My wife Elizabeth actually reads Chris Dodd's emails. Against her will, she gets excited about them. (As someone who's worked as a professional political email writer, I am, unfortunately, completely immune.)
I've argued before that email is a medium suited, better than any other save a face to face meeting, to fostering a real personal connection. And Dodd's emails--thanks to Internet director Tim Tigaris and his team (and of course Chris Dodd himself!)--have done better than most at achieving that.
But today Dodd broke the political email sound barrier. He did something that--as far as I know--no other major candidate has ever attempted: a short email, dashed off just like one he'd write to a real friend, that gets right to the point and is totally real. It contains exactly 0% policy babble or high rhetoric--two things that people who are your supporters really don't need, and grow tiered of very quickly.
Elizabeth is not even a Dodd supporter. (I think she was added to the list after signing his Restore Habeas petition.) But, minutes ago, when she got this email, she looked over the top of her laptop screen, a little starry eyed, and muttered something about "Chris" emailing her:
From: Chris Dodd Reply-To: Chris_Dodd@chrisdodd.com
Subject: Real quick
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:38:41 -0400 (EDT)
Hey,
I only have a few seconds on my way back to Washington from last night's
debate.
The fundraising quarter is wrapping up and we're just short of hitting our
goal. Will you chip in $23 and put us over the top? You can contribute
here:
http://www.chrisdodd.com/deadline
I'll be in touch soon.
Chris
That email really is a beautiful--and impossible--thing.
If you haven't worked in a campaign and had to deal with the requirements and restrictions of policy and communications staffers, you might have a hard time understanding why I'm so impressed.
Campaigns these days are about everything BUT candidates forging a truly honest connection with their supporters. Most comms and policy staffers are terrified by that kind of honesty. In this age of polling and microtargetting, it's all about reaching swing voters. On the Kerry campaign, for example, someone would have first made us add "And together, we can build a stronger America!" And then a stem cell policy statement would have be jammed in there too.
That email from Dodd is a wonderful way to signal the start of a new kind of truly sincere conversation between candidate and supporter. (I like to imagine that this email was actually dashed off by Dodd himself after Tim Tigaris had somehow snuck onto the bus and made an impassioned plea to the Senator to just begin writing to his supporters as he would to any friend or colleague. --Disclaimer for Tim's sake: I've only met him a couple of times at conferences and I haven't spoken to him in at least 6 months, so don't let this get him in trouble!)
Now, Senator Dodd--or "Chris," as Elizabeth knows him--has to follow that email up ("I'll be in touch soon...").
So, "Chris," if I can offer a few words of free and impartial Internet consulting: be true to your supporters and keep up this conversation. Listen to Tim and don't let the policy and comms folks (as good as they are at *their* jobs) muddle up the raw clarity of your own voice speaking to your own supporters, who only you know so well.
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PS: Please help Huffington Post's Off the Bus project monitor candidates' emails to supporters. Campaigns often send many different versions of emails to different parts of the country and to different profiles of supporters and voters. Please click here to get involved.
I don't care which democrat wins I like them all.
However, not one candidate has responded to the many issues I have raised in various ways (I'll keep trying), not even Chris with his "Hey" message that I also received. Tracking legitimate responses is an excellent idea that will bring the tracker the attention that he/she deserves.
I also receive e-mail from Hillary's campaign and noticed a similar shift to the left on the formalness scale. Last Thursday she sent an e-mail with the subject "Carrots", in response to a fundraising e-mail in which randomly drawn contributors will have the chance to watch a debate and eat chips with Bill. Clearly another attempt by the campaign to show off Hillary's funny bone. And Sunday I got an e-mail from John Grisham (huh?) asking me to contribute before the Sept 30 deadline, again in the simple personal style without the graphics.... This trend is definitely spreading.
The $23.00 odd amount and the statement that he's dashing it off on his back to the office, that he needs the odd amount to put him "over the top" (Of what? is he going to stop fundraising, now?) are meant to lead the receiver to think that this paltry amount is really all he wants, and that the receiver was selected for some special reason.
Oh, gosh, maybe he pulled my address out of a file at random for this special consideration! I'll run off now and send the money to my new best friend!
I respect intelligence and innovation, but new ways of lying are just new ways of lying.
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Kill your TV, and reclaim your mind.
It would be more useful from my own point of view if these websites would at least offer in their emails some substantive information on policy ideas or current debates rather than the usual hot-button rants and appeals for funds.
The message is always "Send money"
I just give them an earful.
My head being satisfied, I will then vote with my heart.
I promptly sent his campaign a contribution, though I wish I was in a better position to give him more.
Chris Dodd, continues to make more and more of an impression on me. I at least hope he will be seriously considered for vice president or some other VERY HIGH position in office, as it seems the other high profile Dem Pres. candidates just have to much of an extreme advantage when it comes to funding there campaigns.