They fired the ad agency too. I never saw any ads, but reportedly, they were horrible.
It’s my understanding that the ad agency is Trippi’s company. Here is a link to a Washington Post article that mentions it. You’ll have to read about 6 paragraphs down.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/columns/kurtzhoward/
[size=2]The Washington Post asks for a small amount of demographic data to access it’s stories.[/size]
According to staffers, Dean held a meeting with campaign workers in which he announced that there was no money to pay staff at the beginning of February.
I defered a paycheck while on a campaign once, just once. And only then because I was technically on the state party’s payroll, and the candidate had gotten me on board part-time somewhere else (the campaign was only $500/mo.). Campaigns blow through cash like drug addicts, and once they lose (and most do), they have virtually no resources to raise more money. If I was working for Dean (or anyone really), I’d have to really believe before working without pay.
Squirrel Killer, how did you get involved working for candidates? It’s something that has appealed to me more and more recently but I wouldn’t know where to begin. Did you start as a volunteer or was there another way to get going? Thanks.
Trippi seems all offended. Sure he built a huge grass-roots network, is a savvy Internet guy, helped raise a bunch of money, but the end result of all that was Dean getting whupped twice. He might think he’s the greatest campaign manager on Earth and how dare someone cast him aside, but his campaign didn’t work. What did he honestly expect, a bonus for good performance?
Well, I started in grade school helping my sister do a lit drop for the first female gubantorial candidate on a major party ticket in Iowa (Roxanne Conlin in '82), and dabled in the young Republican groups in high school and college.
But doors started opening for me after interning at the Iowa State House in my senior year at UofIowa. The state rep I interned offered me a position as his campaign manager for the next election. Unfortunately for me, he ended up without an opponent. So I went out to Ohio and worked for a while with Ohio PIRG. I came back to Iowa to work for a US Senate candidate (that the internship helped set up). After that, it was a series of campaigns, interupted by a brief detour into tech support.
How should you start? It depends on what you want to do and where you are in life. If you just want to help out and volunteer, just show up. You’ll get drudge work to start, but eventually it gets better. If you’re still in school and want a career in politics, intern, volunteer, and hang out with the political wonks on campus. You’ll build contacts and a reputation that you can parlay into actual jobs. If you’re already in the workforce, try to adopt what you do now to politics. Campaigns always need techs (if you’re in that field) for databases, web sites, and keeping the campaign’s computers running. (Database guys are especially well-loved. I think a large part of my success in the area is due to my ability to extract a usable list out of most any wonky format we get it in.) Again, volunteering on a campaign or two can get you the contacts to move on to a paid position.
Honestly, however, I have to caution against going the campaign staff route unless you’re young, single, or very ambitous. There’s a lot of upward mobility because there’s a lot of burnout. 80+ hour weeks are not unheard of, and are even common in the weeks before an election. There’s absolutely no stability. The pay sucks, the most I ever made was $1000/mo. And you always piss off 2/3 of the people you meet. :wink:
Yeah, but there are tons of hot, young, politically-active girls, right? Right?
Surprisingly, yes. Even on Republican campaigns. In fact, the Republican girls always struck me as bigger partiers and more wild than the Democrat ones.
The bad girls always are. :)
Well, that’s because they’re all old-money heiresses like Paris Hilton. :lol:
Surprisingly, yes. Even on Republican campaigns. In fact, the Republican girls always struck me as bigger partiers and more wild than the Democrat ones.[/quote]
I’ll second that impression. I was once in a formal debate with one during my democrat days and well, the sexual tension was um, released, shortly thereafter…
So much for family values…