Lessons from the Trenches #3

The ongoing RNC Chairman debate is interesting to watch. I have been an employee and vendor to the RNC and really think there are a lot of folks with a lot of opinions, both good and bad, about the RNC. What seems to be in short supply is people who actually know what goes on inside the building. That will be another post…

One of my favorite parts is the Victory Department. What is the Victory Department? In a nutshell, they are the folks that plan, train and monitor GOTV and AB/EV programs around the country. Notice I did not say implementation, that is for the campaigns to do. Michael Beach has been the National Victory Director for the last two years. Michael got his start in Ohio, the mother of Presidents…and great political staff, as a field staffer he then moved to Nevada where he headed up GOTV and AB Chase programs for the State Party. In 07 he was brought in to take a hard look at the metrics of what we were (and were not) accomplishing with our voter contact activities. Few people in the building have killed, or tried to kill, more “sacred cows” in their time than Michael Beach. Here is the results of our chat.

CF – What were some of the biggest changes in application and technology that our side saw when compared to 2004 and 2006?

MB - There were many technical advances that were made this cycle, but the two that stand out to me were in data gathering and volunteer productivity. Despite only having a field operation active for 20 weeks in 2008, we were able to collect 10 times the amount of data that was collected in all of 2003 and 2004. Improvements in volunteer efficiency played a major role in the collection of data. Improvements such as our VoIP system allowed our volunteers to go from making an average of 30 calls per hour to an average that approached 38 calls per hour.

CF - Was the base engaged? How so?

MB - On the volunteer side the base was definitely engaged. The goals for our volunteer GOTV program were very aggressive and nothing that we accomplished would have been possible without the support of our base. Our volunteer program made over twice as many volunteer contact attempts during the post-convention period in 2008 as was made during the same period in 2004.

CF - Which states showed the greatest adaptation to new techniques and tech for GOTV?

MB - The majority of our states ran very effective GOTV programs, but the states that stood out to me were the ones that were not top tier targets in 2004, but were very competitive in 2008. North Carolina (1400+% increase in data collection over 2004) setup an excellent operation despite starting a few weeks later than the larger group of target states. Virginia (500+% improvement in data collection over 2004) was able to get buy in from a wide variety of down ballot candidates and integrate them into our GOTV program. California (1500+% increase in data collection over 2004) provided a great amount of output into the state during the summer and then provided other western states with significant help during the GOTV period.

Following the November election we moved into Georgia and setup a full GOTV operation for the Senate runoff. Despite not having a great deal of recent history running statewide GOTV efforts that involved the RNC we were able to work with the NRSC, GAGOP and Chambliss campaign to setup an excellent program in just a few weeks. The statistic from this race that sticks out the most to me is the fact that we collected over twice as many AB votes from our GOTV universe in the runoff as were collected during the general despite a significant drop in overall turnout.

CF - Which campaigns showed the best ability cooperate with other campaigns to achieve better turnout?

MB - There was buy in from day one from the majority of our targeted and senate candidates. By the summer of 2007 the RNC had met with over 35 campaigns to discuss the Victory program. The next challenge for us is to get better engagement with non-federal statewide races as well as state senate and house races.

CF - What was the most valuable tool in the GOP GOTV tool box this year?

MB - AB/EV data collection was the most valuable tool for our GOTV program this cycle. The RNC and McCain campaign devoted significant resources (labor and technology) towards the collection of AB/EV data. We were able to identify the majority of voters that had cast an absentee or early vote and then they were removed from our paid and volunteer universes.

CF - Which states showed the most improvement in GOTV from 2004 to 2008?

MB - Colorado, Maine, and Ohio are excellent example of states that made improvements across the board from 2004. These three states all made large improvements in their data collection over 2004, but their AB/EV programs were the ones that really stood out. Each of these states was collecting data for almost every county/municipality on a daily basis despite the fact that there was no statewide file. This allowed us to no exactly where we stood in terms of votes in the bank and also gave us the opportunity to be reactive to what was actually happening on the ground.

CF - Which states showed the most innovation and use of tech in their GOTV?

MB - Florida has taken all of their experiences with AB/EV to develop an excellent reporting system that allows you to identify the AB/EV broken up by several variables. Nevada tested a very aggressive online voter registration program that we feel will play a major role in future elections. Missouri utilized a phone from home program that had a few features that were more advanced than even the neighbor to neighbor tool that the Obama campaign utilized.

The list of states that stood out from a technology standpoint could have been longer, but our states did such an excellent job of sharing best practices with other states, that good ideas were quickly adopted on a national scale. The ability to move best practices out on a national scale is the main reason that I feel that we need to have a very strong national Victory team in DC to compliment the work that our state programs our doing.