Take Back Your Government!

CHAPTER Vill The Grass-Roots Campaign

Two Rules f or Effective Campaigning:

(a) Is the action directed at specific, individual votes?

(b) If not, is it directed at your own district? Can it be done without sacrificing anything under (a)? Can it be done with minimum effort and at no cost? If it costs anything at all is it covered by your original plans and budget?

Effective Methods: Anything which goes after an individual vote, especially:

(a) canvassing by the candidate

(b) canvassing by precinct workers

(c) canvassing by the manager Put the candidate on a 40-hour week of doorbell-pushing for three months; the manager should canvass two afternoons per week.

Ineffective Methods: Meeting outside the district, signs outside the district, radio speeches.

Borderline Methods: Meetings inside the district, publicity by signs, newspapers, and radio spot plugs.

The Campaign Committee: Use a large "public committee" for advertising purposes, the officers of which have nominal duties and have been selected to

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Robert A. Hemfein

represent the community - Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and minority groups. The working committee is the candidate, manager, money raiser, publicity man, field supervisors, and precinct workers.

Headquarters: Public, swank headquarters are a waste of money. You need nothing but floor space, chairs and tables, a typewriter and a telephone. Take drastic measures to keep the telephone from being used for toll calls except by specific authority of the

manager.

Campaign Funds: Handle by check, require two signatures out of three, provide an audit.

Unavoidable Types of Expense: Filing fee, printing, postage, telephone bills, election night party

refreshments.

Conditional Types of Expense: Signboard rental, newspaper display advertising, handbill distribution, salaries of publicity director and office person, lunch money and car fare for volunteers, radio spot plugs, extra personal political expenses of candidate and

manager. No other types of expense should be tolerated in a

volunteer grass-roots campaign.

Training and Management of Precinct Workers: Form a club with membership limited absolutely to doorbell-pushers; build its morale in every possible way. Be lavish in praise. Require the candidate to spend all evening at the weekly meeting of this club without fail.

Split your workers into area squads often or less using the best leader talent available. Train them at dub meetings, in the field by sending freshmen out with old hands, and by means of photocopied instructions.

Emphasize recording and filing all doorbell data for

election day follow-up.

Never canvas "blind"-use lists. Afairly accurate list of members of your party who vote in primaries may be prepared from official records of voters "signing the

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TAKE BACK YOUR GOVERNMENT!

book." Don't tackle a primary campaign until you have prepared such a list.