Chris Emailed Me!

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: [e-mail]
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.
___

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.

Comments

[AeneasAnnai]

Zack Exley is the man

Obama 08

[DeeLuzon]

i got that email and clicked through to donate $23 (my first donation to dodd). it seemed such a reasonable request and i think he's earned it.

[backhandpath]

Zach, cute post.
So what are you doing to stop the War?

[zull2]

I think the real question here is...backh­andpath, what are YOU doing to stop the war? ;)

I love this email approach, because it looks far more authentic than some 2 page long spiel written by a staffer to get you all excited to give 5 bucks. Basically, it's: "I need 23 bucks. Thanks in advance, man." It is cool that it actually looks like something Dodd might have written, but if it's a form letter, then it's a great strategy to get people to donate to a candidate that's got a pretty steep uphill climb for the nomination.

[mgloraine]

Well, it worked for me - I pitched in some for the Dodd campaign. He went to bat for Habeas Corpus and voted against the Iran fiasco. It's worth a few bucks just to feel a teeny bit less hopeless about our future. Senator Dodd may lose the race for taking a stand against BushCo but that is preferable to "winning" by selling out to the same corporations, like some OTHER candidates­...

[linkunlovr]

He voted for and spoke for the war. I like Dodd but the only candidate who voted and spoke against the war from day 1 is Kucinich.
Dodd is good but Kucinich is right on the war and the only one with a health care plan that gets rid of insurance companies. Dodd gets
tons of insurance money.

[Brujos1]

After eight years of George Bush, to settle for Pyrrhic "victory" and not mobilize to take back our government is discouraging. This time we have a way out. Unfortunately, Chris Dodd is not the one to lead us. Why? Because he never has!

[Jacksonfromtejas]

I got that email from Chris....t­hought it was cute. In the old direct mail days, fundraising letters were designed with such thought, too, down to the addressing of the envelopes. Address labels on the envelopes were verboten. Ditto window envelopes. The recipient is far more prone to smell a pitch from those and toss them right into the trash without opening.

On the other hand, an envelope that appears as if a secretary personally typed the recipient's name and address on it suggests a more personal piece of correspondence (maybe from the candidate themselves!) and has a greater chance of at least being opened and looked at....and THEN tossed into the trash.