Profile of 11 Democratic Voters

I've been hearing a lot of complaints about Creigh Deeds and his campaign from the grassroots, so I decided to do a little checking up on what exactly they were up to.  I interviewed 11 Democratic voters who have voted in every statewide primary (01, 04, 05, 08, 09) this decade.  This demographic only has about 45,000 people statewide total (of which I am one).  I talked to 1 Democrat from each Congressional District in Virginia.  Here's what I found out:

NONE of these hard core Dems have been contacted by the coordinated campaign asking them to volunteer.

NONE of these hard core Dems has been contacted by the Deeds campaign asking them to volunteer.

NONE of these hard core Dems has received a direct mail solicitation asking them to donate to the campaign.

NONE of these hard core Dems has even gotten a knock on their door from any other volunteer or coordinated canvasser.

FOUR of the eleven had actually called the Deeds office or signed up online asking to help- and none of those four had their messages returned.

What's the point of having a voter file and having spent millions of dollars on data in it, if the Deeds Campaign can't even contact the most hard core Democrats in it?

Comments

[Ian J]

A real shame.

[liz]

Send the one in the tenth to us! We'd love to have another enthusiastic volunteer! Email me their contact info, and I'll get right back to him or her!

Liz (aka The Doorbell Queen)

[KingCranium]

I'm a Republican who has voted in every statewide primary this decade; the populations must be similar in size. I've been contacted with requests to volunteer and received direct mail solicitations from all three Republican statewide campaigns. Two of the three have had volunteers call me to advise me of opportunities to walk with the candidates and/or see them in local appearances.

[liz]

I should probably add that "us" is Stevens Miller's campaign. I'm Stevens' wife.

[Fire Joe Abbey!]

The Nationals are kicking ass since they fired their manager. Someone needs to be held accountable for this mess.

[DanielK]

I am not at all surprised by this. I was extremely involved in the primary and have heard nothing. Contact with volunteers was much stronger when Creigh had his "rag tag army" during the primary, especially in Northern Virginia. Now, in the heart of NoVa we haven't heard a thing? Unacceptable. But it is also important to not that I think this is being seen from the entire coordinated campaign.

On the other hand, Democrats should be thankful that House candidates really have their acts together. They are soliticing volunteers, knocking on doors and a lot of them, especially in my district the 86th (Good job Liz) and getting ready for election day. Also, and this is most important they are reaching out to those in the blogosphere to further their campaigns. This is evidenced with the amount of positive articles we've seen about House candidates compared to statewides (Specifically Governor)

How knows, maybe the house races will be the ones that save either Creigh or Steve?

[liz]

(Blushing) Thanks DanielK!

[PWConservative]

I've been active (2004-Now) since before I could vote (2008) I get 1 to 2 calls a week from the Cuccinelli campaign asking me to volunteer, I also get a call a week from the McDonnell Campaign and Victory.
McDonnell-Bolling-Cuccinelli all email me frequently with news and volunteer ops.
I know Republican Voters that were only active in the 2008 race that are receiving this same treatment.
I've been called by only one dem this year.
Terry McAulliffe.
Sorry guys, You picked the wrong candidate.

[Gretchen Laskas]

Am I thrilled by the lack of outreach. No. And if we're still hearing stories like this after Labor Day, I'll start to worry.

But right now I get the real sense that many every day Dems in VA are tired of the perpetual campaigns we've been dealing with for several years straight. Republicans have more to gain and to lose this election than Dems do, and you see that in their organizing. But I'm not seeing a lot of McDonnell bumper stickers just yet either. And while the anecdotes here indicate better outreach, I still talk with many Republican friends (who aren't the type to post on Commonwealth political blogs -- we are rather unusual!) and they are frustrated by the lack of Republican energy as well.

On a purely pragmatic level, there isn't as much to be done right this moment as we might think. People are on vacation. Families are more concerned about back to school than back to Richmond. Canvasing in this heat would be a health hazard.

There are reasons both political parties hold their party conventions every four years in August just before the Labor Day kickoffs of the fall campaigns. It's a great way to remind and energize people during the black-hole that is otherwise August.

A few weeks (heck, a few days!) is a lifetime in a political campain. I'm more than able to wait a little while before thinking it's all over before its even begun!

[Ghost of RWR]

Governor McDonnell :)

[kelley in virginia]

gretchen: maybe people are not energized in your area, but we country rednecks are mad as hell at Congress.

and this will transfer over to the gubernatorial race, i think.

i'm in the 5th.

[A real activist doesn't complain online...they use google to find a campaign office.]

11 is a terrible sample size.

