Posted by Matt Hawes on 01/22/09 8:12 PM Last updated 01/22/09 8:22 PM [Newer: Campaigning for Liberty at the March for Life] [Older: Questions for Boehner]

Slim Jim Strategy

Posted by Alan Smith on 10/30/08 3:10 PM
                 Last updated 10/30/08 3:16 PM

Door to door continues to be my most effective use of time (compared to attending party committee meetings, writing letters and blogs, making phone calls, etc). Any action is good. I'm just saying there are only a certain number of hours in each day, and door to door has proven to me to achieve the most bang for my time.

I have several thousand voters in my precinct. Too many to ring every doorbell. So a few CFL members in my district got together and exchanged strategy ideas. We requested access to "Voter Vault" which is the Republican Party voter database. Then we exported voter lists 4 different ways.

• #2 - Weak Republican - The '2' is how it is coded in the database. #1 is strong Republicans - we did not export '1'.
• #3 - Independent
• NMT Weak GOP -  This is in the attributes field. It's a National Micro-Targeting survey that was conducted by the RNC - the people that don't agree with the current direction of the Republican Party. As a guess, the Democrats and undecideds that are in here may be fiscal conservatives, but not necessarily social conservatives.
• Kinky supporters - Kinky Friedman ran for governor in Texas as an independent in 2006. His supporters likely were unhappy with both major parties. Consider if you have a similar major independent candidate in your state whose supporters you might want to target.

This cut down my walking list 85-95%. By targeting the most likely top 5-15%, I could greet each person with a warm handshake and a friendly smile. If I have extra time, I can always hit the other 85-95% of houses later if there is time (leave the flyer and skip the doorbell).

A CFL member printed up T-shirts with the CFL logo and state flag. I always wore it in hopes of clearly identifying my purpose for being on their doorstep.

I try to be pretty fast with each house. I practiced out-loud at home and refined my 'pitch' to 30 seconds. I have an additional 30 for the rare someone whose body language shows extra interest. 

The opening of my pitch is "Hi. I'm xxx. I'm your neighbor. I live (location) and I'm representing Campaign For Liberty, a new non-partisan political organization. I would like for you to have this handout as an introduction to our organization. It includes our mission statement and some short and long term goals."

My goal with this pitch was to answer their implied questions as quickly as possible: "Who are you and what do you want?" By using the word "introduction", I hope to imply that I'll be leaving soon, but I'll be back.

If I sense I have more time, I let them briefly know that the list is targeted -- "I'm glad to have spoken because surveys indicated our views might be very similar." I like saying this because it gives me a chance to say something about them instead of myself. I believe they are more likely to then be curious and read the material after I am gone.

I also put my name and phone number on each handout. This can by accomplished by customizing the image before printing, or by adding a sticker after printing. The close of my pitch is "I also included my cell phone if you have any questions." I do this for several reasons:

Read the rest here.

Posted 01/22/09 8:31 PM md240205 Athens, OH

Hey Alan, thanks for taking the time to share this with us. I wanted to work on some strategies myself, and what you have come up with seems to be a very good method. I look forward to practicing and thinking over anything that may be able to improve it as well. If I think of anything else that may be helpful, I will post on here, and will also reply with results that I achieve. Thanks again, and good luck!

Posted 01/22/09 10:09 PM Joyce Boise, ID

Thankyou so very much Alan! you've inspired me to go door to door now! I'm attending a c4l meeting this weekend, and am going to share your ideas with others. Good Job!

Posted 01/23/09 04:36 AM sharpsteve Sterling Heights, MI

Great plan.

Posted 01/23/09 09:13 AM MRoCkEd Cheshire, CT

Wow - that's awesome.

Posted 01/23/09 11:12 AM mjcholko Annandale, VA

I'll add to this post with a story that I think everyone should read. I am a Libertarian Party member in Northern VA. I targeted two precincts with a canvassing drive during the 2008 election season and experienced GREAT SUCCESS! Bob Barr actually received significantly fewer votes than the 2004 LP presidential candidate in all of the local precincts, except for those that we targeted with flyers and signs. In these precincts his vote totals were more than twice as high as the 2004 candidate's. We also saw slight spillover into neighboring precincts, presumably because the voters there were exposed to a very large number of signs that we posted. The LP's candidate for Senate did even better, presumably because Mark Warner was crushing Jim Gilmore in that race anyway. I hit every house in one precinct 2-3 times, and posted 300 signs between the two precincts. It should be noted that these precincts are in a densely populated suburb, and between the two of them cover only about 2 square miles. So, that number of signs is able to make quite an impact. I would say that we had about half as many as the major party candidates. In Fairfax County, VA it is quasi-legal to post campaign signs along roadways within 75 days of the election. Also, on election day I stood for 13 hours outside of the polling place where BOTH of these precincts vote. I handed out LP sample ballots and flyers with info about the LP candidates. I was able to get about 500 people to take the literature, and was greeted warmly by several people. In fact, even many people who openly said that they would not vote for the LP candidates still had encouraging words to say and complimented me on my efforts to promote a 3rd party. THE MORAL OF THIS STORY - GET OUT AND HIT THE PAVEMENT! It really does work. PS- One final piece of advice, if you want to find lots of "conservative" leaning people in one place, head to a local gun show. Putting flyers on windshields in the parking lot takes very little time (I was able to do 400-500 per hour) and you know that nearly everyone there will agree with you on atleast one issue. Getting a table inside will cost you a little more, but can be an excellent way to reach local voters.

Posted 01/23/09 11:57 AM rbmcdonald Llano, TX

This is how we will win, not doing this is how we will lose.

Posted 01/23/09 3:05 PM BBLiberty Pekin, IL

Thanks Alan! I'm taking this to my meeting tomorrow. We already wanted to become voter registrars, but if we could do door to door stuff and get access to the Republican voter database, that would be even better. Great job and keep it up!!!

Posted 01/24/09 11:01 AM Alan Smith Austin, TX

Thank you for all the positive comments! Any list is wrong because it is chasing a moving target. I still like to use them anyway. One idea is merge your county voter registration database so you can omit those that have moved. And for programmers, WhitePages has a free developer API to update your phone numbers! Good luck!

Posted 01/25/09 12:04 PM nobody Ephrata, PA

Alan ,thanks for your efforts ,You must have lots of energy & keeep a positive outlook for your future...