The Volunteering for a Political Campaign Guide

Last year I volunteered for a political campaign for governor and this is what I had to do.

Day of Volunteering
Saturday August 19th..:

So today is the day I started volunteering for the Chris Gabrielli campaign for governor in Massachusetts.

I really only spent an hour at the office, showing up to get to the know John, The Political Director of the campaign and another guy named Howie Savard who I think is just a volunteer as well.

The office is in a prime location, located right next to CVS and across from Dunkin's in downtown Lowell.

Not really sure what I'll be doing, but I'll tell ya this, I am going to really enjoy talking about politics with all of these people and getting involved in a subject I believe in

.

Monday, August 21^st

So I showed up around 10am today and met Jim, the district coordinator of the Mass border of 93 it seems in the newburyport, haverhill area. Was there 10-4

This guy was an amazingly intelligent man, offered a lot of positive reinforcement and was thoroughly suprised at the end of the day when I had made 289 phone calls.

Out of the 289 Phone callls, 68 people answered the phone.

Out of the 68
6 hung up
20 people strongly supported gabrielli
10 were leaning towards Gabby
5 were pro-reilly
20 undecided
and 7 not voting.

Jimmy D is a teacher in haverhill of History, and has been involved in al ot of campaigns.

Also met George, the guy who spent a month trying to get in contact with me. Within 10 minutes, the guy started talking about Franco the ex fascist dictator and seemed surprised when I knew who he was talking about.

God I love this. Did I mention that?

I also met the Town Moderator for Stoneham today, Mike. That was cool.

Not many people stopping by though

Wednesday, August 23^rd

Today was awesome. Spent 11-3 at the office

Called 170 people, 12 Gabby supporters, 1 Reilly supporter, 10 undecided, and 4 not voting. Lots of voicemail.

Gabrielli is saturating the public with phone calls.

talked to Jim Donahue and Mike Rotondi about politics a lot, and I acquired some good tips. Turns out Mike was where I was at 23, and the guy just decided to throw himself into politics, even though his job doesn't pay anything really.

I want to meet Faye Morrison, who seems to be this woman who unifies minority groups to vote for someone. She was referred to as a "the Karl Rove for minority groups today. Howie Savard came in and we chatted some.

I got to Put a bumper stick on some old ladies wheelchair. More volunteers today

Got invited to the GOTV meeting on Saturday in Dorchester.

did I mention this was heaven?

Thursday, August 24th

I went to the office at 1pm, and they had no one there. I figured someone was at lunch, so I waited around for an hour, and then I just went home.

From home, I emailed George to talk about how I was available mornings and I'd be more than willing to keep the office open every day from about 9-2 if need be. Got a response telling me I'd get my a key to the office on Sunday.

Sunday, August 27^th:
We had a meeting today, at 6pm to discuss what to do.

I put my idea in, such as posting in the Umass lowell paper, using facebook/myspace to get people involved and emailing club heads to get help. I also got a key to the office.

Discussed upcoming events, most of which I could not go to due to working almost every night. I met Michael Hayden, a big wig in the school committee as well as Faye. David, Jim and co were also there....as well as a woman who turned out to be the former mayor of Methuen. I was the only person under the age of 30 there. Left around 730

Jim asked me to sign up for one of his phone bank days on Monday or Wednesday to be a Phone bank captain and boss people around. I hope that I can get a whip or something. Just kidding. He says it would help me meet new people and get new connections. I like this guy. I signed up for every Monday in september at night.

Monday, August 28^th

I got to the office at 9. Per order, I was told to not start calling people until 10...So I fixed up the office a little, opened the door and waited around for people to come by.

Around 930, I found an alarm clock with which I used to turn Talk Radio on, to fit the mood.

I Called about 100 people today, 16 of which answers. 38% were Gabrielli supporters, while 50% were undecided, 1% werent voting, and 1% hung up on me.

There was an annoying woman talking on her cell phone right in the doorway. I don't think she knew I was there. An old guy came in chatting away about how he was voting for gabrielli so he wanted info to give away, before mentioning that Gabrielli was an independent.

