptly (after about 2 years) decided to change his party and run for the Democratic Nomination for Congress.
This past year, when I needed his help, because we didn't had lost our primary phone service because Vonage "kept" our phone number, I finally decided to talk to his office...
I found out that two of his staff had the same kind of problems but they really couldn't get involved because it wasn't a "Federal Problem"
What progressives need to effectively move the country toward their benevolent political vision is the understanding of the one tool that controls every thing else that goes on in our economy and therefore in our politics.
That one tool is the monetary system.
And when I say system I do not mean monetary policy, which is how money is used within the system.
The monetary system needs reform in order to deal effectively with any of the major problems that are manifesting themselves as we speak.
Economic democracy should be one of the goals of the debt-free money system that replaces the debt-money system of the private reserve bankers at the FED.
We are fortunate that progressively minded thinkers have a leader in this emerging battle for monetary reform in this country.
If progressives want to see the real change that is needed to move ahead NOW, listen to Dennis Kucinich speaking on the House floor about the bankers' responsibility for the "credit crisis", and how we need to reform the nation's monetary system in order to get out of this mess.
Here is the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR2EtMteHCg&feature=channel_page00
Here the thing.
It's OUR money.
This is a wonderful initiative, long overdue.
I hope you will make Web site templates, campaign literature templates, etc. readily available on your Web site.
See Adam Green's Profile
Stay tuned.
Adam,
Stay with what you are doing. A candidate I know ran for U.S. Senate in the last election. Creds were impeccable.
Got virtually no help from the national party. No money. Nobody came to help campaign. At one point he was two points down in the polls. On election day, he had lost by more than ten.
Went through at least two campaign managers.
What else may have gone awry, I don't know.
We need for your organization, VoteVets, and some others to work together to get progressives elected.
What we did find out in this past election is that if a lot of folks can give a little bit of time, money, and other resources, they can make a big difference in the outcome.
MoveOn does good stuff. But, I'm not into "groupthink."
I support the "candidates" of my choice. Not a national party, or their campaign committees.
Keep us informed on what's going on. We have a couple of years to get it right.
See Adam Green's Profile
Super-interesting. Can you share which candidate you're referring to? (Or...which state?)
If you check my profile, and some previous posts. The state is mentioned.
Many times.
Thanks for posting this well before the next elections. Progressives tend to be rational people who think that once we've made our points, others will come on board. But they don't, because most decisions aren't made rationally.
Don't worry about trolls like litnup and vegas9999. You're assuming there's a rational argument that needs to be addressed there, but they sound incoherent to me.
I'm off to check out your web site.
See Adam Green's Profile
thanks!
Can someone please tell me just what a Progressive is anyway? Has Progressive simply replaced democrat as the term used these days? I consider myself a left leaning moderate independent, but everything I've read makes me think I'm progressive.
I'm SO confused....
someone please help!
(NOT kidding here)
It is a word that people are fighting over. A word being misused and abused by many.
Many would define it as a person committed to most traditional "liberal" ideals such as peace, equality for all, and freedom.
More narrow issues include stopping our immoral wars, torture, spying on Americans, health care, environmental responsibility and honest government.
Most people who call themselves progressives believe that these ideals and issues trump party politics. As Democrats continue their shift towards the right, the progressives are bailing on the party, supporting the Greens and other options. Or they are still Democrats, but very angry ones.
There is a fairly serious effort by Democrats to "claim" ownership of all of the good progressives, and to simply brand any who leave the party as "extreme leftists, far left" and so on.
Whatever the meaning of the word ends up being, it is not the divine providence of the Democratic party. It is a person not prone to going along with the crowd until they apply critical thinking and objectivity, and decide if it makes sense.
Hey Adam, Progressives need to take a timeout from policy wonk stuff and go to the website nobelprize4pete.com and help get Pete Seeger the Nobel Prize for peace this year.
Sure, lets have George and Move On run the country. I guess the people around the world that we want to love us again will do just that. Right?
See Adam Green's Profile
What's this mean?
What this means is that I am hoping that Bill Mahr will join Al Frankin in the Senate. When I heard Mahr tell Larry King before Bob Hope was in the ground, "what is the big deal, we all know he only went over there to get broads" I knew he was a true progressive.
Yeah , Progressives , Look how the epitome of the fallacy of Progressivism showcased in Illinois is working...
See Adam Green's Profile
Is this a reference to Blago? Or something else?
Illinois is a Democrat (progressive) cabal of corruption, nepotism, patronage and ineptness that is going nationwide
Obama used the large amount of data they collected, as well as outside databases, to target a lot of his local messages. Setting up a database that progressive candidates can use provides an economy of scale, & if used properly will increase the chances of election(s).
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