How do I help a Judge in NC get elected?

May 18, 2008 11:44 AM

CampaignFilter: Help me get a Judge Elected in Wake County NC. What is the most effective method to campaign with a limited budget? We apparently have access to a robo-dialer but no call lists.

I have just been drafted to help a Lawyer who works in the office next to ours get elected Judge (I believe District Court Judge) in Wake County North Carolina. He has never really run an election campaign before, so he is not really "organized". He also has a limited campaign funds.

He is on the ballot and was un-opposed in the primary. Now what?

I have some limited experience with partisan political campaigns, but never a judge race (which is ostensibly "non-partisan"). What are the best tactics and are there any election laws or guidelines I need to know about with this being a "non-partisan" campaign?

He apparently has a friend with a robo-call machine, but it sounds like he has no database of names to call, so advice on how to construct a good political call list from scratch is appreciated.

posted by DetonatedManiac to law & government (18 comments total)

Judges need one thing: law enforcement endorsements! Any brochure or mailer or personal phone call must include: "and he's been endorsed by chief so-and-so."
posted by parmanparman at 12:34 PM on May 18, 2008

Here are the voter roles for Wake County, includes addresses but not phone numbers. How about a mailing?

http://msweb03.co.wake.nc.us/bordelec/Waves/WavesDownload.asp
posted by deepscene at 12:39 PM on May 18, 2008

Buy the state's voter file from the secretary of state. It should have voter registration numbers and information on which elections those voters voted in. You can match this up to a voter registration database to get phone numbers and addresses.

Look first at people who have voted in special elections, especially if they were judicial elections. They're substantially more likely to care about a judicial race.

Ignore apartments.
posted by shadow vector at 12:49 PM on May 18, 2008

Limited funds? Politics is about fundraising. You need to do a brain dump - sit him down for at least an hour and make a map of his life. High school, college, workplaces. Then figure out who he can call from those places and ask them for money. Then figure out who those people know who he can ask for money. Once you run out of first and second tier connections, which as the surest bets for fundraising, get on the Federal Election Commission database and search for local donors who share political sympathies with him (based on who they've contributed to in the past). Then call them and ask them for money.

It helps to have a script, a glass of water, a headset, and lots of encouragement. Candidates for the U.S. Congress are pretty much required by their national committees to do this for forty hours a week. Just tell him he's lucky he doesn't have to do that much when he starts getting depressed.

Voila, you have money! Now you can scare other candidates with your warchest and pound them into submission with relentless direct mail pieces.
posted by awesomebrad at 12:51 PM on May 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

You don't have money, can you get volunteers? Nothing beats door-to-door canvassing according to experiments done by political scientists.
posted by PueExMachina at 12:51 PM on May 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Well, deepscene's link indicates that there are 550k voters in Wake County. This link indicates that, even at non-profit, bulk-mail rates, you would still pay a little less than $0.10 per piece. So, you're looking at $55k in postage alone. It's unlikely that limited funds could cover that.

However, these people, perform what's called a "phone append" service. Basically if you provide a database of names and addresses they can provide a list of phone numbers for the addresses. I used to work with them a while back. They generally provide good results (well they did 6-7 years ago). As I recall the cost is pretty affordable (just a few dollars per thousand range, but there is a minimum and perhaps an upfront fee.)

The campaign are more likely to be able to afford the phone append and the free robo-dialer.
posted by oddman at 12:57 PM on May 18, 2008

The local party with which this candidate is affiliated should have call lists, which they might be willing to share. Try the county Republican or Democratic committee.

Make postcard-type flyers. They should have a photo of him, his name, the office he's running for, and on the back a short resume of sorts. Hand these out at parades, fairs, and any other community events. Go door to door. More importantly, make the candidate go door to door. If he spends two hours an evening knocking on people's doors and introducing himself, he's already going farther than many other candidates out there. Be sure to get a mix of neighborhoods, but don't hesitate to campaign more heavily in those places where he needs it most.

