The JGG-mobile and the Lamont Street Team Strategy
by Matt Stoller, Sat Aug 05, 2006 at 12:22:12 PM EDT
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One of the best things about this campaign is the innovative techniques that have been embraced by the organization. It's not just the internet, which has been literally a textbook case of internet messaging. There's also a willingness to test and refine models that worked in 2004, such as new ways of engaging in youth organizing. I just sat down and talked to Alexis McGill, who organized Vote or Die and was the political director for the Hip Hop summit. She's now a consultant for the Lamont campaign organizing street teams. In 2004, there was an 18 point bump among African-American youth, and a 22 point bump among Latino youth. No one really knows why the youth vote increased because there hasn't been a lot of research, but the environment of celebrity embrace of politics, combined with organizing work on the ground, probably has helped.
Alexis is a political scientist who taught at Wesleyan and Yale, and focuses on urban politics. She gave me a brief history of organizing. The civil rights movement era organizations worked through the churches and through campus networks. This generation is different. Though the church and campus networks are still critical, they aren't reaching everyone anymore, and it's possible to identify and work through different social networks as a complement.
For inexperienced and drop-off voters in urban areas, the message and the messenger have to be linked. In order for a message to be credible, the information has to come through outlets that are trusted. If your barber says something, you know it's meaningful because that person can relate to your life and community in a fundamental way. They see life like you see life. TV is just not trusted, and though it's very powerful, it doesn't create the framework through which you can understand the politics. It tends to have little effect on drop-off voters, except to encourage them not to vote because it's all meaningless.
McGill's specialty is testing and organizing non-traditional field strategies for people of color. Her teams are not going church by church, but barbershop by barbership, club by club, and salon by salon. I've put up pictures of the vans that the teams travel in - the Kiss float has become famous all around Connecticut, having been on the road in a relatively small state for a few months, as well as in and out of the news. People love the van and recognize the float. It's nicknamed the JGG-mobile.
The street team strategy is an important way to complement and connect and meet people where they are, with the same messaging that this election is about accountability. What's capturing people is not just bring the troops home, but the idea that our spending priorities are out of whack. Alexis is saying that ever since that $80B number came out, the discussion has been about the money going into the sands in Iraq instead of schools, health care, etc.
Lamont's messaging of accountability and new priorities has successfully tapped into the mindset of the African-American community, and the celebrity culture has arrived. Maxine Waters, Danny Glover, Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson have all stumped for Lamont, and they bring crucial credibility to the Lamont campaign, as they are all extremely influential celebrity figures in the African-American community. Now the the street teams, which have been operational for two weeks, are bringing the messaging through trusted influential local figures.
Of course, it's not at all clear that this is going to work. The street teams haven't been operating for that long, and there's huge disaffection in urban communities since Democrats often just show up and ask for votes a few weeks before an election. Ned gets a little break from the cynicism, since people know that his race wasn't viable until a few months ago, and the messaging environment that has been created has made the organizing much easier. People are more receptive to the conversation about getting rid of Joe Lieberman, and Lamont is generally well-liked when people meet him.
I just also met Allen Taylor and Randall Jennings, who are one of Lamont's street teams. They say that the messaging is working, and that people haven't seen Joe in their communities for a really long time, if ever. Say what you will about this strategy, but it's very much not Beltway thinking, and very much not the Beltway consultariat.
If we can pull this out, there are huge lessons for field and messaging campaigns for the 2006 midterms. That's why competition is important; it spurs innovation. And that's why primaries are just good for Democrats. Finally, here's a short and poor quality video clip of Danny Glover and Maxine Waters in the office before going out and stumping for Lamont.
Go Ned!
Tags: Connecticut, CT-Sen, Joe Lieberman, Ned Lamont (all tags)
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