On the Trail: Intro

My most recent blog, was a book review of David Plouffe’s The Audacity to Win. In case that didn’t tip you off, I love politics.  Growing up, my mom worked for the League of Women Voters.  She would take me along to meetings.  I remember passing out materials down the halls of house and senate offices in the state capitol.  Who could turn down a little girl with a big red bow in her hair?  As I got a little older, one of my favorite things to do was to put up campaign signs.  I would navigate (this is how I learned to read a map) and my mom or dad would drive and put up the signs.  I continued to volunteer for campaigns throughout high school and college.

My most vivid memory of campaigning came in 7th grade.  I’d gone to volunteer for a candidate in Oklahoma City on a Saturday.  It was 3 days before the November election.  I remember because I was going trick-or-treating with my friends later that night.  Our office of campaign volunteers was about to break for the day when we got a call from the post office.  They informed the campaign manager that the thousands of post cards we had delivered earlier in the day were not standard post card size and therefore needed more postage than we had put on them.  He looked stricken.  These were very important direct mail pieces, designed to get out the vote of our supporters and they needed to be finished and at the post office by close of business that day.  Monday would be too late to remind people to go to the polls.

With an eye on the clock, the campaign manager went to the post office to pick up the materials.  In a flurry of  stamps and rubber bands, we all gathered to add the appropriate postage to the postcards.  I  remember the high of us all working for that common goal.  We made the deadline and the postcards went out on time.  Two days later my candidate won the district with 56% of the vote.  He was within 1,500 votes of the challenger.  I knew my contribution to the campaign had helped him win.  I was hooked on professional politics forever.

In July 2009, I became aware of a local California candidate challenging an incumbent in the primary.  I went to hear her speak and her message spoke to me.  She is personable and energetic, smart and thoughtful, everything I look for in a politician.  I decided to give her a try and I volunteered for her campaign.  My first assignment was to make 80 calls to supporters to request that they join us at a parade in which we marching.  The calls went fairly well.  (If you’ve never made campaign calls, you should.  It’s an education.)  Next, I went to a volunteer meeting.  Since the election was still almost a year away at this point, the volunteer base was small but motley.  At this meeting, my candidate gave out her personal cell phone number and e-mail address.  I was surprised to see her interacting that closely with her volunteers.  I was used to being handled by a campaign manager with an occasional handshake and “thanks” from the candidate.  This was refreshing.

Over the next couple months, I became very involved in the campaign.  I volunteered once a week at our makeshift headquarters, working at a desk adjacent to the candidate’s.  She would try out parts of her stump speech on me and I would tell her what I thought.  I worked extensively on a power point presentation on the economy.  So far, it’s been invigorating and enlightening to be in the middle of the campaign.  I am excited for more.

Over the next few months, I’ll be writing about my experiences on the campaign trail with my candidate.  It’s an adventurous road out there so stay tuned for more.

* As a 501(c)3 organization, The Xenia Institute is not permitted to endorse or be perceived as endorsing any candidate for office.  Therefore, I will not be using my candidate’s name or district number, but merely relating the experience of being engaged in the political process as a volunteer.