There's a CampaignSick JobServe Now!

Ever since my Tumblr took off I've resisted suggestions to create a jobs listserve because there are so many good ones that already exist. The goal of CampaignSick has always been to add value to our community not to recreate the wheel. However recently I've gotten some renewed interest in doing so, particularly because Twitter followers have rightly identified the need for a jobserve that is free to both job seekers and posters. 

I want to be super clear: I'm trying to fill a need, not create competition. I don't fault any organization or individual for charging for their time. All this is to say...

The CampaignSick Jobserve is here!

To sign up: Follow this link and when you get there click "Ask to Join Group." I will approve you next time I check my email which, let's be real, is like every 5 minutes.

To post a job: Use this short and easy form.

Some rules and expectation setting:

1) I am going to do my best to keep up with this. As I alluded to, time is money, money is pizza and since I am doing this in my "free time" (a thing I have now that I work at a non-profit) you get what you pay for and I ask for your patience as I work out the kinks.

2) To that end, it is and always will be free to post and consume but if you find a job or new employee using CampaignSick jobserve or just find it useful please consider becoming a Patron or making a one-time donation via PayPal using the email address CampaignSick@gmail.com.

3) I reserve the right to post or not post jobs at my discretion. Reasons that something might be rejected include not being germane to our industry, not including salary ranges etc. (Sadly some of the heavy hitters in our industry still don't post salaries so this rule may not always stand but I want to set that as an expectation.) It goes without saying no unpaid internships. I may also pass along opportunities I find elsewhere that seem particularly exciting. 

This is still a work in progress so thank you for subscribing and passing along! 

Campaign Love and Mine,

Nancy

The 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign: Where are they now?

(The 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Field Staff)

I don't like to mention specific jobs or projects I'm working on on the blog but in this case I will make an exception. As many of you know, during the 2020 cycle I had the extremely fortunate, rewarding. and exciting opportunity to be the Director and Senior Advisor to very campaign on which my career began, the Minnesota DFL Coordinated. While there were many differences between my first campaign and my most recent (please see, global pandemic) there were a lot of similarities including that they both ended with the question, "What now?"  

As I navigated and continue to navigate my own answers to that question I realized how helpful it would be for someone to help me draw a line between where I am now and where I might want to go. I thought that the brilliant, hard-working and fun to be around 2020 Minnesota Coordinated team might like the same thing. Using social media, a well-preserved t-shirt that just happened to have the 2006 Coordinated staff list on the back, and the 2006 DFL Coordinated Alumni Google group (probably like the year google groups were invented) I reached out to my former colleagues to ask them where they'd been.

Below are the results. 

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign?

Regional Field Director, CD-6

What is your current or most recent position?

Political Consultant/Campaign Manager for Rep. Dean Phillips 

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?

RFD -> Pol Director for Rep. Tim Walz -> CM for Tim Walz (2010) -> Marriage Equality campaign (MN) -> starting my own consulting firm (and working for Rep. Dean Phillips)

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

Working and managing a team of people. Volunteer recruitment and identifying volunteers who can lead recruiting others makes it all so much easier.

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?

Showing up is so important - even when at first they don't pay you. Also, treat others the way you want to be treated.

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? Regional Field Director, CD-1 (aka CampaignSick's first boss)

What is your current or most recent position? 

Chief of Staff to Congressman Jim Himes 

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?After a brief stint in DC helping set up Tim Walz's mail operation, went on a bunch of other campaigns around the country until I hit the campaigner's magic trifecta: liked the candidate, won, and there was a job afterward. After twoish years as Jim's district director, I moved down to DC.

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

Navigating difficult political situations and trying to unite diverse interests around common goals, and mitigating obstacles that can't be brought into the fold. Also first time as paid manager, learned a lot about how to support and develop talent.

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?

Don't immediately hop at the next opportunity you see without checking in with mentors first. Conversely, don't agonize over making sure the next move is 'perfect.' If you're staying in politics, you have a long way to go, and there are a lot of different paths to get to your goal.

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? 

Field Organizer, CD-2

What is your current or most recent position?

Field and Data Director, Environmental Voter Project

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?

I continue to work MN elections and, briefly, was with the DCCC in IN08. I worked with the Saint Paul Regional Labor Federation for three years and then went to get an MPP from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at University of Minnesota. I joined my current organization in its infancy in 2016 and helped with it's expansion to a multi-state organization.

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

Nuts and bolts of organizing and elections, volunteer management, how to better work with supervisors, how to manage an intern program.

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?

Think big - organizers can frequently be surprised at how quickly they can move into leadership positions. And don't be afraid to join the underdog campaign.

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? 

Field Organizer, CD-3

What is your current or most recent position?

