It's after Labor Day and the absentee ballots go our in one month. And you have no money. What to do? Panic of course. Then call the Campaign Doctor. Can't find one in the Yellow Pages? Let us help.
Go back over the names in your data base, spreadsheet, Rolodex, stack of business cards, Christmas card list, high school yearbook, book club members, church members, PTA members, co-workers, and everyone on your block. Call them up or stop by their home if they're near by and you already have a relationship with them. Hand them an envelope and ask for money.
Oh, that sounds easy, you say. Hi, here's an envelope, give me some dough. Ha! Not quite as simple as that, but try these few not-terribly-difficult-or-painful steps and watch the cash start coming in:
- Make the call. If you don't pick up the phone, the money won't come. So start dialing for dollars now.
- Have a script. All you need is something simple like this: Hi Hillary, have you got a minute? You know I'm running for dogcatcher here in Pleasant Valley. Well, the election is coming closer and I need your help to make sure my mail gets to the absentee voters. There are more of them today then ever. I need to raise $10,000 to finish my mailing. You know how expensive the post office is these days! Can I count on a $500 contribution from you and Bill?
(Now you pause, take a deep breath and sweat for a five count)
Hilary has to say something. It's likely to be along these lines: Well, that's a little steep for us, Michelle; I'll talk to Bill tonight and see if we can come up with $250. We'd love to see you as dogcatcher. I'll call you back tomorrow.
Your turn: Thanks Hil! I am under a bit of a time crunch. I think you will like the pieces we are sending. My opponent has been telling some untruths and I need to set the record straight.
Hil: Of course, Micelle. Talk to you then.
See? Nothing to it. Just be upbeat, specific about what the money will be used for and ask. The pause is crucial or you will find yourself talking them down. Let them consider what they can give. Of course it's best to have some idea of what they are capable of giving first. And of course, know if there are donation limits in your race.
And it's better yet to have done this several months ago, so you have a war chest and your last minute calls are just to shore it up, not get the whole campaign rolling. But if you find yourself in a crisis, try the phone, and leave no stone, or relative, unturned.
- Follow up - And if Hilary forgets to call you back, call her and offer to pick up the check personally. Then do it. And thank her profusely. Now she is invested in you and your campaign and maybe she'll even walk a precinct or call her lists on your behalf too.
I cringe to think what Debra Saunders, the so-called "token" Republican of the San Francisco Chronicle will do to Clinton's speech and then to Obama's, considering the mash up she made of Michelle's. In a weirdly constructed column, Saunders entitled: First lady: You, too, can be Mitt Romney, today, she takes the Obamas to task for having received student loans, as described in Michelle Obama's stirring speech at the Democratic Convention on Tuesday.
This is the weird part. I had to read these three short paragraphs several times and I must say I am stumped . Maybe you can hep me understand what this all means if anything, to Ms. Saunders:
"As I listened the first lady talk about what her family did to make sure she got a first-class education and how she and her husband struggled to pay off their hefty student loans, I couldn't help but think that Barack and Michelle Obama would not be the fine people they are today if they hadn't had to stretch themselves to get ahead.
"So
why do they seem to think the government should hand out more
taxpayer-backed grants and loans to today's college and graduate
students? If someone else had handed their college and law-school
educations to the Obamas, they'd be Mitt Romney.
"Yet they bash Romney for not having to work as hard as they had to in order to get where they are today."
Ok, let's parse those sentences. First she says Michelle and Barack are fine people because of the struggles they had to get ahead. So far so good. Then she asks why they think government should help other people get ahead. Huh? What does this mean? Others should not get what they got? Which is really not "getting" anything, but the opportunity to got to college and then work hard to pay back the loans that paid for their education. Is this what she's saying.
And then, say what? These hard working people who want others to have the same opportunities they did bash Willard Mitt Romney because he had to "work as hard as they had to in order to be where they are today?"
Did the editor leave out a crucial sentence? Is Debra really saying that Romney a) had to work hard and b) is now where the Obamas are today?
I don't get it. Romney came from wealth. When he went to college he lived in a basement and ate spaghetti with the lovely Ann through choice, not circumstances. And poor Ann just never could never understood why he did that. Something about the Mormon missionary experience he had to get out of his system I guess. Did he take out student loans? Maybe, I don't think so. (and so what?) Is he now where the Obamas are today? Not by a long shot. He's on Jupiter and they are simply living on Planet Earth. And this is meant by way of analogy, not to slam Mr. Romney for being out of touch with the home planet (even though he is.)
(For those who don't like to interrupt their reading to click through to arcane internet sites, and to paraphrase Bill Clinton, here's the score: Romney $250 million; Obamas not quite $6 million. No, it's not chump change, but Barack Obama didn't have a rich daddy who gave him his first stock options or who bought him a home when he got tired of the "dump" he lived in in college.)
I guess Saunders is drinking whatever they've been pouring over in Romney world. Because she finishes up her column with the wholly unsubstantiated statement that "More student aid leads to higher tuition; higher tuition leads to record college debt."
Not that I don't think some unscrupulous college chancellors in both public and private schools wouldn't jump at any excuse to bloat their own salaries as we have seen all too often in our own UC system, but come on. If that's the case, don't punish the students, change the system. Does Saunders really believe people shouldn't get student loans? Does she really believe Mitt had to work as hard as the Obamas ever in his life?
Earth to Debra, come on back down here and let's get you some help. Seriously, making her write this column every single day of the Convention might just be too much to ask of a nice San Francisco Republican.