4 people came in for information, in the 6 hours I was there. The door was closed most of the day though, so I don't know if anyone knew we existed.

I'm not going to lie, the lack of interest people have, as well as the complete lack of people answering phones is annoying. Left at 3

Tuesday, August 29^th

Faye asked me to get the email addresses of Club Presidents and send them to her, so I did that and also emailed a lot of people I knew to see if they'd volunteer. Took about an hour.

Thursday, August 31^st

Got to the office at 9, stayed until 1. I called a bunch of people and had nothing but Voicemails.
*Also went outside to pass out literature, but 99% of the people would not make eye contact with me.

*Ralph called, asked for big sign.

Friday, September 1^st

Went to the office at 9. Again, I stayed until 1. Ralph came in, took all the lawn signs and asked for T-shirts and big signs.

Monday, September 4^th

Got to the office at 9. I was told not to call anyone because it was labor day, but volunteeers might come in. Faye came in around 930 for 15 minutes to get ready for the parade in marlboro, but I couldn't go because I had to work at Best Buy. Left at 1

Tuesday, September 5^th

Once again, I went to the office at 9. The building manager came in a few times, just to check up and see if everything was ok. I called 40 people, and got through to 1 of them who promptly hung up on me midspeech. Left at 4

*Ralph had his brother come in to get more signs. Beginning to dislike this family as there are three brothers who old, bitter, and extremely rude.

*Called Faye, who told me not to give them big signs.

*Howie came in a few times to grab signs and made some small talk with me.
*Listened to some talk radio, and read all the literature on gabrielli, devall, and reilly I could.

Thursday, September 7^th

^{I was late getting up today, so I arrived at the office at 10. I'll be honest and say that I understand the whole concept of volunteer work meaning free work, but at the same time, I wish they would pay for my parking. Paying $8 a day to park is a lot for me, given me monetary issues.
*I brought books with me, just in case. Read "the osama bin laden I know" by Peter bergen while waiting for people.}

^{*Ralph showed up, with his brother and a friend of his. I told them again they couldn't have signs so Ralph flipped out about calling Boston and I tried to tell him we couldn't just give all of ours signs to him and that the big signs were for certain people. They took one anyways after all 3 of them got in my face and I felt like I was being strong-armed by the mafia or something. I called Faye and she told me they had been putting up signs in places they didn't have permission to put up signs at.}

^{*A few people stopped to read the info on the door and talked to each other about how gabrielli seemed nice.
*One lady stopped by to try and recruit me for the coalition for a better acre. She was nice. I got her to volunteer.
*Another person came looking for George, left him a note.
*Building manager came back.
*Called 48 people, had 3 answer. 2 weren't voting.
*Left at 5 to come home and eat.}

Friday, September 8^th

^{Its beginning to feel repetitive in terms of what I'm doing at the office. Every day I arrive at 9, call Faye at 930, she tells me to call people. I grab 4 sheets and call around 80 people, go to cvs and grab some snack food, pass out fliers for 10 minutes until no one looks up or responds to me and then I get annoyed and come back inside to listen to talk radio.
At that point, I get an automated voice call from one of the lieutenant governor campaigns and I laugh. Then I go home at 3}

Monday, September 11^th

Got to the office at 8 today, just because I woke up early and I could. I had a devall Patrick supporter come in and try to convince me I was doing the wrong thing by supporting Gabrieli. Even now, I get the feeling that Devall is going to destroy Gabrieli in the election and I'm going to be out of a job

Wednesday, September 13^th,

Nothing really happened today. I worked 9-1, called about 80 people and talked to Faye. No one came in.

I thought this campaign would be more fun. And paying 8bucks a day for parking is horrible

Thursday, September 14^th

Nothing really happened today. I worked 9-3, called 40 people and talked to Faye. A few people came in and I got two volunteers but other than that, it was a lot of listening to talk radio election speak and wishing it was closer to 3pm.