Director of Data & Communications Strategy for Eastman Music Company

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?

After 2006, I worked for Obama in 2007 and 2008 moving all over the country. I then did various contract gigs for non-profits, the DNC, and other campaigns before moving into consulting, which brought me to Ohio and Michigan for wind energy advocacy for Axelrod's old public affairs company and then the wildest ride of my life consulting and living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in 2012. After coming back to America, I worked back home in Minneapolis for a couple years before being recruited to a startup in Los Angeles, got laid off there after 1 year, and then luckily got picked up by a client I brought on prior to being laid off. That's my current job at Eastman, which is my longest-standing job, and I love it.

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

There are so many small things you learn that translate to the working world: never fearing a phone conversation or a doorknock or in-person convo at an event, the importance of and various tactics to maximize signup data, the ability to operate inside an established database, persuasion and messaging techniques, telling your story, and so much more I'm not remembering right now.

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?

It wasn't until I found my current job at Eastman that I finally was able to live my life for me. After working at Eastman for a year, I discovered that this is ultimately what I wanted, and maybe it's something you'll come to realize if it's right for you. I was married to the campaigns and contracts and adventures, and while I wouldn't take back the experience for anything, I am so fucking happy I found a job I love that only requires 40ish hours per week from me. It allowed me to learn more about myself other than what I offer as an employee. With the job security and free time I was able to get healthy, save money, start a family, become a badass cook, experience all this amazing city (Los Angeles) has to offer, and so much more. It took over a decade for me to get here, and not every job any of us have is going to be our dream job (even this job that I love isn't my "dream job"), but it'll help us figure out what we want and what we don't want in our life. Good luck out there.

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? 

Field Organizer

What is your current or most recent position?

Director, Sustainable Finance, S&P Global

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?

I worked briefly for the DFL in the Comms office then as FD for Terri Bonoff’s Congressional Campaign. Then I got my MPA at the LBJ School at University of Texas, and worked part-time at Texas Impact, an interfaith social justice organization. After Austin, I moved to Washington DC, and worked for the Executive Office of the President at OMB, overseeing Federal credit programs and the Army Corps of Engineers budget for six and a half years. In 2016, I moved to the private sector but stayed in the area of infrastructure finance and environmental and social issues, first as a credit ratings analyst in the US Public Finance practice working on utilities, and now as a Director in our Sustainable Finance group.

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

Managing people and volunteers, crisis management, patience and perseverance, and I have been a stalwart defender of work-life balance since I left campaigns.

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?

Be open to new ideas of fulfillment, but know that your skills are transferable and valuable wherever you are.

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? 

Field Organizer

What is your current or most recent position? 

Controller, Colorado's Office of the Governor

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?I kept on the campaign trail, working Senate races and a presidential. In 2012, I managed a Congressional race in S. Florida, won, and went to Capitol Hill. I left the Hill in 2015 and managed a US Senate Race. Since then I've been in Colorado on campaigns and currently in the Governor's Office.

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

Like many first time organizers, I was fresh out of college and excited to be on the campaign trail. What I didn't expect was to be in a rural area by myself for much of the campaign. That meant figuring things out on my own; from how to fix downed VOIP phones to the best way to cut rural turf using giant maps picked up from the county courthouses. The most important thing I learned was how to listen and empathize with my volunteers and their community. These were citizens desperate to make positive change in their community after 6 years of George W. Bush, but they didn't need to spend 10 hours a week in the field office. Empathy is a totally underrated skill and not taught in poli sci classes, but is what good politics should really be about. It really helped me connect and understand the needs of my vols and the turf. It helped me make solid canvass plans, recruit volunteers, and build lasting relationships. Trying to be emotionally smarter has helped me ever since.

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path? 

Build relationships and don't stop learning.

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? 

Regional Field Director, CD-7

What is your current or most recent position? 

COO, Rise

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle? 

Obama primary and general election campaigns 07-08, USDA appointee 09-16, briefly jumped back into electoral politics in 2017, advocating for sexual assault survivors ever since

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

Relationships matter and organizing works

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?

If you love campaigns, do it until you can't any more. If you don't, there are plenty of ways to work in politics without working in politics. Keep up with every positive connection you have; everyone you work with, everyone you made an impact on, everyone that made an impact on you

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? 

Field Organizer, CD-1

What is your current or most recent position?

I'm a litigator in private practice at a law firm in New York.

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle? After the 2006 election, I moved to DC to work on the Hill for several years before heading to law school in California. I then clerked for two judges and moved to New York to practice law.

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

Being a field organizer taught me grit. It was a freeing realization when dialing for volunteers to learn firsthand that inevitably, after receiving 99 not-homes, wrong numbers, and rejections, I was bound to eventually find that person who desperately wanted to join our cause. The same is true in life -- stay strong through the not-homes and wrong numbers, and big goals are possible.