Schedule interviews with the local papers. Your area weeklies should be willing to chat with him, especially if there is some hook you can use. (I once wrote an article about a judge who was the son of a judge. Lame, but a good enough connection that it made for a decent story.) The reporters and editors should understand that he's not going to answer questions that are too politically slanted. He'll probably want to stick with things he feels are important in the judiciary system, what makes a good judge, what makes him a good candidate for the position, etc.

Good luck!
posted by brina at 1:05 PM on May 18, 2008

Knock on doors. Find people to call people - as someone who inherited a phone number with constant robo-calls from debt collection services, I personally find recorded phone messages absolutely intolerable and immediately hang up on them. March in any parade you can find, work the county fair, find any way you can to get your candidate and his supporters interacting with people. Person to person contact is always the best way to campaign, at least in my understanding of local politics.
posted by caminovereda at 1:28 PM on May 18, 2008

He apparently has a friend with a robo-call machine, but it sounds like he has no database of names to call, so advice on how to construct a good political call list from scratch is appreciated.

As others indicated, try to get a copy of the voter database, which should be public information. But, as I learned from volunteering on a campaign, you need to somehow cross-reference it against a list of cell phone numbers, or you'll have a lot of very angry people. (Unfortunately, I do not know how to go about doing this.)

Judges are supposed to be non-partisan, but, in practice, it's not usually the case, from what I've seen. If there's a clear leaning one way or the other, might a state/national party volunteer to give you some advice/coaching, but stay behind the scenes? (Do be sure to ask them if it's allowed!)

Oh, make heavy use of the Internet. Is his FirstnameLastname.com registered? FirstLast08.com? FirstLastForWakeCounty.com? I just read the other day about a 19-year-old who got elected to mayor in his city, and he cited a very aggressive Internet presence as the cause. A domain is about $10, and hosting for a smallish site shouldn't be much more.

Visibility is important. My hometown elected a bunch of buffoons who want to close our library (they've called it "a conspiracy") to save money. I'm convinced the only reason they got in was that they put up huge, tacky signs all over town, whereas the non-crazy candidates ran a more reserved campaign, and most people here didn't really research the candidates that well, so they voted for the names they recognized.
posted by fogster at 1:33 PM on May 18, 2008

Robo-calls are not going to be terribly effective, especially with all of the noise around the Presidential election. I guarantee that a vast majority will start hanging up after their fourth or fifth recorded message. If the candi has a "famous" friend who can endorse/record the message then perhaps people will listen. But I know that these type of calls cause a lot of negative backlash.

The most effective means to raise support is by canvassing door-to-door. It's a lot of work, but getting volunteers to walk neighborhoods and hand out flyers. Or Get your supporters to make calls to their friends on the candi's behalf. There's going to be so much mail, tv, radio and phone calls going around by the "big guys" that without $$$ to break through the noise level (and your area is a big enough metro that it would be quite expensive to do so) your only alternative is to take it to the streets.

Yard signs are another good way to go, as are people standing on corners holding signs.

The bottom line is that volunteer supporters are more effective than $$$ (unless you have a lot ie $100K+)
posted by MCTDavid at 1:39 PM on May 18, 2008

I neglected to mention my support for what caminovereda said: a "robocall" is, in my mind, right up there with spamming people who didn't opt-in. You might have some luck, but you'll probably get even more people annoyed. Selling Viagra, you can go for that 1% that will respond, but in an election, getting 1% to vote for you and 10% angry at you is doing more harm than good.

Get humans to call. And don't give them a script, give them an outline. When you call someone from a script, even if you're good, you're talking in a monotone and saying things that don't sound natural. Give your phonebanking volunteers a few bullet points on why callers should vote for your candidate, and encourage them to do the rest. (And make sure you remind them of the date of the election, and that it's important to vote! For things that aren't general elections, voter turnout is pathetic.)

And, for the love of God, be friendly no matter how the call goes. When I spent time volunteering for a candidate over winter break, I heard a guy next to me screaming at someone who said they weren't voting for our candidate. In doing so, he basically guaranteed that they wouldn't vote for us.
posted by fogster at 1:44 PM on May 18, 2008

The quoted below: and get your judge to go hang out with the folks at old folks homes. Yes really. Every person's vote counts for the same, but each person's likelihood to actually vote is different.

