Recently Micah Silfry wrote a Rasiej Campaign Post-Mortem and Gregory Heller wrote up his Thoughts on the Sifry Postmortem. I want to take a few moments to provide my own thoughts. Initially, I wrote this for the general grassroots and technology community, but it reflects my thinking about the DeStefano campaign and I’ve decided to post it here.

For those who don’t know, Andrew Rasiej ran for Public Advocate in New York City. The New York City Public Advocate “helps New Yorkers by solving their problems and providing them with useful information”. She is next in line in case the Mayor leaves office. The current Public Advocate is Besty Gotbaum who was elected in 2001 and received 48% of the vote in the Democratic Primary. Andrew Rasiej received 5% of the vote.

Andrew’s campaign was a very grassroots technology oriented campaign. He entered the race late, had little name recognition before the race and initially would only accept campaign donations of $100 or less.

The post-mortem and Gregory’s response to it are important chances to look at the role that grassroots technology can play in a campaign. To oversimplify, grassroots technology by itself appears to be able to add 5% to your total vote tally. In a race that isn’t all that close and that people aren’t especially interested in, this doesn’t have a great effect. However, in a close race, it can be the difference between winning and losing.

To me, it appears as if there are a few different things to take away from that election. A good campaign needs to take advantage every opportunity to reach voters. Current political leaders are an important part of reaching voters, and it is why their endorsements can be so beneficial. Organizations, like labor, Democratic clubs, etc, are also an important way of reaching voters, which is why their endorsements matter. Mainstream media, as well as new media is part of reaching voters. Advertisements, mailings, leaflets, phonebanks and so on are all important ways of reaching voters.

All of this voter outreach is important in generating not only voters, but also donors and volunteers, which fuels the whole cycle, allowing even more voter contact.

The problem that too many campaigns face is that they don’t seek an integrated approach to all of this. Old established political leaders and organizations may not be online, so there isn’t an effort to tie the online strategy to the political strategy. Traditional media is seen as competing with new media and so traditional media strategies and new media strategies are not properly coordinated.

I was not an insider in the Rasiej campaign, so I don’t know what really happened, but reading between the lines, I would guess from what I’ve read that strife between different styles of campaigning inhibited the campaign.

A key message that grassroots and technological activists should take away from this is that they need to figure out how to be part of a system they are seeking to improve and enhance and not try to be a replacement to the system they are challenging.

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As BlogMaster for the DeStefano for Governor campaign in Connecticut, I am working hard create a proper synthesis of different parts of the campaign. Even with a commitment to working together on all aspects of the campaign, it can be challenging. Mayor DeStefano is leading in endorsements and in fundraising. It is my hope that grassroots technology are enhancing traditional political and fundraising operations and that they in term are enhancing the grassroots and technology operations. I goal is that all of this comes together in a powerful hybrid field operations which will Mayor DeStefano to victory.

If you are used to old fashioned politics, please take a little time to learn more about grassroots technology. Let me know how I can help and how we can all work together. If you are a grassroots technologist, please take an opportunity to get involved with some old fashioned politics. As Mayor DeStefano constantly reminds us, we are at our best when we are all working together.