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?

Be patient. Work hard. Never give up.

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? 

Field Organizer, CD-4

What is your current or most recent position?

Assistant Attorney General for the State of Minnesota

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?

After 06, I moved to Washington DC and worked for Amy Klobuchar and Jeff Merkley in the US Senate for about 5 years. Then returned to Minnesota and received my law degree from the University of Minnesota.

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

There is no substitute for work. Field work is hard work but working together as a team helps lighten the load.

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?

If you like politics, go to DC. It's awesome when you're young. If you think you might want to be a lawyer, don't wait too long. It's way harder the longer you wait.

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? 

Regional Field Director, CD-5

What is your current or most recent position?

CEO, VoteRiders

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?

Finished law school, 08 and 10 cycles in MN, 7+ years at DLCC, 3+ Years at VoteRiders

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

Middle management is hard. Learned to a) be on time to everything, b) tell the truth always, c) advocate for the path that makes clearly drives reality toward your goals, d) implement the plan as written, e) stay in your lane, f) be kind to others

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?

1) see above, 2) talk w everyone - learn how this all fits together, 3) follow your passion and be open to possibilities you may not have considered

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? 

Field Organizer

What is your current or most recent position?

Nurse practitioner

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?

Worked in education nonprofits for a couple of years then went to nursing school in 2010. Became an NP in 2013. Now work as a pediatric NP.

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

Long hours and hard work

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?

Time management skills and multitasking are key on campaigns as well as in medicine. Also teamwork.

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? 

Field Director

What is your current or most recent position?

Climate and energy policy professional

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?

After '06, I helped launch a labor/environmental coalition called the BlueGreen Alliance, focused on clean energy job advocacy. I then got my MBA at the University of Minnesota and began working on environmental and corporate sustainability at a Fortune 500 company. However, I was lured back to the politics and spent five years as a senior advisor on environmental policy issues for Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton, respectively.

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

Working on the '06 campaign was especially helpful when I worked in the Governor's office. Understanding the tensions that can happen within the DFL based on regional/local politics and how that can affect a statewide legislative agenda was critical to that role.

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?

Try things! It may not lead you to that perfect career path, but you should not think of that path as linear. You will at times pick the wrong job - it will be OK. Being willing to try new things, take some reasonable risks, and being willing to move on when things aren't the right fit will help prevent looking back and feeling regret.

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? 

Intern, CD-1 

What is your current or most recent position?

Analytics director for advertising agency

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?

Stayed active with politics through College Dems at American University in DC. Then worked as a pollster for 8 years, working on ballot initiatives, IEs, lobbying campaigns, and commercial clients. For example, spent five years doing reseach/ad testing for 2020 Census ad campaign on a federal contract. Currently working on an ad campaign for HHS to encourage COVID-19 vaccines. Jeez... sounds like a lot when I put it that way...

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

Initiative-- it takes courage to just start a conversation with someone and trust that you'll be able to come through alright. Also, i learned that you have to LOOK for tasks that need doing rather than waiting for someone to task you. One more-- Election night 2006, I was GOTV by flashlight in Austin MN with a partnee. It was cold and windy. Every voter we'd talked to for the last hour had already voted. Polls closed in 15 minutes. My canvas partner (who had the car) wanted to go. I decided to knock one last door-- an elderly woman answered. She had called our campaign office to setup a ride for herself and her daughter, but the driver never came.... !!! We had them jump in the car and they got into line to vote with 5 minutes to spare. That extra door made all the tramping around in the dark worth it.

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?

Be willing to do the little & boring things the right way. Everyone has a role to play and you want to gain a reputation as reliable. This is a people business, job titles don't matter long term. Watch people you admire (see Nancy on making every volunteer feel appriciated) and try to figure out their magic. Remember to say thank you as many times as possible.

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What was your position on the 2006 Minnesota DFL Coordinated Campaign? 

Intern, CD-1

What is your current or most recent position?

Deputy Director for Research, The White House

Please briefly tell us about your career path. What have you been up to since the 2006 election cycle?

I’ve worked in a variety of campaign and consulting jobs since moving to DC in 2011, interning and then working full time at two polling firms in the 2012 cycle, working at an opposition research consultant in the 14 and 16 cycles, Deputy Research Director / Research Director for the Independent Expenditure at the Democratic Governors Association in 2018. Biden for President Deputy Research Director 2019-2020, followed by the same position on the Biden-Harris transition and the White House.

What skills/lessons did you learn on the 2006 Coordinated Campaign that prepared you for your current or most recent position?