[notvirgilgoode]

This is definately the case. I am aware of dozens of folks who called the campaign to help and they havent received any response

[Just Sayin']

I think Ben's point is that the Deeds campaign is not communicating to their base. Instead, Creigh is running around SWVA pretending he's Mark Warner circa 2001.

At this point in 2005 Tim Kaine had several statewide commercials running, a visible field campaign, and mail was hitting the doors.

Gretchen, it's begun. It began a longtime ago. Waiting until Labor day to "start" campaigning is like waiting for the 4th quarter of a football game to take the field - yeah, there's a lot of ball game left, but you've squandered a lot of time as well.

[Gretchen Laskas]

Sigh. This isn't exactly my first campaign, and I'm a big football fan. For lack of a more inspired comment, I'll point out the obvious that I've watched dozens of come from behind plays, both in politics and in football.

My only point was that there's some panic at the netroots level (I'm not seeing it anywhere else) and I see no reason to panic. August is the political equivalent of Ross Perot's "giant sucking sound."

And who isn't mad at Congress?

[Not Larry Sabato]

Gretchen, General Assembly is in special session today and I just spoke with one Delegate who said they were walking around asking if anyone had anything good to say about the Deeds campaign- and couldn't fine anyone. So please don't claim this is a "netroots" issue.

[Gretchen Laskas]

I didn't realize I was "claiming" anything -- only sharing my perspective. We can only speak to our own experiences, and you should certainly speak to yours. I'm not personally hearing long-term activist Dems express panic outside of what I read on the web.

Sorry!

[Lynda]

I am part of this group and am regularly getting funding appeals, e-mails, and calls to canvass. We're canvassing here every weekend and have been since July. Of course I'm in Albemarle too, so that may have something to do with it.

[kelley in virginia]

lynda, you better be canvassing for your boy tom p., too, because we've declared war on him for his votes on cap 'n trade & GIVE act. and i bet he votes for a public option, too.

southern virginia

[LAS]

Well, I'm one of the 45,000 and live in Fairfax County. And I have been contacted by the Deeds campaign. Doesn't seem to be much going on, though. Most of us seem to be keeping occupied with the local delegate races.

[DCCyclone]

LAS, I don't know what you mean by "contacted," but the only contact I've had is mass e-mails, and even those only infrequently.

Today I finally got a more specific volunteer sign-up e-mail request, also a mass e-mail, but it even included asking the recipient to fill out a form picking a canvassing date. So maybe I'll actually get contacted this time!

Deeds has been pitiful, and what's pathetic is that it's the simplest fundamentals that he's fucked up.

[Donkey Breath]

Maybe if you stepped away from the computer you might see what is happening. Deeds campaign has been very active in NOVA, opening offices, reaching out to local party people.

Summer is always the time to raise money and hire people and set up the coordinated campaign efforts. Deeds is right on target and we are ready for the post Labor Day rollout and in fact a lot of is already underway. Maybe Ben's friends in the 45K are not as connected as he thinks??

[DCCyclone]

Donkey Breath, maybe if you stepped away from the computer you might read the countless comments by VA Dem activists on this and other Virginia and national blogs detailing how INactive Deeds has been in NoVA.

Ben just pointed out in this very blog post that diehard Dems who should be identified as volunteer contacts have been completely ignored.

I've been to the coordinated campaign office in Tysons the past 2 Saturdays to pick up my walk lists for the Vanderhye reelection campaign, since I am, in fact, someone who is out there DOING something for the election. The first time there were 2 or 3 people in the Deeds cubicles, and this last time the only human being in the entire huge cavernou suite was the Vanderhye field director. Wanting to hold the Governorship as I do, I actually sniffed around and found a stack of Deeds brochures that I confiscated to drop along with the Vanderhye literature.

Donkey Breath, you say maybe Ben's activist friends aren't as connected as he thinks, but that comment just confesses to the very problem. Campaign activity isn't a select club for the connected...at least not in winning campaigns.

[DCCyclone]

Donkey Breath, maybe if you stepped away from the computer you might see what is happening. Deeds has been invisible in NoVA, with the Deeds cubicles in the coordinated campaign office in Tysons dark and empty this past Saturday morning when I was there and with only 2 or 3 people the Saturday before.

August is not a time for establishing basic campaign infrastructure, that should have been in place weeks earlier. The fundraising doesn't preclude what these days is the declining-cost (thanks to technology) activity of updating voter lists and putting together walk lists for volunteers like me, and e-mailing volunteers like me to sign up. All that could have been done a month ago, and it needed to be. That speaks only to my efforts to try to help Deeds, which fortunately for him in my canvassing routine in McLean still included asking for Governor's race data and distributing Deeds flyers because I went out of my way to do so while primarily helping Vanderhye.

