My Canvassing Experience

[MarcMadness]

Ok I am in Los Angeles and first off, I would say 90% of my list were Democrats, 10% Republicans, 10% other. I really found it to be a positive experience as many people were at least willing to talk and take a flier. Of course I had my few grumpy people, I wished them a nice day and proceeded along my merry way. I did find a few women who hadnt registered to vote and for some reason I decided that talking about how he is the only one who will end the war would be a good strategy, and it was! As soon as I told them that they got interested, and I asked them to please consider registering Republican to vote for him in the primary. I do wish I started this and got involved as a leader sooner, but regret won't get me anywhere.

It's interesting because the few Republicans I did find didnt really seem to think much of Ron, but I informed them about his positions more and got them some flyers, so hopefully I made some headway there. It seemed like I got the most favorable responses from Democrats interestingly enough, of course they all said they would never even think of switching registration to vote for him. Most were Obama supporters. I did make some headway with some of them and gave them the usual spiel about Paul having the record, not taking special interests money, consistenly voting against the war from the beginning, and how Obama talks the talk but has voted to fund it continually.

I also got a LOT of those very dems saying that if he ended up running Independent and Hillary was the nominee, that they would vote for him. A lot of dems HATE Hillary. It makes me think we could get a lot of support if he did run 3rd party, but that's neither here nor there right now. Just an observation.

The main problem I have is that the deadline to register is today, and I have to work all day. So really after this the only people on my list that matter are the Republicans. Which doesnt leave me with all that many people. Canvassing the rest of them should be pretty easy since I know specifically who I can target.

The question is, what should my approach be from here on? I thought about sending them letters, since I have all their addresses and already have a form letter done up. I could include a Reagan Republican and my personal contact info, and of course the link to the website and the 877 RON PAUL number. If I send them out in the next day or two by this weekend when I have time to canvass again hopefully they will have down some research on their own.

Any thoughts?

In summary it was an overall positive experience in terms of talking to people, but in terms of actual support (i.e. votes) it's really hard to say if I was at all effective.

But I'm not giving up! Just need to think of a new strategy now that all the non Republicans are essentially irrelevant.

I'd apprecaite any forum feedback. Thanks.

[Devil_rules_in_extremes]

Thanks for working hard!

Direct mail is a very effective way to reach voters. That is what I'm planning to do, along with phone calls and door-to-door.

I would target the Repubs in your precinct, give them phone calls reminding them to vote in the primary, and send them direct mail with information regarding Ron Paul.

The most important thing is targeting the Republicans now, since your registration deadline is over. So bombard their mailbox!

[Thomas_Paine]

We are now forced to gain the support of Republicans in California, that means we have to focus on districts that have a minority of republicans. In my opinion the 2 messages we need to communicate to Republicans is

Ron Paul is a TRUE Conservative, in the vein of Barry Goldwater and Reagan

Ron Paul is Electable


Ron Paul's message is appealing to TRUE conservatives, the problem is the party has become infested with Neo-Cons who are repulsed by any kind of change in foreign policy. Beyond that, the main objection I usually hear is, "He's not electable". In my opinion Ron Paul should take every opportunity he can to counter this objection. You can have a great message, but for MANY voters, you must be considered "electable". Unfortunately the Media with never admit that Ron truly IS electable, so we have to do our best to answer these objections. Ron Paul's recent home run in the Fox Debate is exactly the kind of message the campaign should be pushing CONSTANTLY. You probably already know that there people who will never change their minds until the media tells them to, don't waste time trying to do so. For those who are willing to listen, we need to heavily stress our Victories:

Ron Paul has received more votes that Rudy
Ron Paul has more money for Super Tuesday than ANY other candidate
Ron Paul placed 2nd in Nevada, astounding media critics and pundits.
Ron Paul has a network of thousands of volunteers in every state

[MarcMadness]

blimpin' aint easy...

blimpin myself cuz I'd love some feedback...

[Lord Xar]

Marc,

are you the one that has emailed me (I am precinct venice?)

What are you noticing with the repubs - i want to make literature that covers those bases in which they don't like Ron Paul. Is it the war issue?

Have you drawn parallels between the war, economic collapse and Ron's message?

[MarcMadness]

Yes I believe we did email at one point...

Well first of all I really only talked to about 2 Republicans, the rest were either not home or Democrats. Other than the generic 'he seems fringy', I think the biggest thing is the war. One of the Republicans I talked to said his issues were taxes, the war and immigration. I hit him hard on the income tax and immigration, although when he said 'the war' he meant 'getting the job done / 'winning'.

Overall I think they don't look at him as having a chance, but when I told him he 'was about to finish 2nd in Nevada' (this was on Saturday) he seemed intrigued.

So overall I would say clarifying the war issue and getting over the 'unelectable' hump were the biggest issues. Republicans are a rare breed in my precinct.

[Lord Xar]

hmmm.. I am in venice too - I have, I believe - over a 100 in a my precinct.. I wonder why so few in yours....

maybe you can double up with me on mine.

[JustBcuz]

Ok I am in Los Angeles and first off, I would say 90% of my list were Democrats, 10% Republicans, 10% other. I really found it to be a positive experience as many people were at least willing to talk and take a flier. Of course I had my few grumpy people, I wished them a nice day and proceeded along my merry way. I did find a few women who hadnt registered to vote and for some reason I decided that talking about how he is the only one who will end the war would be a good strategy, and it was! As soon as I told them that they got interested, and I asked them to please consider registering Republican to vote for him in the primary. I do wish I started this and got involved as a leader sooner, but regret won't get me anywhere.