Keep working hard for strong candidates you believe in and (eventually) things will work out. Always ask questions if you’re not sure what you’re doing on a campaign — your supervisor would rather spend five minutes showing you how to do something than an hour fixing your mistake.

What advice do you have for someone coming off their first or second campaign who would like to follow your career path?

Never be afraid to ask your precious bosses for help applying to new jobs — they want to help you. Keep in touch with old bosses, committee (dccc dscc dnc dfl etc) staff and consultants. Never get despondent about [what you think is] your dream job not working out. Go out of your way to help people you manage with future endeavors. Build a diverse team. Try to absorb as much knowledge as possible about your boss’s record and positions so you/coworkers never contradict them. Never work late for the sake of looking like working late or you’ll burn yourself out. Take post election vacations and turn off twitter (and always remember it isn’t real life!).

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I know this is a hard time for a like of campaigners who are job searching or aware that they will be again soon. What advice/answers would be helpful to you as you reach for your goals? Tweet me @CampaignSick and let me knoe!

Campaign Love and Mine,

Nancy 

Why Didn't I Get That Job?

Is there anything to get you in your head more than a job search? A job search during an pandemic perhaps? After several cycles I have become far too acquainted with the frustration and self-doubt that accompany the intervening months between election and new adventure. I had promised myself when I was a hiring manager last cycle that I would take note of the more precarious and ridiculous aspects of a job search and remind myself of them when I searched again. And yet I find myself tempted to give in to the familiar angst and ennui. 

It feels particularly cruel to be ghosted by a job for you which you were eminently qualified. If that is the case for you in this moment allow me to do my best to provide some reassurance that the reasons for your rejection (or lack of their even deigning to reject you, a practice we must abolish at once in our industry) might have been entirely out of your control. Below are 5 reasons you may have been passed over for an offer or even an interview at job at which it seemed you should be a shoe-in. 

1) You were overqualified. Sure ,I know this sounds like something you might tell yourself to feel better but it is also sometimes true. While some bosses embrace the possibility of a subordinate who could be a thought partner, others are intimidated by the prospect of managing someone who has similar qualifications to their own. In other cases, the resume screener might have gotten your resume and identified you as someone who will likely want to make more money, have more responsibility or generally not be happy in the role as it exists which leads to...

2) They are bad at writing a job description. Maybe that job only sounded perfect because the organization didn't describe it well, or didn't realize what they were looking for until they started getting back resumes. They may have requested someone with "3 to 5 years campaign experience" but specifically want that experience to be on an issue campaign while your experience is electoral. They may want someone with experience organizing a specific community but neglected to mention that. The job you were a "perfect fit" for might not be as good fit as you thought.

3) Other people were more qualified than you. This seems like such an obvious reason not to get an interview or a position that it is scarcely worth mentioning. But remember that just because someone else was more experienced than you are does not mean you would not have been great and well qualified at that job. Several times in my last job search I had great interviews where I was excited about the work and totally vibing with my interviewer and was very disappointed not to be called back only to see who eventually got the job and think "oh, good call."

4) They had an internal candidate. Ughhhh. Sometimes it seems that the entire application process is a farce. In many instances an organization's internal hr procedure requires that they post a job even if the hiring manager already has someone in mind. This sucks and I wish there were a way to signal that but alas, at least you've gotten more cover-letter writing practice.

5) Their funding situation changed. If you have been applying to a non-profit organization it may be that that position is no longer funded or that the funding is being delayed. A donor or organization's priorities can change and it's better to discover that before being brought on than after. 

I hope you find my list somewhat comforting, Campaignsickles. How else can I be supportive to you during this time? Tweet at me @CampaignSick for fastest replied.  We're in this together!

Campaign Love and Mine,

Nancy 

Your job hunting advice bundle

If you go into the Ask Nancy archives section of my blog you will find all the articles linked below. However I thought it might be helpful to put them all in one place. 

General Job Hunting Advice (part I) 

General Job Hunting Advice (part II)

Dealing with post-election anxiety 

Job hunt tough love 

Tips for writing a campaign resume 

Advice for college students who want to work on campaigns 

The advice I give on informational interviews 

What to ask on an informational interview

Welcome to your informational interview

 

Hello! Welcome! Did you want to grab a cup of coffee? Oh yeah no worries feel free to put your stuff down. I'll wait. That's better. Have a seat. I'm super flattered that you want my advice. If we were in the real world I'd be asking you about you and what you want to do next, but as it is this conversation is a little one-sided. I've already gotten a bunch of 1:1 requests and am happy to fulfill as many as I can but since I tend to give a lot of the same advice I thought I would put it down on paper for those readers who I don't know. Here are 6 pieces of advice I give at nearly every informational interview.

