Early '08 Observations
I thought I'd post a few comments on my perceptions of the Republican ground game here in Minnesota, as well as a speculation on a oft-named potential Republican candidate.
In terms of the ground game, as far as this activist can tell, only one campaign has one - Romney(1). In the past two weeks, I've gotten two calls from their campaign. The first was from someone purporting to be Scott Romney, Mitt's brother. The approach was interesting. He wanted to know if I had any questions about Romney's position on the issues, or had any other concerns that he could help me with. We probably spent about 10 minutes talking mostly about Romney's healthcare initiative. I told him that there were things about his guy that I liked, and other things that concerned me, but that I was impressed with the fact that he had people already calling activists, and even more so that it was family. This was clearly an informational call, with only a soft sell.
The second call was from someone asking more directly for me to get involved. They started out by saying that Brian Sullivan, Evie Axdahl, and Jack & Annette Meeks had signed on with the Romney campaign. I don't know Evie well, other than in her role as one of our two RNC representatives, but the conservative credentials of Sullivan and the Meeks are not in doubt. I declined this invitation, but it does show that they are working to get organized and lock up activists. One other note: The 'Mormon' thing got brought up by the caller in a very casual way, and I suspect this was done on purpose to gauge if that was an issue for me.
A final speculation. Assuming that the Meeks have signed on with Romney, one might be able to conclude that Gingrich, for all his talk about getting in, is not. Annette worked for Gingrich and is purported to have a good relationship with him. I've got to think that if Gingrich was serious, the Meeks would not have signed on with another candidate at this point. Another conclusion that might be drawn is that they didn't think he could win even if he did get in, a belief held by many, including this commentator. Then again, neither of these could be true, which is why it's merely conjecture.
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(1) I'm sure that our local Paulite will register in with comments about the Ron Paul ground game, and I look forward to those comments. It's merely that 'this' activist has not been contacted by anyone from the campaign with the exception of the Stebbinator.
In terms of the ground game, as far as this activist can tell, only one campaign has one - Romney(1). In the past two weeks, I've gotten two calls from their campaign. The first was from someone purporting to be Scott Romney, Mitt's brother. The approach was interesting. He wanted to know if I had any questions about Romney's position on the issues, or had any other concerns that he could help me with. We probably spent about 10 minutes talking mostly about Romney's healthcare initiative. I told him that there were things about his guy that I liked, and other things that concerned me, but that I was impressed with the fact that he had people already calling activists, and even more so that it was family. This was clearly an informational call, with only a soft sell.
The second call was from someone asking more directly for me to get involved. They started out by saying that Brian Sullivan, Evie Axdahl, and Jack & Annette Meeks had signed on with the Romney campaign. I don't know Evie well, other than in her role as one of our two RNC representatives, but the conservative credentials of Sullivan and the Meeks are not in doubt. I declined this invitation, but it does show that they are working to get organized and lock up activists. One other note: The 'Mormon' thing got brought up by the caller in a very casual way, and I suspect this was done on purpose to gauge if that was an issue for me.
A final speculation. Assuming that the Meeks have signed on with Romney, one might be able to conclude that Gingrich, for all his talk about getting in, is not. Annette worked for Gingrich and is purported to have a good relationship with him. I've got to think that if Gingrich was serious, the Meeks would not have signed on with another candidate at this point. Another conclusion that might be drawn is that they didn't think he could win even if he did get in, a belief held by many, including this commentator. Then again, neither of these could be true, which is why it's merely conjecture.
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(1) I'm sure that our local Paulite will register in with comments about the Ron Paul ground game, and I look forward to those comments. It's merely that 'this' activist has not been contacted by anyone from the campaign with the exception of the Stebbinator.
posted by festivus | 9/25/2007 08:31:00 AM
I'm hurt. Contact from Scribbler isn't good enough for you?
The Planned Parenthood Lobbyist had a paid telemarketer call me today, but all she wanted was money.
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