An Afternoon At The Reshma 2010 Headquarters

I was at the Reshma 2010 headquarters for a few hours this afternoon: 833 Broadway. The highlight was I made 70 phone calls, and made 10 contacts with voters. It did not feel like a Buzzd office shared with Reshma 2010. It felt the other way round. There were many more Reshma 2010 staffers and interns. (Buzzd)

In my mind I have been toying with the idea of going to work full time for Reshma 2010 for three and a half months. But that might or might not be the best fit for me and/or Reshma 2010. We will have to see about that. (My Political Resume, Reshma 2010, And September 14) If I end up with a formal role, it is likely going to be amorphous.

The campaign is not in top shape right now. If the elections were held today, we would lose. Two words: name recognition. But the campaign is promising. I see victory possible. September 14 could be ours. But there has to be a willingness to try out new things, to push the envelope. But we can not be worrying about poll numbers right now, this is why: February To September: Little Change.

If we emerge victorious, September 14 is going to be the second most glowing item on Kevin Lawler's resume, the first being the Obama victory in Iowa in January 2008. Kevin was there. (My Talk With Kevin Lawler Of Reshma 2010) He told me some of the war stories. I hope to ask him more about that experience. Without that Iowa victory, Hillary might have been president.

The first debate is going to be our Iowa. We really, really have to win that first debate with Maloney.

We have to hold mock debates. A few different people could step in for Maloney.

I asked Aaron why we don't canvass the East Side the way we canvass Astoria and Long Island City. He said it is because on the East Side we have these huge buildings that we can't get into. And at that moment an idea struck me. Take a look at this site called NYC Bloggers. It lists about 7,000 bloggers by subway stop. People on the East Side have to be digitally savvy. We should perhaps create a blogroll of all the bloggers in our district, and we have to engage them. We read their blog posts, leave comments for them, engage them, and gently guide them over to the Reshma 2010 website. This might work better than reaching out to the community newspapers, or working the subway stops. If there are 1,000 bloggers listed in our district, and each such blogger has at least 10 readers in the district, that is 10,000 people!

This NYC Bloggers idea is no argument against community newspapers, community leaders, and community events though.

There are three types of campaigning.

1. Targeted Campaigning. And we seem to spend a lot of our time and resources on this one. We know who the potential voters for September 14 are. And we try our best to reach out to them, to identify them, to target them. 
2. Broadcast Campaigning. This is when you put out an ad in the New York Times (Reshma Saujani Ad Spotted At The New York Times Website) or when we work a subway stop. Or when our candidate gets media coverage. Not everyone who reads a newspaper article about Reshma Saujani is a potential voter. But getting that buzz is still important. If a potential voter has already heard of her through broadcast campaigning, it becomes easier to reach out to them through target campaigning. Right now most voters are not even paying attention. Primaries tend to be low turnout events in the first place. But the real mad dash to the finish line will begin with the debates. 
3. Getting First Time Voters. This is key. The Maloney campaign might match us in the first two categories, and we have to make up for that by reaching out to people who might otherwise not even bother voting on September 14. We have to appeal to the New Woman on the East Side. 

Talking about the New Woman and the East Side, I spent my first 15 minutes at the Reshma 2010 offices staring at the three huge maps of the district, the district split into three. That was revealing to me. The backbone of the district is the East Side. Unless we can compete with Maloney on the East Side, we can't win. And there is no reason why we can't. Reshma had a lot of early donors on the Upper East Side. You compete on the East Side, and you beat with the votes in Astoria and Long Island City. But the big chunk of the votes are on Manhattan's East Side.

• Manhattan
• Queens

Within a week, the Reshma 2010 headquarters will be moving to a bigger space in Midtown. The office could use a few netbooks - $300 each - and a few Metro PCS family plan phones: unlimited talk. 

My best phone call of the day was with a voter with whom I deviated from the script. So would you say you are very political? I asked. The guy got flattered. He took over the conversation. He told me how strongly he felt about the various issues. He said he had been voting a long, long time. He said he thought Obama was a "weak president" for not having passed immigration reform already. Finally he said, don't waste your time on me, I am already committed to voting for Reshma, go talk to someone else.

So I am working the phone, and a Buzzd staffer walks by. He points at me and exclaims, "Barackface!" And walks away. That's right, I say.

"How do you know him?" Aaron asks me.

"I don't."

Aaron gets impressed. 

