This is a re-post of a diary I put up yesterday. I want to make sure more people can participate in our phonebanking drive if they're interested. If this is not your bag, feel free to click along!
It’s not over.
Yes, many of us hoped that "Super Tuesday II" would end this long and increasingly divisive primary campaign, but unfortunately that did not happen. Barack Obama still leads in states won, delegates, popular votes, and money raised, yet Hillary Clinton shows no signs of stepping aside gracefully for the good of the party. Barack Obama will be the nominee, but we’ve got to do our part to help him get there.
This is where you all come in.
We’ve got contests coming up Tuesday in Mississippi, and then on April 22 in Pennsylvania. I’m asking you all to pledge to make phone calls into these next three states, and help convince undecided voters of why you support Barack and why they should too. We’re down big time in the polls in Pennsylvania, and I’m hoping that we can just close the gap there and protect our delegate lead. We have seven weeks to get it done. We can do it, but you need to help.
I’m asking each one of you to make a pledge, to Barack Obama and to our country, of the number of online phonebanking calls you will make on behalf of Barack Obama to voters in these upcoming states. Let’s work together and keep ourselves motivated. Together we can meet our individual and collective goals, and help deliver the nomination to Barack.
This is serious business, this electing-the-leader-of-the-free-world, but there’s no reason it can’t be fun, too!
Plan a Call Party!
My wonderful precinct in Austin has gotten excited about making more calls, so we’re going to have a potluck calling party with our delegates to the county convention. (Details forthcoming, if any of our delegates are reading this.) We’re also going to meet on a few weeknights to make calls together. Bake a coffeecake or order a pizza, and put together your own calling party! BYO laptop and cellphone.
Contact Your Local Obama Group or Office
Most Obama groups are still active long after their states’ primaries, and many of them made hundreds of thousands of calls since their own contests. Make a pledge on behalf of your group or calling club. Also, some offices are still open as we move towards state-level conventions. Call them, too.
Just Ten Calls a Day
Can you make just ten calls each day? That’s less than an hour, given the number of answering machines you’re likely to get. Ten calls even just five days a week is 50 calls, and that’s almost 350 calls before the Pennsylvania primary.
So, make your pledge. Tell me how many calls you will make before April 22. But here’s the catch – I’m going to record your pledge in this diary, and I’m going to post an update each week where folks have to state how many calls they’ve actually made. We’re going to work together, keep ourselves motivated, and make ourselves accountable for the great efforts we’re putting in. When all is said and done, we can look at our collective calling effort and feel proud of what we’ve accomplished.
Lurkers! You can make a pledge too, just leave a comment below. If you don’t want to comment here in this diary, shoot me an email --keh303 (at) gmail-- and I’ll add you to the tally as "Lurker 1," "Lurker 2," etc.
I’ll start. I’m pledging 500 new calls before April 22 because I am over-eager, ambitious, and under-employed. I have the time and energy. That’s a lot of calls, but I love phonebanking. Now, who wants to make a pledge and bring our collective total up to 501?
Who Will Be Our Nominee? You Make the Call
DailyKos Obama Phonebanking Pledges |
Bloggers listed have pledged to make their calls before April 22. |
Diarist | Call Pledge |
1. kath25 | 500 |
2. Elise | 2000 |
3. Chicago Lulu | 200 |
4. moira | 300 |
5. Femlaw | 250 |
6. Femlaw's friends | 750 |
7. thereisnospoon | 500 |
8. casperr | 20 |
9. Jennifer Clare | 1000 |
10. pepper mint | 100 |
11. momEEE | 100 |
12. dotster | 500 |
13. | |
Total: | 6220 |
Folks, you don't have to make a huge pledge -- Elise and I are ambitious and experienced callers. Even 20 calls makes a huge difference, and can sway voters. Those voters can tell their friends and encourage them to vote for Obama, and on, and on, and on.
Phonebanking Wins Elections
mindoca posted this comment the other night, and it should serve as motivation for each of us to make even just 20 calls:
We lost the popular vote in Texas by a margin of approximately 100,000. There are 8,000 precincts in Texas (I know...can you believe that?). If we had turned less than 13 additional votes per precinct, we would have taken the popular vote. And here's the kicker: It takes between 20 - 50 phone calls from a dedicated, passionate volunteer to bring in an additional vote. So given how uber motivated we are on this campaign, I'm going to set the magic number at 30. If we had made an additional 390 (okay, 500 to be super safe) calls per precinct before the primary, we would have taken the popular vote in Texas. That's about 20 hours of phonebanking over three weeks. Or an hour of phonebanking by each of 20 super supporters.
The moral of the story is -- canvassing and phonebanking (the ground game) really do bring in victories -- vote by vote by vote. So get on the phone now and call Mississippi and Wyoming, and all the states that follow, and don't stop dialing until June. And no, it is not too late to call Wyoming. Up to 30% of voters -- I don't have a figure for caucuses -- decide how they will vote in the final 24 hours before a contest.) So, pick up the phone and call now.
Worked in Wyoming! Now, it's NOT too late to call Mississippi since close to 50% of voters -- especially in primaries where a much higher percentage of voters are "late deciders" than in generals -- decide how they will vote in the final week before a primary.
Thanks for all of your hard work, folks. On the ground in Texas it was so inspiring to know how many of you had our back on those phones. To go from 34 points down in the polls to a huge victory in the caucuses shows the dedication and hard work of Obama volunteers. Our voters were so educated about the Texas Two-Step, which paid off with our winning more delegates state-wide than Hillary Clinton. Your calls work. Let’s keep it going.
Help With the Phonebanking
There have been many great diaries posted on DailyKos to help us learn how to be better phonebankers. mindoca and Elise have been star callers all along. For those of you making your first phonebanking commitment, this information will help you feel more comfortable on the phone.
How to (Ba)Rock a Phone Bank by Elise
How to (Ba)Rock a Phone Bank II by Elise
Call to Action: Barack the PhonesTONIGHT!!! by mindoca
CALL TO ACTION -- Super Sunday at the Obama Phonebank by mindoca
I bet if we ask nicely, Elise might write a volume III of this series to help us meet our pledges. I also suspect that if we say "please," mindoca might host another weekend phonebanking party to help us all call together.
So. Here’s the national phonebanking tool. What are you waiting for? As my favorite Obama shirt says...
Let’s Get Busy.
Update: I spent yesterday afternoon volunteering for Obama in Philly, and there's a lot of enthusiasm for him on the ground. Let's help spread this excitement and momentum across the state!