1) DO NOT feel bad for asking for these meetings. As of the end of this year I will be unemployed as well. It's the circle of life in this industry. We've all asked people who've been doing it longer than us for their help and advice. Just remember to be respectful and appreciative. For more on informational interview etiquette...click here!

2) It really doesn't matter that much what you do next so take the job that feels fun. This is really hard work to do if you're not enjoying yourself so the number one piece of advice I have for what's next career-wise is do something that feels fun. We've all spent a ton of time hemming and hawing over what looks good on a resume, what will open more doors etc only to have that job not turn out to be what we wanted or that decision feel inconsequential in retrospect. Especially early on in your career there really is no wrong move as long as you are learning and growing and continuing to make connections so worry less about what you think you should be doing and instead do a killer job at the thing you want to be doing and that will help you advance your career.

3) Get a variety of experiences.  Moving around the country I've noticed that people tend to get stuck in their ways if they don't broaden their horizons. Even the best operative who has only worked in California has only worked in California and if even she wants to stay in California there's a lot to be learned from how we do things in other states. Same goes for people who have only ever worked for one boss, only worked on large or on small campaigns etc. Getting exposed to as many different experiences in our industry as possible makes you a more prepared, more well-rounded operative. Jobs in our industry often last less than a year so there's little risk to putting yourself out there and trying something different. It also grows your network to interact with new and different types of people. The further you get in your career the harder it is to keep from getting pigeon-holed so push yourself to have a broad base of adventures now.

4) Keep going out on the campaign trail. This was difficult advice to hear in my mid-twenties when I just wanted stability (which basically meant an apartment and a boyfriend) and was feeling exhausted and deflated. More on how that worked out for me here. But if I had not tried so desperately to find a means to backdoor my way into the DC jobs I really wanted instead of just going out and managing more races, I'd be in a much different, and much further along place in my career. As I said above every campaign you do gets you new experiences and new connections and better prepares you for whatever is next. If you want to wind up as a consultant, at a PAC or a committee the best way to get there is to keep doing campaigns for as long as you are able. (Obviously if you don't want to keep working on campaigns/in campaign life, don't keep working on campaigns but if you want to have a job as an expert in the field, you gotta put in the time.) 

5) Get comfortable with imposter syndrome. It doesn't matter how far you get in your career, you will still have moments when you ask yourself "am I really qualified to be doing this?" I guarantee you Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for all their competence and confidence have moments where they're like, "Oh wow. I'm about in charge of this mother******." (Granted the bar for that office has been significantly lowered and they are exceptionally qualified but still.) If you see a job you want, but it feels like a stretch for you, apply for it. If a friend or mentor suggests you are qualified to lead a team, or manage, or put your resume forward for something, believe them. The person who believes they have nothing new to learn entering a new job is the wrong one. It may be there are more qualified applicants than you in which case the worst thing that happens is you don't get an interview and no one thinks about it again. As someone who has done a lot of hiring over the past couple cycles I can tell you the only times I have scoffed at an application was when someone was clearly under-qualified and smugly ignorant of their lack of qualifications. I'm talking about the one-time field organizer who applied for a senior management position on our African American outreach team with "I know what it's like to be a minority because I grew up as a liberal in a mostly Republican town." Barring that level of oblivious no one is going to fault you for shooting your shot and as they say, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. 

6) Be kind, to yourself and other people. We are coming off a cycle where you could make the argument that empathy was the biggest issue at play. And the good news is that broadly speaking, we won. I've heard this expressed a variety of different ways..."self care", "assuming best intentions", "radical hospitality" and I'm a big believer in all of the above. In a lot of ways I think this starts with not taking yourself too seriously. Because these jobs can become part of our identity when we don't feel respected professionally; because we are not getting the jobs we want, because other people are moving up more quickly than we are or because we don't feel like we're being heard and empowered at work it can be emotionally devastating. And sometimes that can result in us lashing out at ourselves or others. It's important to remember that there's a whole world at play that has nothing to do with you. Maybe that job wasn't for you. Maybe you're not getting the resources you want in your position because your boss has less leeway in making decisions than you think she does. I regret the times when I let my pride keep me from seeing the best in my coworkers and even more I regret the times when I let my pride keep me from believing in myself.  

So what other questions do you have? Happy to answer anything I am able to, especially here on the blog where it might help other people. For now, I hope this helped.

Campaign Love and Mine,

Nancy

From CampaignSick Kitchen to Yours: 5 easy recipes to power you through GOTV.

My Slack at work has a "cooking" channel and it reminded me that I have never posted my kale salad recipe, as I recently promised on Twitter. I also put out a call for recipes that organizers can make during GOTV and found that they landed in about 5 categories; salads, crock pot recipes, pasts with stuff in it sheet pan dinners, and hotdish/casserole. I got a lot of great suggestions and invite you to check out my Twitter feed for some of them, but because I am in the best position to recommend things I've tried before I am sharing my-go to recipes in each category .

