There is money in political TV advertising, money in polling, money in digital communications, money in strategy and messaging, but there is no money in precinct operations. Although precinct operations is by far the most effective method to win an election, because it does not pay it has been neglected.
Let me give you an example of how good precinct operations are more important than any other factor in an election. In Arlington County, Virginia Republicans cannot carry a precinct. Let me repeat that, Republicans cannot carry a single precinct. Even in the wealthiest, whitest part of the county, Democrats win by landslide margins. There is no demographic explanation for this. While Arlington is a mixed community its largest ethnic group is white, non-Hispanic Protestants who were born in this country. The median income is $105,783. There is nothing here that screams Democratic jurisdiction, but it is so and has been for years. Arlington Democrats have created a grassroots political culture than no amount of Republican money can budge.
That culture is spreading east. In Fairfax County when Supervisor Cathy Hudgins was challenging then Supervisor Bob Dix she only raised $80,000 while he raised $320,000. So how did an African American woman, running in an overwhelmingly white jurisdiction, beat a white male Republican incumbent while being massively outspent? Precinct operations. Hudgins lacked the funds for massive direct mail operations, but she had the volunteers to knock on doors and the data base to show whose doors they needed to visit. Precinct operations is more important than any other factor. But it does not generate big bucks for consultants, so no one ever discusses this, not even reporters who live in Arlington or Fairfax and have seen it in action.
Precinct operations are always the most important factor, but never more so than in local elections, the sort we are having THIS year. In addition to Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General, both Virginia and New Jersey are electing their lower house. We also have municipal elections across the country. Because municipal elections are typically low turnout, the shift of less than 1000 votes can be sufficient to shift control of a jurisdiction. Considering that an energetic precinct captain can shift, conservatively speaking, 50 votes per precinct, all you need is 20 precinct captains on top of their game and you can shift an entire county. Seriously, this is very doable. If we win in the municipal elections in 2017, we set ourselves up for victory in 2018, most crucially in the gubernatorial races that we need to win to prevent voter suppression.
This being the case I was thrilled with this comment on an earlier diary:
“Organization is also a bottom-up thing starting with organizing at the precinct and county level.
Our precinct meeting last month, which usually draws 5 or 6 people, had 20. We raised $200 on the spot to support the local party.
People are itching to get involved - they just need a small bit of organizing.”
I have never heard of 20 people attending a precinct meeting, you could have block captains with those numbers.
As the commenter said, people just need a small bit of organizing. It would be nice if the Democratic National Committee, or any of these new groups that have sprung up, would invest in training precinct captains. I don't mean nifty videos, I mean experience field operatives traveling around the country training people in the basics of precinct operations. Realistically that is not going to happen, and that is why I wrote my book, The precinct captain's guide to political victory, described by one reader as “clearly written, right to the point and will certainly drive political campaigns to victory.” My book is not for candidates, nor campaign managers. My book is for precinct captains. I assumed that the reader had little or no experience and little or no institutional support. Anyone who uses even some of the methods I describe can look forward to shifting not less than 50 votes in a single campaign cycle.