And your snarky comment that Ben's friends might not be "connected" is really a confession of Deeds' failure, because a winning campaign is not a select club for the connected.

[anon]

Maybe, just maybe, the smart campaign is holding back just a little. After all, how smart would it be to share strategy with folks who would just run to their PC and blog/brag about it?

[DanielK]

Donkey Breath, I'm really not sure who you are talking to in regards the Deeds campaign being in NoVa because I sure as hell haven't seen it. I was one of the few NoVa Deeds volunteers before it was cool to be a Deeds supporter, getting laughed at and ridiculed for supporting a guy from Southwest. If they should have been contacting anyone it would have been me and only recently had someone reached out and that was because of outside pressure. Since we were a small knit, "rag tag Army" as Joe Abbey referred to us I've maintained contact with most from the primary and they said they haven't heard anything from the campaign, especially in NoVa, since their dreaded staff changes. This isn't about contacting the "die hards" but rather those from the primary who worked their asses off for Creigh only to be forgotten about. My frustration comes from the hours and hours (and broken toe) working and killing myself for him to be completely forgotten about and have whatever momentum to be completely lost.
The entire statewide campaigns, which are by no means coordinated should be thanking the House candidates for having their shit together because I think their numbers would be substantially worse if ti wasn't for them. Also, I'll throw this out there....They have brought in a lot of "big time" people with experience but how many worker bees do they have? From what I have seen it's definitely not many, especially by the lack of contact and exposure thus far. Maybe they should just go back to the rag tag army they had during the primary!

[Not Michael Jackson]

Ok lets get this straight, DEEDS IS NOT FROM SOUTHWEST.

There is 8 hours of southwest below him!

[SatiricalAlexandria]

DanielK is right, a lot is happening with the hardcore volunteers at the Delegate level. I, along with many others in Dave Englin's 45th, have been out knocking on doors and calling, thanks to the efforts of Team Englin, of which I am a member. Team Englin has also been working with the team for Greg Werkheiser. I know that Charnielle Herring and her people have also been out, and Adam Ebbin too. This is on top of our city council elections and the ensuing uproar over the Alicia Hughes scandal in May! In Alexandria, it feels like the first Tuesday of every month is an election for something.

In addition, McDonnell's campaign will implode. The dirt is out there. Deeds himself is far too gentlemanly to go there, but I'm not, LOL. Speak up, Pat Robertson. Why so quiet all of sudden? And what's up with Robin Vanderwall, McDonnell's long ago campaign manager? When does he get out of prison? I'd like to interview him...

[Mike]

FYI,

The Deeds campaign has been doing a good job here in the Lexington/Rockbridge area. Outreach, communication, chum, and presence have been solid and are improving. If anything, I'd say they are a bit ahead of curve compared with Kaine's campaign in '05 (which was a solid 6% spanking of Kilgore).

[SatiricalAlexandria]

Check out #6 and 7. Bob McDonnell claims he's never received a blow job (must suck to be HIM, or NOT SUCK, rather), nor ever performed oral sex on a woman (DEFINITELY sucks to be his wife!). And #7 is about his pedophile first campaign manager, who also funneled money for bogus Christian 'charities' that Taliban Bob is tied to, but Vanderwall is locked up and can't talk. VA Beach cops busted him trying to hook up with a 13 year old boy for sex. The "boy" that Vanderwall met on the internet was a VA Beach cop.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/03/96.html

[Brandon]

Hey Ben, Maybe instead of complaining about people not being contacted maybe you should encourage all your hard core dem readers and friends to take the initiative and go to the office and offer to volunteer. I'm sure they all know how to use the internet to find the nearest office

[Kevin in Arlington]

Gretchen,

I've tried making a similar point to yours - that it's a bit premature for the Democratic netroots to be up in arms about the alleged lack of outreach from the Deeds campaign. In my estimation, the criticism amounts to a lot of sour grapes and back seat driving. It's also wrong and self-defeating. Similarly, I wouldn't read too much into GOP-ers puffing their chests on sites like this about how the Cuccinelli camp has contacted them multiple in August.

ID-ing voters and walking neighborhoods in July and August, while it may make the fretting few on sites like these feel better, is not the best use of resources. This is especially the case while a big national issue like health care is being debated sucking the oxygen out of the room and skewing people's opinions.

I've only staffed congressional campaigns, never gubernatorial races, but in my experience our ID-ing began in September. Between then and Election Day, I couldn't tell you how many times our universe was contacted by the campaigns.

Let's not forget that the Deeds campaign seemed to know when to crank it up in the primary, winning decisively in NoVA and elsewhere, while the other two candidates started out fast and fizzled. Creigh Deeds is a great candidate and I think he and his campaign will be in full swing at precisely the right time for the general.