I want to be clear, these recipes are for this particular moment. I'm not suggesting these can be made in a campaign office kitchen. I am assuming you are working from home so have access to a kitchen but maybe not a ton of time. The recipes I suggest below are among my go-to's. In order to qualify for this post a recipe had to 1) contain ingredients that can be found at almost any grocery store (or suggest a substitution) 2) be relatively healthy 3) be a complete meal in one dish and 4) do not require precise measurements and 5) take less than 20 minutes of active prep time. The aim here is simplicity- if I had to look up cooking time or ingredients it didn't make the cut. 

Try them and let me know what you think! From my kitchen to yours, campaign love and mine. 

Filling Salads

No shame in the bagged salad game. Especially when you dress it up with fresh tomatoes and grilled chicken. My recipe below is my favorite thing to make and eat and I often offer it at the end of a training because its as much value add as anything I have to say. 

Kale Salad (inspired by the Lincoln in DC)

The secret to a good kale salad is that you have to massage the dressing into the greens. Do not skip this step! 

Rip the leaves off a head of kale and place into a large bowl. Massage lemon juice and olive oil to taste into the kale. Warm about 3/4 cup of pine nuts in the microwave or toast them on the lowest setting. If you can't find pine nuts, crushed hazelnuts (as I used above_ or walnuts work as well. Dump about a half a cup of grated parmesan (def buy pre-grated, refrigerated) and about half a cup of dried unsweetened cranberries (you can substitute raisins) in the salad. Add your nuts once cooled. Mix and enjoy! 

Crock Pot

Mushroom Barley Soup

Slice an onion and carrot and add 16oz of presliced mushrooms to a skillet and saute in butter. Add to a crockpot along with with 6 cups of chicken broth, 1 cup of pearl barley. Season with salt and pepper. Cook on low for 6 hrs. 

Pasta and stuff

There were a lot of recipes that were like "make pasta and add stuff." This is adapted off a recipe from New York Times and I promise my version is better. It includes anchovies, which I think breaks my fancy ingredients rules, but you could substitute capers or briny olives if you can't get anchovies, don't care for them, or are a vegetarian. 

Better Midnight Pasta

Cook some linguine or whatever pasta you like. While that's happening, defrost some frozen peas in the microwave and chop some grape tomatoes in half. Chop up a tin of anchovies. Toast some bread crumbs in a toaster or on the stove. Drain cooked pasta and let cool for a minute. Add vegetables, anchovies and olive oil, lemon juice and parmesan to your desired level of sauciness. Top with breadcrumbs and another squeeze of lemon juice if desired. 

Sheet Pan Dinners

I like my salmon on the rare side but if you don't you will either want to leave yours in longer or up the temperature.

Teriyaki Salmon and Broccoli

Heat an oven to 375. Cover one salmon filet and bag of broccoli crowns from the store in store bought teriyaki sauce 

Hotdish 

Y'all didn't think I had lived in Minnesota this long without hotdish (extremely similar but ineffably distinct from casserole) coming to mind as a quick dinner staple did you? The following is a variation on my husband's favorite recipe growing up "Hall's Chicken" which after hearing about it 60 or so times I requested from his mother. In this version I add tater tots to make it more substantial and a true hotdish. While probably the least healthy combination on this list it is filling, keeps well in the fridge and pleases pretty much every crowd.

Hall's Chicken Hotdish

Preheat oven to 350

Cook about a 1lb package of boneless skinless chicken breast cut up into bite size chunks on the stove in some olive oil. Follow by cooking about an 8oz package of pre-sliced mushrooms.

While the chicken and mushrooms are cooking, mix a jar of salsa, a medium container of sour cream, and a can of cream of mushroom soup in a casserole dish. 

Mix the mushrooms and chicken in the salsa mixture. Cover the top with frozen tater tots and then top with a bag shredded cheddar and a can of sliced green olives. Bake for 45 mins. Top with sliced green onions if desired. 

Let me know if you try these!

Campaign Love and Mine,

Nancy

How to read a poll and what to ask your pollster!

Polling can be one of the most daunting adventures for a new campaign manager. Unlike mail or digital, depending on the department you came up through you may not have come in direct contact with a pollster's work before (although of course you have seen it at play!) I was lucky to have very patient consultants to guide me on my first couple of races, but in case you don't or you just want to seem prepared, I've asked a friend and former pollster to help you out!  It is a shame that he has requested to remain anonymous since he now works in another, "non-political" (I mean its not, is anything? but you feel me) industry because the below advice is so good. Enjoy! 

