( – promoted by odum)

This is my first attempt at a diary, so forgive me if I commit some blogging faux pas…

On Thursday night, I attended an ‘Affordability Agenda’ meeting with Gov. Douglas here in Essex.  The meeting was interesting not so much for what the governor had to say (almost nothing of substance), but how he positions himself vis a vis the Democratic legislature.  To hear Douglas tell it, he is the last bulwark preventing the Democrats from taxing/regulating everything to death.

Now Essex is pretty conservative by VT standards, but it was striking to me how people really buy into the Douglas narrative.  Douglas offers no new idea, but rather positions himself as the voice of reason.  It is extremely effective – because it appeals to that ‘in the ballot’ booth moment of truth when voters get nervous about their pocketbooks.

Scudder Parker was blown out of the water largely due to this narrative and we will get our hats handed to us again if we don’t come up with an antidote.

I think the antidote should be comprised of three components:

1) The Dem platform should make reform of education financing its #1 agenda item with the stated goal of reducing spending and adopting a progressive (read not property taxes) strategy to finance the bulk of education needs.

2) Adopt some sort of economic development strategy.  Hell, anything would be better that what is on the table now.  The Next Generation Commission report is a disaster.  Douglas’ half-assed Green Valley initiative is a joke.  The state needs to get serious about building new industries that create high value jobs.  Those high value jobs can provide the base to support local agriculture and other sectors we consider vital to the Vermont way of life.  The renewables industry train has pretty much left the station (Oregon and Washington state are CRUSHING us), but we might be able to catch up if we get serious.

3) Recruit candidates for the governorship from outside the legislature, who can speak to the above points (along with other Dem priorities on environment, health care etc) with credibility. 

I realize the above points may not be terribly popular in this forum, but I raise them now because I think we should think carefully about how to position the party in 08. 

I am going out of town this weekend, but will do my best to reply from the road….

cross-posted from the new ActBlue Blog

On Monday I posted a tip for spicing up ActBlue fundraising pages by embedding video into ‘asks’. This is a very powerful fundraising tactic–especially when the asker and audience have an existing relationship.

Over at Calitics, a great community blog in California, they’ve taken that suggestion and run with it. I’ve included a screenshot of their pitch to the right (click on it to view a bigger version in a new window). Besides the video, Calitics’ blogger Brian uses several of the principles of fundraising to make a really compelling plea for his candidates.  Some of the successful elements they have included:

1. Create Urgency- The pitch is for end-of-quarter donations.  Brian clearly states that there’s a deadline before which donors need to fundraise.  And he timed his pitch just a couple of days away from the end of quarter.
2. Be Specific- Rather than overloading their page with a dozen candidates, Brian stuck with three candidates that have a common theme.  The majority of ActBlue donors give to an entire page’s slate of candidates…remember that when choosing your slate of candidates.
3. Make it Personal- Brian, a Calitics blogger, is asking his own blog readers to donate. They have an existing relationship and a degree of trust built up. Potential donors are more likely to give when asked by someone they know and the pitch is personal.  They’re less likely to donate when spammed by someone they don’t know.
4. Think Longterm- The Calitics’ ask offers the option of giveing once or of setting up a recurring contribution. Recurring donations are growing in popularity on ActBlue, with over 1000 users having chosen that option for a variety of candidates.   If a donor can’t contribute a lump sum amount at once, recurring contributions allow them to invest in the page in installments.

Most of these elements are included in their Calitics ActBlue fundraising page as well. To improve the impact, some ideas might be to include the text from the Calitics post next to the video on their ActBlue fundraising page itself or add the recurring contribution buttons below the embedded video. If that happened, their ActBlue fundraising page could be e-mailed around to additional friends or registered users of the Calitics blog extending the end-of-Quarter ask into a new medium.

One other thing that might help the effort is to set a goal, similar to what the bloggers at Raising Kaine have done (screen shot at left again, click to enlarge). They are shooting for $20,000 to all their endorsed candidates by the end of the state quarter on Saturday, giving a real sense of momentum to their efforts. Adding some text about that immediate goal on their fundraising page would be perfect to tie it together with their blog posts.

While it is early in the cycle, bloggers can build upon their early adopters to make effective asks in creative ways that fit their audience. What ideas might you add?