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Some of you know I used to raise money for a living for just over 11 years to elect and defeat people, ballot initiatives, etc. Others who I have met over the last four years do not.Suffice it to say I was rarely popular (understatement I know), frequently disliked (understatement again I know), had a horrific bedside manner (understatement I know and I actually do have remorse about not having a better bedside manner with officeholders, candidates & staff) and not that many people are sad I am no longer in politics (understatement #4).
All that said, over the last five years I have enjoyed watching the successes and failures (yes, I have enjoyed watching both) of my two handfuls of friends I still have from politics, my former friends and those who I once considered enemies.
Although I am sure there will be some comments to the contrary, I never really had anyone from March of 93 to today ever say, "That guy did not know a %$#@*@ing thing about raising money for political office." People have said A LOT of things other than that, but never that.
So, from time to time I will offer up some advice on running for political office from the perspective of raising dollars effectively.
If you are my friend, former friend or you are running against someone I do not really care for and you benefit from this advice...fantastic! God bless you!
If you are someone who used to be one of my enemies {or as I have been told by a few people on Cap Square...some of you still consider me an enemy...if you fit into that category...well...you really need to get a life at some point...I am sorry your mom didn't hug you or tell you that she loved you as a child...I am out of political fundraising...find a new person to write anonymous memos about :-) ... I am no longer a threat to your power or your pocketbook} and you benefit from this advice...that is great, too! I am confident and sleep well knowing you will answer to The Higher Power someday ;-)
Alright, advice time...I have always gotten a kick out of the fact that when it comes to fundraising a lot of candidates and campaigns either want to start by creating some grandiose plan before doing any face-to-face meetings or they just want to dive in doing meetings with whoever they are comfortable with or who they can get meetings with at the drop of a hat.
These are both a road to being an answer in a future production of Political Trivial Pursuit. I will tell you the most effective way to raise your $ in a few paragraphs, but for now...
If you are running for statewide office in 2010 anywhere in the US then congratulations!
Let me drop some reality on your head like a grand f’n piano. You are ~380 business days from your election right now. But, in truth, we all know that is what the calendar says and it is not the real world we live in. The real world has holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, Rosh Hashanah, summer vacation so the spouse and kids still recognize you, your sickness, sickness of kids &/or spouse, conferences & seminars out of state, other barnacles (shout out to Sponge Bob) real and imagined, blah, blah, blah...and the list goes on. Even though the calendar says 380 business days I would argue that even the best candidate I ever worked with would probably (if given truth serum) would call that number 320 business days for solid campaigning between today and election day 2010.
So, now we are starting to get down to being able to have a real discussion about fundraising for the campaign. I know I am severely jaded on the following point of view, but I truly believe that for a down-ticket statewide office there are only two things that truly matter: money & votes.
Sounds rudimentary I know, but since raising money and talking with actual voters are usually the two things most candidates abhor doing it is very hard for the fundraising operation to get as much of the 320 business days that are needed to raise the necessary funds for a successful statewide run. There are a lot of fun, sexy, largely inconsequential things most candidates and campaigns enjoy doing more than raising $ and impacting voters.
In a perfect world, if I were in the business today I would be trolling the streets for a candidate to run for statewide office who was willing to spend 290 of the 320 allotted business days doing nothing except raising money. But, alas, I am no longer in the biz and I do not believe such a candidate exists...at least not in Ohio...maybe in South Carolina there is such a candidate...darn Gamecocks...they get the early primary that actually means something, they have the warm weather and they get a candidate who will raise money 290 out of 320 business days!
Hopefully your candidate will at least do 250 business days of fundraising...which brings us to the most effective way to start a run for political office...from the fundraising perspective.
There are probably 1,500 plus prospective donors the candidate probably should personally meet face to face and another 1-2,000 prospective donors (we will call the potential pool of statewide donors a pool of 2,500 people) the candidate probably should personally call on in an ideal world, but that would be an impossible number of meetings with time for nearly zero calls per day and with drive time, the need for sleep (unless you have a candidate who is The Terminator your candidate probably needs sleep), meals (many candidates do not need meals...definitely not a double whopper before eating a chicken dinner for a total of two meals in a 90 minute period...but candidates do have to eat), etc. the list will need to be prioritized between meetings and calls.