1) What does a pollster do?

Pollsters conduct surveys, focus groups, and alternative forms of market research on behalf of campaigns and other interested parties in order to help their clients figure out the best way to allocate resources both across and within campaigns. The work of pollsters is a key input into any campaign’s plan for success.

As a former pollster, I often get asked “Oh, so you’re the one that makes the calls?” In reality, almost all pollsters outsource the actual data collection to specialized firms. Pollsters are in charge of designing the survey instrument (writing the questions), selecting the sample structure (and back-end weighting), and producing data-based analysis to help the campaign and its other consultants decide on strategy and tactics.

2) When and why should candidates be polling or not be polling? What are polls good for and not good for?

Polls can be used to help campaigns in a range of different ways. The right nature (benchmark, tracker, brushfire, etc.), amount, timing, and frequency of polls for any given campaign can vary significantly based on strategy (and budget, of course!). Polls are all about informing what you do, so that you do it better. Polls don’t win votes. They inform actions that win votes.

Things polls are good for:

• Assessing the viability of a candidate
• Determining the right way to introduce a new candidate to the electorate
• High level messaging decisions (what to talk about)
• Nuanced messaging decisions (how to talk about it)
• Higher level targeting / understanding of which messages resonate with which voters and who is persuadable

Things polls are NOT good for:

• Detailed targeting (what age range of female voters in Region 3 is most persuadable?)
• Sample size generally doesn’t support this level of analysis
• Determining whether “positive” or “negative” messaging is more effective
• Idiosyncrasies of surveys can drive implications here, but best to avoid strong conclusions
• Identifying GOTV targets
• The sample is a likely electorate itself, and asking people if things make them want to vote / how excited they are to vote has some merit, but is not the best way to identify GOTVable demographics
• Getting to the “why” of public opinion
• Why is complicated. Pre-written response options with no time to reflect isn’t a great way to understand it,
• Deciding 2 weeks before an election that you have a big lead, will win anyway, and everyone can go home
• “Leading” in polls is not “leading” an election. You have no “lead” (nor vote deficit) until ballots are cast and there is time left on the scoreboard clock until polls close on election night…get to work!

3) What should I consider when bringing on a polling firm or consultant?

A few things to consider when choosing a pollster:

• Go with someone with experience in your state/district. Different geographies have polling quirks. Pick someone who has polled your state/district (ideally many times) and gotten it right.
• Ask about the methodology. As with many things, to do it right, polling has its commensurate costs (cell phone sampling, multi-lingual interviewers in certain districts, etc.). Understand the pricing offered by different firms and be willing to pay, but only for quality.
• Pick someone you’re willing to listen to. When interviewing, ask a pollster how they would handle a hypothetical situation or how they have handled past races. Make sure their approach is one that works for you. The best advisors are people who might bring different ideas to the table, while doing so in a way that you can understand and engage with in dialogue.
• Consider access and attention. The ideal consultant has the ears of high up powers-that-be (to help bring focus to your race) and also you have their ear anytime you call. Be mindful of any tradeoffs in that spectrum, depending on the profile of your race.
• Be mindful of the sales vs. execution handoff. If you pick a pollster based on someone whose name is on the shop door, be sure that person is involved! Reference checks can be helpful on this sort of thing. Chemistry is an important component of a working team relationship, so be sure before you hire a pollster, that you know who will actually be on the calls explaining the results to you!

4) What are the different types of polls? What circumstance are they useful in?

There are many reasons you could use different types of polls at different points in a campaign. Generally speaking, your first poll is the longest (a benchmark) and your last poll is the shortest (a tracker), but different campaign circumstances and budgets can inform any number of decisions along the way. Trust your pollster on what’s right here.

• Benchmark
• Determine viability
• Assess the best way to introduce your candidate
• Plan out your most effective messages
• Make a plan on geographies for media spend / ground resources
• Brushfire
• Assess impacts and nuances of new developments
• Tracker
• Inform tactical adjustments of spending based on where things have traction
• Refine views of persuadable universe

5) What are the main components of a poll?

Let’s take a classic benchmark as an example (other polls may skip much of the middle part of these)

• Introduction: The warm up to get respondents into a political mindset
• Initial Ballot Test: The first time the candidates get named
• Candidate Introductions and Informed Vote: Simulating what things will be like after exposure to each side’s first positive ads
• Messaging and Re-Ballots: Testing various lines of support/attack/defense
• Demographics

6) How do you interpret them?

Leave it to an ex-pollster to protect the industry, but…this is what you pay your pollster the big bucks for!

