Here being Utah - I moved from Maryland recently. Today some ladies at the office who indicated they were politically independent said they were feeling turned off by the number of phone calls they were getting for support from the Democratic party. One lady got 4 calls within one hour.
Well, since I support McCain, I suppose I shouldn't care if the Utah dems are shooting themselves in the foot. I mean, sure Utah's as red as they come, but the popular vote is increasingly important. I don't know if it's just that there are more activists than there are activees in this market.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
It may be that the six politically independent voters in Utah are perhaps on everyone's list. Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
we had a problem here in PA with terrible communication back in the primary. lots of people were getting called multiple times and the data was just horrible.
I know I was personally called a lot of times after I was already volunteering with the campaign to see who I was supporting, see if i wanted to volunteer, etc...
I can only imagine how frustrated I would have been if I wasn't a big supporter, or just a good natured person in general.
It's gotten significantly better now with improved leadership and organization, as well as online tools that greatly enhance the ability of the campaign to store and share data. The new tools are actually amazing, as long as they're used correctly.
It's been my biggest problem with the campaign so far(as a volunteer). And it's what I've continually stressed at meetings; better communication, better organization, more reliable data.
These are the bad aspects of grass roots level organizing. There were hundreds of volunteers with maybe a handful of actual paid staffers, who only came in once the grass roots organization had already been active back before the primary. Since the official campaign came back in August it's been much better. And just in the last few weeks have we gotten all these new tools and started actual volunteer training.
Posted by steven (Member # 8099) on :
"It may be that the six politically independent voters in Utah are perhaps on everyone's list."
And it came to pass that TomD made a funny.
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
And the peasants rejoiced.
I've only gotten a couple calls from a local House Rep, because I volunteer for them, but other than that, the seven daily emails I get from the Obama campaign became too much, and I took myself off their mailing list. It was ridiculous.
Posted by Shanna (Member # 7900) on :
The Obama mailing list is starting to drive me up the wall as well.
I used to get a bunch of calls from Republicans supporting McCain. But I like it. I'm very polite and respectful then launch into all the ways I disagree with their argument. My favorite was a call from Newt G's people who called Obama and Pelosi terrorists.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
I cancelled my land line. It's so nice to get no spam calls at all.
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
hah, I never had a land line. I was getting called cause i probably signed up on multiple lists at various times. So the campaign calls weren't completely out of nowhere.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
I think we're getting to a point in Utah where the failures of the Republican Party to represent the values of Utahns are so obvious and extreme that Democrats can't help but hope for a light at the end of the tunnel.
Posted by maui babe (Member # 1894) on :
This is not a battleground state, so I doubt it's happening here, but like Tatiana, I went totally cellular several months ago and haven't heard from a single telemarketer since. I love it!
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
I know I got turned off by all the political calls from McLame during the primary.. but then, I wasn't voting for the first-amendment-loathing-bastard anyway. (though I have to now, *sigh*)
What I want to know is why politicians think, when they designed the National DO NOT CALL registery, that somehow, some way, the people who put themselves on the list had in the back of their minds "Oh, but I don't mean politicians. I'd LOVE to be interrupted during dinner time for an automated call from one of them!"
Can these calls possibly be HELPING get out the vote? Surely it just makes people angry and LESS likely to vote for the offending caller.
Posted by luthe (Member # 1601) on :
Your problem is in assuming that politicians think.
Posted by Vadon (Member # 4561) on :
I live in Utah as well, and am actually an 'active' member of the Democratic party here. I can tell you that the reason they give at the local conventions for the active rally for independents is because it's the only shot Democrats have in Utah. With something like 45% of all registered voters in Utah being Republican, the Democrats really need to win over the independents. The problem with winning the independents is a good chunk of them already lean Republican, they just never registered with them.
I got a call recently from the Democratic party and they were doing a poll. There was a question involving a seat for the Utah State Senate on who I would vote for. The problem with the question was that they severely weighted it. They said 'Do you want to vote for the Republican Senator who has brought shame to your district or challenging Democrat who promises to serve the district with dignity and respect?"
My problem with that question is that it skews the results. If they wanted to keep it for internal purposes, they want it as accurate as possible. If they publish it, anyone who received that question can call foul play on the Democratic party. The only way that the question could be legit is if its purpose was to convince the person being called to go for the Democrat. But even then, it's a bad move to try to trick a person with a shallow poll and not provide any substantive backing behind the 'promise to serve with dignity and respect.'
I mean, I know I'm voting for the Democrat, mostly because I really don't care for the Republican in the seat currently, but I think the Dems should rethink their strategy on convincing people.
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
I got three robocalls in one day from Republican candidates during the primaries. Makes me wish there was some way to redirect their calls to a 900 number.
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I love it!