MCTDavid: "Robo-calls are not going to be terribly effective, especially with all of the noise around the Presidential election. I guarantee that a vast majority will start hanging up after their fourth or fifth recorded message. If the candi has a "famous" friend who can endorse/record the message then perhaps people will listen. But I know that these type of calls cause a lot of negative backlash.

The most effective means to raise support is by canvassing door-to-door. It's a lot of work, but getting volunteers to walk neighborhoods and hand out flyers. Or Get your supporters to make calls to their friends on the candi's behalf. There's going to be so much mail, tv, radio and phone calls going around by the "big guys" that without $$$ to break through the noise level (and your area is a big enough metro that it would be quite expensive to do so) your only alternative is to take it to the streets.

Yard signs are another good way to go, as are people standing on corners holding signs.

The bottom line is that volunteer supporters are more effective than $$$ (unless you have a lot ie $100K+)"

caminovereda: "Knock on doors. Find people to call people - as someone who inherited a phone number with constant robo-calls from debt collection services, I personally find recorded phone messages absolutely intolerable and immediately hang up on them. March in any parade you can find, work the county fair, find any way you can to get your candidate and his supporters interacting with people. Person to person contact is always the best way to campaign, at least in my understanding of local politics."
posted by demagogue at 1:48 PM on May 18, 2008

You need an expert -- and not just any expert, but an expert in North Carolina judicial elections.

Every state with judicial elections has a unique package of laws and legal ethics rules that govern how candidates can raise money, how their supporters can raise money (often different in the two cases), and what candidates or their supporters (ditto) can promise in terms of future conduct on the bench. As a general matter, these rules bear only an incidental relationship to the rules applicable to other campaigns.

The stakes are high: unlike the slap on the wrist that accompanies violating rules for a campaign for any other office, someone who breaks the rules on the way to judicial office can, quite easily, be denied office.
posted by MattD at 3:29 PM on May 18, 2008

Thinking about it more, I'd agree with those who say to avoid the robo-calls. It's worth noting that a common election dirty trick is to robocall people pretending to be in favor of the other side, repeatedly, so people get fed up and end up hating the candidate they think is making the call (who isn't, but it doesn't matter, because someone heard their name seven times over the phone at dinner time).
posted by awesomebrad at 3:54 PM on May 18, 2008

You are the campaign coordinator. Your job is to get all the detail knowing people to coordinate a campaign plan, which you will design with their advice.

Notice in this thread all of the wildly divergent opinions. That is because this is all bullshit. Not their fault just nobody here is going to know what's required for your campaign. There's no generalised opinion on a local race that will be useful except for the people in the party and the people who are standing your guy.

If your law firm asked you to do this, then whatever partner it is who put the candidate up to it should know in the local party who you should call and set up the meetings. Or call the really fucking smart person you met on your previous campaign and ask them. Don't take what's said here as gospel, although maybe a local person will MeMail you.

Good luck.
posted by By The Grace of God at 4:11 PM on May 18, 2008

oh and on second read, ffs get an election agent, this is the person that knows the laws and stuff! Don't raise a penny without hiring this person.
posted by By The Grace of God at 4:13 PM on May 18, 2008

I don't know if your candidate is sympathetic to the ideals and positions of the organization, but the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers has been very effective in getting the vote out for the candidates it endorses. Someone up thread said judge candidates need law enforcement endorsements, but it has been my observation and experience that they need lawyer endorsements. As a lawyer in NC, I am always asked by others, "Which Judges should I vote for?" My experience is not uncommon.
posted by pasici at 8:05 PM on May 18, 2008

You should probably read up on the 2002 Judicial Campaign Reform Act (I just found this link and thought it looked like a good place to start). The rules for judicial elections in NC are now different from the rules for other elections.
posted by hydropsyche at 9:42 AM on May 19, 2008