If you can get your candidate to commit to averaging a minimum of three face to face fundraising meetings on each of the 250 business days allotted for fundraising and you can get them to stick to their commitment then you should get on your knees and thank God because you have a wonderful candidate....if they keep their commitment...good luck with that ;-) Assuming they do then 3 x 250= 750 face-to-face fundraising meetings. On that schedule, my guess is you will be able to get your candidate to do an additional 600 fundraising calls without a meeting (you might think this # sounds low, but there will be a lot of trading messages, missed calls, the need for follow-up calls, etc...trust me...the 600 different people from the 750 face-to-face people is a good number).
NOW you are in a position to create your fundraising plan and move forward to implement it.
All you need to do is reduce the entire pool of 2,500 potential donors to a pool of 1,350 (sorry...1,150 of the 2,500 will either only hear from staff or from fundraising mail) and then break the list of 1,350 into five labeled categories (friends, first contact, fence sitters, bet hedgers & enemies).
I hope you are not being naive or stupid at this point after reading that last paragraph.
Yes, you must label people, profile people, whatever you want to call it so you will have the most effective pitch possible for each and every meeting and so you will utilize your time in the most effective way possible. If you are not tackling the list of 1,350 in this fashion and your opponent is then I would probably be betting on your opponent...sorry...just being honest.
Friends are just that...friends. They are the donors who will support you and only you no matter what. If you need to show strength in your ballot situation, you are the cowardly lion and you need to grab some low hanging fruit to build some courage, have an important filing period coming up or have some other timely issue where you feel you need to hit these people first then go for it. BUT if you do not have some pressing reason why you need to go to these folks first then please hold off on meeting with them until after you meet with this next group...
First Contacts are those donors who will give to whoever asks them first and then will use that as their reason/objection for why they will not give to anyone else. Period. This can sometimes be a large list in names and amount of $ so if there is not some overwhelming reason to the contrary I would recommend you start with this group first because whoever gets to these people first will reap the benefits.
Fence Sitters are those donors who will do anything they humanly possibly can to stay on the fence and not give to either side under any circumstance. You are best served by calling these people instead of meeting with them (no matter how large of a donor they are ... don't fall into this trap and think that you meeting with a fence sitter is going to make the difference...no offense, but a Gubernatorial or US Senate candidate has probably tried the same tactic and if they could not get the fence sitter off the fence you probably won't have much luck either).
Bet Hedgers are those donors who will give to both candidates and hedge their bets. I like getting these people on the books pretty early because it has been my experience that if you are the first one to these folks early for say $2,000 and then your opponent gets to them a little later for $2,000 then you can usually swoop back late in the 11th hour and get another $500-$1,000 without your opponent getting squat.
Enemies actually have a few sub-groups. Some enemies you can get to be bet hedgers...treat them accordingly, but don't count on late $. Some enemies can be prompted to be fence sitters...treat them accordingly. Then there are some enemies that are just going to remain enemies...treat them accordingly...whatever that means in your vocabulary. If that means acting like they don't exist then do that. If that means making mean faces or giving dirty looks to them when you see them then do that. If that means something like "If they pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way! And that's how you get Capone" then do that.
Once you have gotten your list of 2,500 down to 1,350 then label your 1,350 into these five categories then you can truly and as objectively as possible prioritize the list of 1,350 into a prioritized list for meetings and fundraising calls. Hit the First Contacts first. Call or avoid the Fence Sitters, but check your f’n ego at the door and do not meet with the Fence Sitters under any circumstances. Mix in Bet Hedgers with Friends in your schedule and start those meetings as soon as you are through the First Contacts. Only meet Enemies if you are pretty confident you can move them to be Bet Hedgers or Fence Sitters...otherwise put them on the call list or avoid them altogether. Make calls whenever you have any downtime (other than when you are dropping the deuce...I had a candidate whose wife had a mullet and sometimes he would take his phone into the can with him...a certain level of dedication or a little bit over the top...your call) and if you start to get behind on your call schedule then lock yourself in a room somewhere for a call day/block of call time until you get caught up.
And so ends lesson #1...it all probably seems pretty simple, but believe me...this stuff works!
