Clinton campaign missed opportunity during 4th of July parades in the Des Moines suburbs (w/poll)
by desmoinesdem, Thu Jul 05, 2007 at 05:37:06 AM EDT
Yesterday afternoon I was with the Edwards group in the 4th of July parade in my little corner of the Des Moines suburbs (Windsor Heights). Like most campaigns, we had a truck with a big sign and some people throwing candy to the kids lined up along the parade route.
We didn't have many stickers to hand out, because those were mostly used up in the bigger parades held in West Des Moines on the evening of July 3 and Urbandale on the morning of July 4. (Edwards did well in all of the suburban Des Moines precincts in January 2004.)
The Obama and Richardson campaigns took part in the Windsor Heights parade as well, handing out stickers to lots of people along the route.
No Clinton supporters or campaign representatives were there.
More about the parades on the flip.
What is the point of participating in these parades, you might ask? It's not just for visibility, although that is always nice for any candidate.
For the length of the 2-mile parade route, three or four Edwards supporters (I think they were interns or field organizers) were walking close behind the truck with supporter cards on clipboards. They were watching to see who applauded and waved as our truck passed by.
A campaign intern and I were riding in the truck for most of the way, helping these people spot supporters while we threw candy to the kids.
Since I live in the neighborhood, I recognized some people I knew to be Edwards supporters among the spectators.
The people with the clipboards were able to run over and have supporters sign cards right there. Most of them checked the box promising to support John Edwards at the Iowa caucuses. Others checked the box saying they would like more information from the campaign. They all filled out their names, addresses and phone numbers.
The rule of thumb is that 85 percent of people who sign a card pledging to support a candidate at the caucuses will follow through and caucus for that candidate. Every campaign wants to get as many of these signed cards as possible.
In the space of an hour, the Edwards campaign was able to get around 15-20 people in my suburb signed up as supporters. They got more than 65 supporter cards signed during the larger Urbandale parade yesterday morning. I didn't catch the number for the West Des Moines parade, which is the longest parade route in our area.
My husband was watching from the side with our kids. He said he was pretty sure there was at least one Obama supporter walking around with a clipboard, in addition to the people handing out stickers. He couldn't recall whether anyone from the Richardson group was signing up supporters, but they certainly gave out plenty of stickers.
We were all surprised that the Clinton campaign wasn't around. At first I thought they were probably focusing on the larger parades, but a friend who went to the Urbandale parade said Clinton wasn't there either. No one I know marched in West Des Moines this year, but the Edwards people I was with didn't think Clinton had a vehicle in the West Des Moines parade either. (Normally a campaign would do all of these parade if they were doing any of them.)
I can't understand why the well-funded, well-staffed Clinton campaign would miss out on this opportunity to identify and sign up supporters, or at least get Hillary stickers on a bunch of people. Those stickers are visible all day and evening as people go to parties, concerts and fireworks displays.
Dodd and Biden are campaigning in Iowa this and have much smaller staffing here, so I understand why they couldn't spend the resources on parades. They probably needed the staff to keep the events running smoothly.
I am scratching my head about Clinton, though. Obama is in Iowa this week too, but he made sure to have a highly visible contingent at all the parades.
UPDATE: Settle down, Clinton supporters, I am aware that Bill and Hillary marched in Clear Lake, Iowa yesterday. My point in this diary was that the Clinton campaign missed an opportunity to identify and sign up supporters in the much more populous Des Moines area. Clear Lake is in Cerro Gordo County, which will assign 46 of the 2,500 state delegates up for grabs in the Iowa caucuses. Click here for a list of delegate counts for all 99 counties. Polk County, where Des Moines and most of the suburbs are, will assign 357 state delegates, about 15 percent of the total in Iowa. All of the campaigns are trying to get supporter cards signed at candidate appearances around the state. But it's also helpful to have staff and volunteers getting these cards signed at other place large numbers of people gather. SECOND UPDATE: Changed title to appease some whining Clinton supporters who still can't understand the point of my diary. I had tried to make the original title a little more concise. My point is that no campaign should give up a great chance to identify and sign up potential supporters six months before the caucuses. THIRD UPDATE: A commenter at Daily Kos keeps saying he or she called the Clinton campaign, and they said they were at the Windsor Heights parade. I just got off the phone with the assistant city manager of Windsor Heights, whom I know, who coordinated the parade. I asked him to let me know all of the campaigns who were represented in the July 4 parade. He mentioned Biden (I hadn't seen them), Edwards, Obama, Richardson and Brownback. I specifically asked if the Clinton campaign was there, and he confirmed that no, they were not there.Tags: 2008 elections, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton, Iowa Caucuses, joe biden, John Edwards (all tags)
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