A 14-7 Office For Reshma 2010
My Political Resume, Reshma 2010, And September 14
Reshma Saujani, Carolyn Maloney
My Talk With Kevin Lawler Of Reshma 2010
Reshma 2010 Get Together In Little India
Reshma Saujani Ad Spotted At The New York Times Website
Reshma Saujani, Scott Heiferman, Chris Hughes: TechCrunch Disrupt
Reshma Saujani, Haiti Earthquake, Harvard Yale, And 2016
Reshma Saujani "Gets" Tech
Reshma Saujani: Innovation, Ethnic Pride, Thought Leadership

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A 14-7 Office For Reshma 2010

Image of Reshma Saujani

I want a Reshma 2010 office that is open every day of the week from 8 AM to 10 PM all the way to September 14. Your average staffer still works about 50 hours a week, but shutting the operations down during weekends is a very, very bad idea. I volunteer to work weekends, and I volunteer to work the late hours. I get to take my day off on Monday or Tuesday. And I like sleeping in late anyways.

The hours go up as we get closer to September 14. Victors put in hours.

An open office is one that has at least one person in the office. We want people out in the field as much as in the office. But we want one person who will answer the phone. "Hi, this is Jon with Reshma 2010." "Hi, this is Kevin with Reshma 2010." We answer the phone 14-7 unfailingly. And we talk to the caller as long as they will talk to us. And we answer all emails. All emails. What is that one email address?

People still will get their days off, but not all of them will be off on Sundays. A lot of community action happens during weekends. A lot of events are evening events. Everybody on the team has to have a phone that is always on. When you are not in the physical office, you are in the mobile office. But if we plan well, the last minute fire fighting phone calls will be kept to the minimum. When you are with people, be with the people, get off the phone, concentrate on the people. Shower attention on the volunteers, shower attention on the media people, shower attention on the community leaders and activists. Get on a first name basis with all of them. You can't do that if you are on the phone with the campaign office instead.

I can do weekends, and I can do the late shift, no problem. I could take Wednesdays off. I hear the Bronx Zoo is free entry on Wednesdays.

Read, read, read. Read the New York Times. Read it every day. Read it first thing in the morning. It is a good newspaper. Got to talk up the politics of the day. What is the latest? What is happening in DC? What is happening in Albany? What's up in City Hall? What is Bloomberg up to today? Read up. Read it on online. Buy it in print. Share it. Pass it around. Ask to read the business section when someone else is reading the front page. I want to see stains on that paper, your hand stains.

On your day off go read a book.

Call, call, call. Spend at least one hour every working day calling up voters. I don't know yet what the setup is like in the office, but we need a few dedicated landlines for that express purpose. One hour is minimum. Do it at random hours of the day. Do it because you need a break from staring at that computer screen.

Meet, meet, meet. Meeting ordinary people is the best part of working on a political campaign. You should have fun doing it. You should look forward to it. You should feel like, I am having so much fun meeting people, why is Reshma even paying me to do this? Paying me to meet people is a scam. I would do it for free. This is so much fun. If you are not enjoying meeting people, you are in the wrong line of business. Go become a carpenter or something. Or a rocket scientist.

Drink, drink, drink. Do not get dehydrated. Always carry with you a bottle of water wherever you go. We just need the plastic bottles. Tap water works just fine. Bottled water is tap water with a brand name. That is all. Bring the bottles back to the office and fill them up. Never run out of water. The best things in life are free. Water is one of them. Water is officially the best drink anyone can get hold of. Better even than milk.

I demand we keep a mixer/grinder in the office, and always a ready stock of yogurt, mango pulp, icecream, and ice. I will make mango lussee for everyone, as often as I have to. But I'd prefer to teach it to you. You add two raw eggs and some milk into that mix, and it is a meal. I have tried that many times. I want an endless supply of lassee for me, lassee that I make myself. Yogurt, mango pulp, milk, eggs, icecream, ice. Kevin, if you want me to call you boss, do this. Keep the supplies stocked up. This is what I mean by keep the trains running.

Mock debates every week. Megan stands in as Maloney. Kevin moderates. I do a brutal analysis after it is over. All staffers and interns are encouraged to come watch, to offer one liners, funny and otherwise. We are opening up a bank for one liners. Donate one liners. We are not asking for blood. It is just one liners. Any staffer/intern/volunteer can apply to stand in as Maloney. If you think you are a great debater, contact me.

Work the subway stops. Everyone on the team - staffers, interns, top volunteers - must work a subway stop in the district for at least an hour during rush hour each week. We will meet many non voters in the process, but that is okay. Remember that part about meeting people? All we are trying to do is get people to visit our website. And they don't have to be in the district to donate. If they are not in the district, maybe they know someone who is. If they are not a voter, they might know someone who is. Hi, Reshma is running for Congress, and she would like you to visit her website. And you hand out the flyer.

I am assuming all staffers have the monthly metro card. I will get one too. If anyone wants to get on the Metro PCS family plan with me, holler! Unlimited talk, text, web sounds like sliced bread. I have never tried it. I am about to. On the other hand, getting the new 4G Android phone from Sprint might allow me to video blog for the campaign every day, several times a day. Video blog, tweet. Feedback welcome. I am going to ask Nihal about this tomorrow.

Buzzd: Paramendra

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