The Insurgent Political Campaign

The Insurgent Political Campaign is Still Getting Listeners...4 Years Later

This is simply an update to The Insurgent Political Campaign. As you can see the last post about campaigning was nearly 4 years ago. I've been involved in a number of campaigns, created other blogs for others, doing political interviews at Political Interviews...and much more. You will find me posting most often at The Democratic Daily.

[UPDATE: I have started a new blog Polcampaign. That's my home base.]

Here's the future at The Insurgent Political Campaign:
I hope to have the entire series of audiocasts, (still dislike the term podcast), transcribed by the end of the year. At that point I will begin re-editing the text for publication as an ebook. I will also begin the task of updating everything for a new broadcast series.

[UPDATE: I have not been able to do these tasks. I intend to get them done but there are only so many hours in a day. If anyone wants to volunteer to help update and transcribe some of these audios I would be very grateful. 3.24.09. My premise is the same. The more district organization and information cross referencing you have on paper before you have a candidate makes the campaign much stronger and viable.]

We need deeply committed groups of voters to reform the local Democratic Party structures. We need the same type of group to help organize Districts prior to choosing a Candidate. That simple but revolutionary reversal of roles is one of the central themes here at The Insurgent Political Campaign. It is still true.

If you stumble in here after all this time...listen to the segments. Many groups told me some of these ideas, concepts and projects completely changed the way they handled their districts.

As time permits I am going to rebuild this blog so that the recordings are in order of publication. When that happens it will make navigating the site simple and easy.

Finding a Candidate, Part 2

As promised more on the topic of Finding a Candidate. In these first two parts I am still concentrating on the qualities you want in a Candidate. So keep a list. Maybe you aren't going to find someone with all these helpful assets, but a few are non-negotiable.

"Finding a Candidate, Part 2" 12:32 sec's (after some editing)

Finding a Candidate Part 1

I've been asked several times, and now that I'm finished with the latest campaign, one person has really needed the information so I've begun the task of putting the information together.

This will take more than one broadcast as it is a big topic. Today we start with some of the qualities that we want in a Candidate. Part 2 will continue on the same subject and Part 3 will get into where we can reasonably look for those people. They are special people and not easy to find.

Enjoy "Finding a Candidate, Part 1"

Long Time Gone....and New Info

Well, welcome back to The Insurgent Campaign. Maybe I should say that to myself!

I've been on staff at the Steve Young CA-48 Campaign and, believe me, cutting new audio for The Insurgent Campaign wasn't in the daily agenda! The results were that we finished second but we put new life, energy and vitality back into the Orange County, California Democrats.

I don't think we did a damn thing to or for the Party until people like you dedicate 5 years or more to taking over the Central Committee in that County  or any other and get some action going. But that's just my opinion. I'm not on staff any more and don't have to be concerned about what I say!

Today broadcast is about some errors I made in the original fundraising broadcasts. The errors weren't in techniques but in IMPORTANT definitions. Why I spaced out I don't know but I sure did so listen to: Campaign Committee's, PAC's and the Difference! (3 minutes)
PS: All broadcasts are now not only .mp3's and on RSS but also on flash audio with ZERO download on site. Just click the buttons and it's a go...immediately!) Enjoy!

Lessons from OH-2 and impact on CA-48: The Second Half of the Game

This will be almost all audio. There is at least one glaring lesson, in my opinion, from OH-2 and I started saying it a long time ago in my list of easy issues. That was published on June 9 and the audio link is here.

But know this...The CA-48th is happening and it's happening right now! We are not standing around waiting for the Party to bless someone or to organize a campaign. Check The Political Dogfight's last four or five posts to bring yourself completely up to speed on the contest!

Here's my thoughts:

We lost OH-2 but REALLY We Won

In a District that showed 70% Republican registration, in a District where the previous office holder won with 72 percent of the vote, in a District where Paul Hackett was absolutely unknown outside his family....he lost. By just 4,000 votes.  This election was originally predicted to be a low turnout 50,000 vote election yet at the end we were nearing, and at the end were nearly over 100,000 voters.

