What's Your Story?

For all you NH Deaniacs who read my blog, don't miss today's WaPo article about the Obama campaign using the organizing model of voter contact. The article will make you all warm and fuzzy when you run across terms such as "one on one" and "house meeting".

One of my biggest regrets over Dean's loss in New Hampshire was that I didn't think our style (i.e., Marshall Ganz's style) of campaigning would be validated. Even though NH voters were subjected to a week long media story on "The Scream", we still managed to come in second in the Granite State. Unfortunately, it was a distant second, and the media gave us little credit for garnering over a quarter of the vote in a crowded field with a candidate who had already imploded. The media narrative of the "Dean Machine" stopped on that Election Night.

It shouldn't have. Anyone on the ground will tell you that energized Dean Democrats helped flip NH's governor and congressional representatives to Blue over the next two cycles. Most campaigns tap into existing party resources, cajole partisans to volunteer and myopically focus on getting votes on Election Day. In contrast, the organizing model empowers the partisans to take control of their own neighborhoods and create ties to other Democrats that last much longer than a fall campaign season. As Lavalee said, "We left more than just yard signs".

Thankfully, in 2007, ex-Deaniac Jeremy Bird hopped on the Obama wagon and ran the organizing model in South Carolina. Check out the part of Obama's Philly Speech on Race about Ashley to see the fruits of always asking "What's Your Story?" And now the WaPo article indicates that this organizing model is now nationwide: huzzah!

I am a bit disappointed that the article didn't make the Labor organizing->Ganz->Dean->Obama connection, but it's probably too much these days to ask reporters to use Lexis or Google.