Friday, September 15^th

^{Theres not much to write about today. It's been this way all week. I got there at 9, I called around 80 people. Had all voicemails and 4 undecideds. No one came in the office. Faye promised me that}

Saturday September 16^th

Today is a day I'm really not looking forward to.

I'm getting entirely too sick of this campaign. I don't really think Gabrieli is going to win, and I've been busting my but for the past month to keep this office open. All I've been getting is rude people hanging up on me and old people coming in to tell me stories about how it used to be.

Got there at 9. Faye was there, but left as soon as I got there.

Faye gave me $25 to clean the place, because Gabrieli was going to be there tomorrow. So I cleaned everything, and then this woman Sheila came in to phone bank. She was a little pushy and seemed to look down on me for not calling people even though I was specifically told not to that day. Another guy showed up to phone bank. Faye was in and out throughout the day.

Around 130, an old woman came in to complain about how much paper is wasted by printing everything in spanish. She talked my ear off for 20 minutes.

at 1:50, in what seemed to me as a meaningless last ditch effort of a failed campaign, Fay asked med to go to Devalls lowell call center and check out as much info as I can and then call her....I told her I would and then drove to work, calling her on the way with fake numbers.

Sunday, September 19^th

Since I worked at 11 and had to miss the festivities, I came in at 8 and did a once over clean job and helped decorate for 2 hours in anticipation for the event.

Everyone was stressing, hoping lots of people would show up. Left 10 to go to work.

Monday September 18^th
I woke up today around 8, and started going to the office at 9. As I got in my car, Faye called me.

Just a sidenote: Faye has become this thorn in my side. She's getting paid to do this. She's egotistical, rude and doesn't care about her volunteers at all.

Anyways, I got to the office after seeing my disposable income lowered significantly due to parking fees in downtown Lowell, and Faye told me I was here to answer the phone and just keep the office open.

Faye also asked me to clip all the Gabrieli articles out of the past months papers (Lowell, Sun, Globe, and Herald), and put them up around the office. She left, and I remained bored until 1215.

At 12:15, the Stoneham Town Moderator called me and said his 4x8 sign was stolen and he was coming up to get another one and he was already on his way and hung up. So I called Faye like she asked, and she told me I needed to be firm with this guy and not let him have them because she needed the signs for the polls the next day.

He came, he was angry. He called Faye. She said she was on her way there and would be there in a minute. 10 minutes later she arrived, she told him no 17 different ways and he left.

Update on that: When I left Tuesday, the signs she said she needed were still in the office.

Tuesday, September 19^th

When I woke up today, I was dreading it. I've pretty much understood that Devall was going to trounce Gabrieli no matter what anyone did. He was a better speaker, a stronger candidate and a minority at that.

At 9:01AM, I received an angry voice mail from Faye, boss lady at the Lowell offices about why I wasn't there exactly at 9.

I immediately got angry upon hearing this message. For one, I'm a volunteer. If you treat your volunteers like crap, then nothing will ever get done. Two, she signed my piece of paper saying I had done the required hours for school on Thursday.

I work full time and regularly don't get out of work until 11pm-midnight, so if I work 9-2 at Gabrieli offices and then go to work 3-11, I'm a little tired. After I got her voice mail, Michael Hayden, a guy who works for the sherrif office, called me. Said he was coming to get me in the Gabrieli Van.

So I called Faye back and told her and she flipped out about needing me on the phones as soon as possible.

Mike got there and started complaining about how Faye was an incredibly rude woman and hung up on him for virtually no reason. Needless to say, being in a van spouting off useless nonsense prerecorded by Chris Gabrieli is fun times.

Got to the office, where it was 60 degrees because apparently the computer would overheat in anything more and got snapped at when I asked to turn the heat up.

Lots of people there, so I went and took the lists I was given. First I called Waltham, then Concord, then Lowell. There was an old guy next to me making incredibly inflammatory comments about people based on their names before he called them.

I called 200 people, then ate a donut and left. Faye said she'd get my friend a ride to the polls, and never did. Never even called the guy.

Throughout work, I checked and saw what I predicted, Devall trouncing the other two candidates. Mike said he'd call me when the results were announced, he didn't.