Paul Hackett lost, if you want to call it that, by just 4,000 votes! He should have lost by 30,000!
We beat them, ladies and gentlemen. We beat them by every standard but the actual tally. We raised more money than the RNCC...yeah got that MORE money than the RNCC!

The Blogsphere proved itself this time and while many are automatically thinking of Hackett running in 2006 Chris Bowers and few other visionaries can see him running for Governor or Senator in that corruption ridden state. He's clean, straight-forward and not afraid of a fight!

We won folks. The Republicans are reeling at only winning by 4,000!! And now comes the 48th District in California where we already have a fine Candidate and the need for more of the same. And yet we have one HUGE difference. We have a 17,000 person Grassroots organization out there and the Candidate is a member. We already have the shoe leather and people ready to hit the ground.

OH-2 was the First Half of the Game. Cal 48th is the Second Half and we can win this one too.

Net Fundraising and Open Source Commercial=over $440K Online

Paul Hackett needs your support in the Special Congressional Election in the Ohio 2nd. Today we have a Blogsphere wide push for fundraising as he is just two weeks away from his election. As an Iraq Veteran he is a perfect candidate. [Update] He is over $440K total as of 8.1.05.

But better yet is this Open Source Commericial, created by Volunteers, that shows what non-professional media can do for a campaign. This could be YOUR campaign too.
Here's the story...
=================

Paul Hackett has blown through his goal of $55,000 in fundraising one day from the Blogsphere and is over $70,000 at 3:30pm Central Time! Track his progress at SSP.

We need your support to help put him over the top of $100,000. What will your money be spent on? Well you saw his first commercial yesterday...here's his second commerical today. (We are using the photo from his first commerical...)

Quicktime

Dig out those wallets...even the thin one's...just like I did...and make a difference today!

See How a Simple Image can Generate Publicity

Today, in about 15 minutes, the gentlemen at Swing State Project created a new Karl Rove T-Shirt that:
A: Tells the truth
B: If it was a local story it would generate news
C: Gets the volunteers motivated to wear them
D: How much did it cost to get it designed and ready? NOTHING!

Today's Broadcast by mp3 or RSS
or Stream it here.

This is the Ultimate Insurgent Tactic...and here's the story from The Political Dogfight, Swing State Project and DailyKos:

Headline:
Karl Rove's own THE ADMISSION T-Shirt!

From the Good Folks at Swing State Project we have THE ULTIMATE TRUTH t-shirt in Karl Roves own words and image.

You can purchase it from CafePress here. For the Fashionistas in the crowd it comes in many styles and colors.

While many get caught up in the too many legalisms, the fact remains that Karl Rove disclosed a CIA source which violates, at minimum his own WH Senior Staff Non-Disclosure Agreement. There multiple other acts and laws that may apply. John Dean, who has enough experience in WH operations to get my attention, is tracking those down. But I love the fact these words come from his mouth! Come Troops...use the words in a non-verbal fashion by simply wearing them around town. More visiblity is better!

Practical Politics, A Quest: Part 2

Here's' more Practical Politics, Part 2, that I think we need to be thinking about...and specifically two ideas for the Wes Clark gathering of former Volunteers in Little Rock this weekend. I think these are ideas are valuable and have the potential for long-term impact.

This post was intended for Thursday but got delayed for technical reasons.

Here you will find two ways of listening to the broadcast.
A. As usual you can download to your mp3 player.
B  If you using Internet Exploer as your browser you will see Flash Streaming controls beneath this explanation.
C. If you are using FireFox, like me, you can download the broadcast to your player as usual or switch to Internet Explorer and stream the audio from there.
(Too damn complicated and that's why there's been a delay!)

At any rate here's:
Practical Politics, A Quest: Part 2 (10 mins)

Practical Politics Today: A Quest

To win in any sense of that word, whether it be by increased District Registration, increased Donor Identification or by any other metric you must have one characteristic in abundance: Practical Preplanned Political Action.

And that Practical Political Action has to happen again and again and again almost ad nauseum throughout the Campaign.

That's our topic today:

Practical Politics: What You Can Do Today (8 mins)