From Buzz Feed article today, May 9th https://www.buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/bensmith/beto-orourke-delegates-2020-election
“The low-profile Democratic lawyer who played a central role in Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s election campaigns, and who literally wrote the book on the obscure and crucial art of delegate selection, has gone to work for Beto O’Rourke.
There aren’t many presidential campaign staffers whose hires are worth a news article, but the lawyer, Jeff Berman, is one of them. Though he doesn’t work in the visible part of politics — admaking, messaging, communications, yelling at people on Twitter or cable news — Berman is America’s leading expert on the strange and at times undemocratic machine that is crucial to how parties select their candidates.”
This article discusses Beto hiring Jeff Berman this week. He was one of the chief players in Obama’s 2008 win.
Beto is making smart hiring choices, and just as importantly talented people are choosing to work for him. Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, Obama’s 2008 deputy campaign manager, is managing Beto’s campaign-- she started full-time on Monday. And the architect of Iowa’s caucus system, Norm Sterzenbach, is on Beto’s team.
This is a good counter to those who think the primary polls are set and this is done and over this far out. I doubt an expert such as Jeff Berman, who must’ve been heavily recruited by many campaigns, would choose this week to join Beto’s team if he thought this was over.
Beto has gone unconventional-- compared to other 2020 candidates-- campaign strategy of limited national TV at this stage and relentless local campaigning and grounding building. The events on his website show a very large number of canvases going on all over the country. Incredible grassroots organizing is one of the reasons he almost won Texas (where Cruz is more popular than Trump)
Beto has had a relentless local campaigning schedule. Sometimes he has up to five events in a single day. An interesting article on what a Beto event is like is this one written earlier this week from the point of view of a conservative Republican blogger journalist https://conservativedailybriefing.com/my-afternoon-at-a-beto-orourke-rally/. Even on conservative, rural turf Beto sticks to his Democratic values but he still comes across as empathetic and charismatic. The author didn’t seem as if to be a Beto convert anytime soon LOL but did seem to express concern that Beto’s approach may make inroads with other voters.
And the campaign knows national buzz is coming. The documentary “Running with Beto” drops towards the end of the month on HBO.
Beto is a smart campaigner with a talented team. He has been spending his time wisely at this stage in the campaign, especially since the MSM initially was determined to set a false narrative about him not saying anything. This MSM criticism of Beto always struck me as almost funny because Beto tends to answer questions at length and I had thought his long involved answers would be more of a criticism in our soundbite age.
For those interested in Beto’s stances on key issues.
Healthcare: very early in his presidential campaign, he announced support for the Medicare for America plan. This is an actual bill in Congress with lots of detail that was introduced by Progressive Caucus members Rosa DeLauro and Jan Schakowsky. Here is a link to Charles Gaba’ s article that analyzes the Medicare for America plan http://acasignups.net/19/05/05/really-deep-dive-updated-medicare-america-bill. Other than Bernie who is been very specific on supporting Medicare for all, Beto has been more specific by supporting Medicare for America than most other candidates on healthcare.
Climate change: Beto has always talked about the importance of taking action on climate change at his events. And he was the first candidate to release a comprehensive climate change plan after consulting with experts, environmental advocates, voters, and communities impacted by climate change. The League of Conservation Voters issued a statement on his plan: “This plan to confront the climate crisis is the kind of leadership we need from our next president. We commend O’Rourke for putting forward an ambitious and detailed climate plan that would start on day one of his presidency and continue throughout every day of it. His plan commits to prioritizing both executive and legislative action to immediately cut pollution, achieve net zero emissions by 2050, invest at an unprecedented scale in communities bearing the brunt of harmful pollution and those in economic transition, create good, family-sustaining jobs and more. It is also noteworthy that this is the first policy plan O’Rourke has released and that the first bill he would send to Congress would be a climate bill.” Here’s a link to Beto’s climate change plan https://betoorourke.com/climate-change/
There also was a good diary on DKos evaluating Beto’s and Gov. Inslee’ plans https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/4/1855333/-Climate-change-scorecard-Beto-O-Rourke-and-Jay-Inslee
Immigration: back in February, even before declaring, Beto released a 10 point statement on ideas for immigration and border reform. And throughout his Senate run after, he has been a strong voice against Trump on this issue, even organizing a competing rally when Trump came to Texas. https://act.betoorourke.com/signup/immigration/?t=2&akid=24961%2E2551596%2EuHcKUn
And Beto has done more local events than most candidates (maybe than all others?) and he usually has extensive Q&A sessions where he is answered questions on a wide range of issues. These are not pre-screened, as evidenced recently in San Diego when one of the questioners took a bizarre turn to bringing up Lorena Bobbitt during her question to Beto, and the Republicans who show up at events trying to trip Beto up with their questions.
Even though Beto has my primary support, all of our candidates are light years better than Trump. it should be interesting seeing how the primary plays out. And crucially important for us all to come together in the general election to beat Trump.