Yes We Did? How Blogging Can (and Can’t) Support a Field Campaign
What is it like to have one foot in two different worlds—the world of campaign field organizing and the world of progressive blogs? Our panelists straddled the Netroots and the grassroots working for Obama, often serving as a translator between these worlds. Through an open discussion, this panel aims to determine the best ways to bring more people out from behind their computer screens into the field. We also seek to expand the online dialogue about campaigns with a broader set of voices and experiences. We will cover lessons learned, potential limits to supporting campaigns on the “big blogs” (messaging and fundraising vs. volunteer recruitment), roles of campaign blogs and third-party blogs; and how to gauge the effectiveness of blogging efforts.
Janice Caswell was a key grassroots organizer for Obama in New York. She also volunteered in four states during the primary and organized weekly canvassing trips to critical swing districts in Northeast Philadelphia for the general election. Throughout, she provided blog commentary on the ground game, encouraging bloggers to move from online to offline activism. Janice continues to organize in New York City on issues like health care reform.
Pamela Coukos (femlaw) is a former staff member and volunteer with the Obama Presidential campaign who blogged about her experiences in the field. A native of Indianapolis, she worked as a civil rights lawyer for ten years in Washington, DC, working on legislation and litigating class action discrimination cases for plaintiffs. She moved to the Bay Area in the fall of 2005 to go to UC Berkeley as a graduate student in legal studies. Her graduate research involves social movements and law and judicial politics. She is currently living in Oakland and serving as the state Training Director for Organizing for America - California.
Katherine Haenschen (kath25) became interested in politics when her State Senator, Barack Obama, ran for Illinois Senate in 2004. She has participated in various campaigns since, and volunteered extensively in Texas throughout the Obama for America campaign. Throughout, she blogged extensively about her volunteer experiences on DailyKos and Burnt Orange Report. As a result of her experiences on the campaign, she is now a campaign manager in Austin, Texas, and a staff writer for Burnt Orange Report.
Karl Singer (Populista) is the youngest member of the panel, at age 15. He worked as a volunteer team leader in Minnesota and blogged about Obama on DailyKos and other sites. He helped start the Obamathon and Obamajority fundraising drives that raised over 65k from small donations for Obama and congressional candidates who would help the Obama agenda in Congress. Karl is particularly focused on the relationship between online fundraising as a first step to offline activism and used his pulpit on the Rec List accordingly.
Quinn (formerly PocketNines) covered the election for FiveThirtyEight, along with predictions wiz Nate Silver. Focusing in particular on reporting and explaining the field campaigns in battleground states, he traveled to conventions, debates, rallies, and over 100 Republican and Democratic field offices to chronicle events as they unfolded on the ground. Ultimately, he landed in DC and joined the White House press corps as one of its first blogger-journalists. If blogging about delegate math at DailyKos was the start, passlessly finagling into Denver's Big Tent was the middle. He also worked on Senator Jon Tester's 2006 campaign.
Jeremy Bird is the National Deputy Director for Organizing for America. Bird got his start in politics as a community organizer in Boston working to empower youth. Bird has a strong background in community organizing, electoral campaigns, online organizing and advocacy campaigns.
In early 2007, Bird joined then-Senator Barack Obama’s Presidential race as South Carolina’s Field Director. He later worked in Maryland and Pennsylvania during the hard fought primary season and in Ohio as the General Election Director. Before joining the Obama campaign, Bird worked for WakeUpWalMart.com, 21st Century Democrats and Democratic Gain.
