Fearless Campaigning, Door-to-Door and Beyond
The past year saw thousands of online activists putting reams of campaign rhetoric to the test, particularly in the daunting arena of face-to-face voter persuasion. This panel will transform this collective, real-world knowledge into practical tools for fearless campaigning. Beyond analysis of framing on blogs and in books, how can we feed the lessons gleaned door-to-door back to the Netroots—for greater success in campaigns and stronger cohesion across the progressive movement? We’ll begin by engaging geographically diverse participants in a conversation about words that worked and words that did not.
Paul Delehanty began writing as kid oakland on the website DailyKos in 2003 and is the author of numerous diaries on politics and culture. Paul's writing also appears on the blogs k/o, MyDD and Calitics. A veteran grassroots volunteer, in 2008 Paul wrote a series of widely-read essays in support of the campaign of President Barack Obama before moving to Nebraska to work as Internet Director for Scott Kleeb. Paul is the founder of BlogsUnited, a national community of local bloggers, and created the blogger scholarship program at YearlyKos2007. Paul currently works for NUHW, the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
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.
Susan Smith is a activist from Tampa, Florida. She is Chair of the Campaign and Precinct Organizing Committee for the Hillsborough County Democratic Party, and an Organizer for DFA Tampa Bay. Susan sits on the Advisory Board of Progress Florida, and is a board member of the Florida Netroots Coalition which named her Netroots Activist of the Year in 2007. She is responsible for training precinct leaders, and she is organizing a Netroots training for the Florida Democratic Party’s State Conference in October. She also co-hosts a Blogtalkradio show and blogs for the Florida Progressive Coalition.
Elizabeth Winter has been involved in Native American issues for over 30 years, including the start up of an Environmental Program at one tribe, supervising another one, and various other planning, fundraising and publicity roles. She also has experience with voter registration, poll working and GOTV efforts on-reservation. She volunteered for the Obama campaign, starting before Super Tuesday, blogging about campaign events and issues in New Mexico throughout 2008, and moderated a panel with New Mexico Congressional candidates at Netroots Nation last year.
Jeffrey Feldman is the author of two books on politics and language, ("Framing the Debate," 2007; "Outright Barbarous," 2008) and editor in chief of the influential political blog Frameshop (http://frameshopisopen.com). Dr. Feldman has a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology, which he applies broadly to the analysis of media, politics and communication. He has been a frequent guest on the Thom Hartmann Program, Action Point with Cynthia Black, The Peter B. Collins Show, The Current (CBC Radio) and CBC Newsworld. He lives and teaches in New York City.
Adam spent the last election cycle serving as Gary Trauner’s campaign manager in one of 2008’s most field-intensive Congressional campaigns. Opening 11 field office and staffing 19 organizers, it was the first in the nation to receive DCCC field funding. Previously, Adam honed his skills organizing Story County for the Edwards campaign in Iowa. Having also served as a Field Director for a Congressional race and an Attorney General race, Adam knows real numbers don’t end in 5 or 0. A recovering attorney, he now manages political business development at Blue State Digital.
