Reflections on Working with Campaign Staff in Maine and NH

Finding ways to work productively with campaigns

Background

Paula Joseph acted as Swing Blue Alliance’s organizer for Jared Golden’s first campaign for Congress in 2018 and in 2020, co-organized for Sara Gideon in Maine, the Democrat who lost to Senator Susan Collins. In 2022, she co-organized (along with Berl Hartman and Steve Vogel) to re-elect New Hampshire Congressman Chris Pappas and Senator Maggie Hassan. Over the three campaigns, Paula developed insights about collaborating with campaign staff.  She shares them below.

Snapshots of the Campaign Experiences

2018

I was new to political campaigning.  It was Golden’s first time running for federal office, and the campaign never expected to have so many volunteers from out of state. Hundreds of volunteers showed up to get out the vote. It wasn’t always as organized as it could have been, but we didn’t know what a well-organized campaign looked like. We followed the lead of the campaign.  

2020

Early in the campaign season, we met with the Chair of the Maine Democratic Party who were running the Coordinated Campaign, supporting Democrats up and down ballot. We suggested the Maine Dems hire a coordinator for out-of-state volunteers, and we raised  $45,000 to fully fund the position. That gave us some leverage. We had plenty of suggestions, and if it was something that didn’t conflict with their other goals, they worked with us.  For example, suggestions to make changes to scripts were sometimes accepted and sometimes not. The Dems agreed to give us detailed data on our phone banking program, but weren’t willing to work with us on voter registration.

2022

By spring of 2022, the NH Coordinated Campaign was up and running, with an out-of-state coordinator on board.  Our first out-of-state coordinator was not working out, and we let the Coordinated Campaign know.  Our second coordinator was great and worked closely with us.

Observations

Being present and supportive goes a long way towards developing a smooth working relationship. Helping the campaign staff out can involve a strong showing of volunteers when candidates are speaking at field offices and help with fundraising. That said, campaign staff are often young and inexperienced and may find it hard to prioritize. It’s good to develop relationships with more than one staffer early on. Show gratitude for staff who are responsive, respectful of your time, communicate about the logistics of canvassing or other activities, and offer appropriate training and tools.

Recommended for Grassroots Group Leaders and Canvass Organizers

• Get started early when the campaign is slower and it’s easier to meet and get to know key people.  

• Work with staff who are responsive.

• Establish communications that work for both the campaign and volunteers. Find out the campaign staff member’s preferences for communication: phone calls, texts, email, Slack, or Zoom meetings, for example. Gauge if communication will be welcome on a weekly or more frequent basis.

• Demonstrate you have the people power by attracting volunteers to phone banks and canvasses early on.

• Raise money. Funds are always helpful and appreciated.

• Don't sweat the small things. Hold back on complaints about minor issues. 

• Suggest workarounds and improvements. Listen to the response. Campaigns may have well-researched reasons why the script is worded in a particular way.

• Save suggestions for important points that the campaign might be able to act on, such as questions not addressed in the campaign literature, but that have come up multiple times while canvassing. 

All of this is easier to do in small states like NH and ME, where everyone knows everyone else in politics and it’s easier to connect at the state level. In larger states, your connections could be directly with the individual campaigns or with the county Dems.