It's interesting because the few Republicans I did find didnt really seem to think much of Ron, but I informed them about his positions more and got them some flyers, so hopefully I made some headway there. It seemed like I got the most favorable responses from Democrats interestingly enough, of course they all said they would never even think of switching registration to vote for him. Most were Obama supporters. I did make some headway with some of them and gave them the usual spiel about Paul having the record, not taking special interests money, consistenly voting against the war from the beginning, and how Obama talks the talk but has voted to fund it continually.

I also got a LOT of those very dems saying that if he ended up running Independent and Hillary was the nominee, that they would vote for him. A lot of dems HATE Hillary. It makes me think we could get a lot of support if he did run 3rd party, but that's neither here nor there right now. Just an observation.

The main problem I have is that the deadline to register is today, and I have to work all day. So really after this the only people on my list that matter are the Republicans. Which doesnt leave me with all that many people. Canvassing the rest of them should be pretty easy since I know specifically who I can target.

The question is, what should my approach be from here on? I thought about sending them letters, since I have all their addresses and already have a form letter done up. I could include a Reagan Republican and my personal contact info, and of course the link to the website and the 877 RON PAUL number. If I send them out in the next day or two by this weekend when I have time to canvass again hopefully they will have down some research on their own.

Any thoughts?

In summary it was an overall positive experience in terms of talking to people, but in terms of actual support (i.e. votes) it's really hard to say if I was at all effective.

But I'm not giving up! Just need to think of a new strategy now that all the non Republicans are essentially irrelevant.

I'd apprecaite any forum feedback. Thanks.

Great job so far!

Just one thing to add, carry voter registration forms with you!

After the deadline, focus only on registered Republicans. Don't even mention the war unless they bring it up. Lower taxes, reduced spending, immigration. Find their biggest issue and work 'em on that.

You are sowing the seeds. Some of those people will come around. Face to face contact is worth a lot. People will remember it. :)

[MarcMadness]

Xar,

I'd be happy to help with the Repubs next week. I am working a lot all week and have friends in town this weekend but after that I have absolutely nothing to do next week so I will certainly help with canvassing. In the meantime I will try to at least get letters out to the Republicans whose addresses I have.

I have a letter written but I'm starting to think I should change it a little since it highlights the war at one point. I'm almost thinking I should leave it out all together , especially because the 'lets' just come home' line can often be taken as 'surrendering' which apparently turns these people off a bit.

Maybe we can combine our efforts and come up with a really good letter for the Republicans that can either be mailed or handed out...

[Lord Xar]

Xar,

I'd be happy to help with the Repubs next week. I am working a lot all week and have friends in town this weekend but after that I have absolutely nothing to do next week so I will certainly help with canvassing. In the meantime I will try to at least get letters out to the Republicans whose addresses I have.

I have a letter written but I'm starting to think I should change it a little since it highlights the war at one point. I'm almost thinking I should leave it out all together , especially because the 'lets' just come home' line can often be taken as 'surrendering' which apparently turns these people off a bit.

Maybe we can combine our efforts and come up with a really good letter for the Republicans that can either be mailed or handed out...

Contact Holly, she has a lot of slimjims and such. Also, there are alot of resources here for you to print out. When I send my packages, I'm going all out...

and also gonna include a nice cover letter on why Ron paul is the "only" true republican running and that the war is just a cover for special intrests.. etc..

there was a good article on that .. that showed how FOX is also tied in with military industrial complex etc.. and had some great quotes on ron and the writer suggest "this isn't fringe, is it... yet the media wants you to believe it is so..". and shows how the MSM is in collusion with special interets...

[MarcMadness]

My main worry is a letter like that might turn off hardcore Republicans. To get through to people on those issues takes a total changing of their mindset, so I'm almost thinking it would just be better to avoid the issue and focus more on the traditional 'Republican' ideals such as taxes, abortion, etc. Just my thoughts, I plan to get this figured out in the next day or two and start gettin em in the mail by Wed or Thurs.

[shadowhooch]

Regarding the war, just keep it in positive and economic view. Here's what I use:


RON PAUL IS THE ONLY CANDIDATE that will end the wasteful giving away of billions of your tax dollars to other countries when we have needs here.

RON PAUL IS THE ONLY CANDIDATE that will stay focused on hunting down the specific groups and individuals responsible for terrorist attacks instead of being distracted with costly nation building and policing of the world.

RON PAUL IS THE ONLY CANDIDATE with a sensible foreign policy that will save the taxpayer nearly a Trillion dollars a year by bringing our troops home from the 700 bases scattered across 130 countries around the world.

I don't go into Iraq specifically so much. But if they bring it up, I ask them if they think Summer of 2009 would be long enough to stay (because that is as soon as we could pull them out with a RP presidency). Usually they say, yeah that should be enough time.

I also use the line that our best defense is strong borders and we stood down the Russians without firing a shot when they had 40,000 nukes. So we shouldn't be spending a Trillion dollars to defend against a third world country. They are no threat to us.

Anyway, good luck with those warmongers! It's not an easy fight.

[Devil_rules_in_extremes]

Blimp!!! Somebody give this guy more pointers!

[Eponym_mi]

Regarding the war, just keep it in positive and economic view.

I would also add comments about who is getting the most contributions from active duty military. But with most Republicans I would only respond to the issue if it is brought up. Hell, some Democrats are warhawks too.