No question should be interpreted in a vacuum (nor should any poll). The best way to interpret the poll is to take it in its entirety, add it to your prior beliefs/knowledge of your situation, and then act on the combination of the two. The best person to refine your views of how that poll should play into your overall understanding is someone who has seen other recent similar data and can contextualize it appropriately in the current environment vs. years and years of prior experience (your pollster!). But enough of my Bayesian soapbox, a few things that I’m willing to make more general statements about:

• Significant movement between the Initial Ballot Test, the Informed Vote, and the Post-Message Votes can be meaningful and helpful in assessing viability and strategy; however don’t expect to see as much movement in reality unless you truly plaster the electorate with your ads!
• There are certain positive/negative messages that almost always get high “Very convincing” or “Major doubts” responses, but are not necessarily the best messages. These include any message where a respondent might feel like the “right answer” is to say that it’s a compelling message - be mindful of these (and…theme here…Trust your pollster’s experience!)
• Don’t make too much of the counter-intuitive results in the crosstabs - sample sizes can cause significant noise!

7) What are some basic terms someone should be familiar with (toplines, sample size etc) when trying to read and talk about a poll?

• Sample Size: The number of people who answered the poll and the sole ingredient in calculating “Margin of Error”
• Margin of Error: A statistical calculation of precision, based solely on sample size. Actual error includes systemic and execution components, so 
• Weighting: A statistical adjustment to raw survey data by which each respondent’s data is assigned greater/lesser influence on the total to appropriately correct for sampling variation
• Fielding Dates: The days that respondents were contacted to complete the questionnaire. Be wary of surveys with short field times (or that field over holidays), as calling people back is an important part of ensuring you get a good sample.
• Toplines: A report showing each question, potential response, and the percentage of the total that chose each response
• Crosstabs: A report showing how responses to questions vary by category (such as by for voters of different demographics)
• Party ID: How a respondent characterizes her/himself when asked
• Party Registration: A respondent’s party registration on the voter file (doesn’t exist in all states), which may determine eligibility to vote in a primary election

8) What questions should I be asking of my pollster/consulting team about our poll before it goes into the field?

As you approach finalizing a survey and fielding it, one of the best questions to ask your pollster is what they are seeing play well elsewhere. Your pollster is seeing races all across the country and your state, and their insights can help some of the best messages of the cycle pollinate across districts.

Along the same lines, as you are drafting, ask them what’s in your draft questionnaire that they’ve already seen a thousand times and works OK or not well. Cut those questions/messages, and then add others. It’s important not to let a survey get too long (it makes it hard to keep a representative sample’s attention and can impact the results). You may as well leverage your pollsters’ existing knowledge on those messages, and learn something new with your poll!

9) What questions should I be asking when I get a poll back for my candidate?

As a favor to all of my pollster friends, before the survey is done fielding, please don’t ask for partial results. They’re just not meaningful. There’s a reason that it takes time to field a survey, and a single night’s results are not informative, only leading to confusion when compared with final results.

As less of a favor to all of my pollster friends, don’t let your pollster just send you a data dump (even if they format it nicely!). When you get results back, ask for an executive summary of what is most meaningful from the pollster’s perspective. Too many pollster memos are full of statements like “Among Independents, Message X played better with Men (34% Very Convincing) than with Women (28% Very Convincing)”. That could be a junior team member simply putting crosstabs into prose (which may or may not be meaningful), or it could be a helpful insight into how to unlock the persuadable independent male vote - get the key takeaways from your pollster.

10) What should I be wary of, what questions should I be asking when looking at a poll that I didn't commission (who paid for this? Is this firm reputable? What is the sample, methodology etc)

Even pollsters with the best intentions can create misleading polls. A few things in particular to keep an eye out for:

• Sample/methodology: Look out for interactive voice response (IVR), opt-in online panels, and any methodology which doesn’t give everyone some chance of participating. 
• Demographic composition: Cross-check demographics against historical data / other surveys. Demographic variance from one pollster to another may give the false appearance of a “change in opinion”
• Question wording: Questions should be balanced and not lead respondents more to one answer than the other
• Question response options: Often the hottest media headlines on polls come from re-characterizing the options as presented to voters. For example, there are many ways to ask “Job Approval” (Excellent/good/fair/poor vs. Approve/disapprove)
• Question ordering: Respondents can easily be primed by prior questions. For example, a “most important issue” open ended question should be toward the very beginning of a survey (as otherwise people will be more inclined to say whatever they’ve just been asked about is most important)

11) I feel like a lot of campaigns under-utilize their pollster. Other than crafting and executing polls what else should I be asking of my polling team?

Of all of the consultants you retain, pollsters arguably have some of the best perspective beyond your district/state because they tend to work across a ton of campaigns at once. Too few campaigns pick pollsters’ brains on what messages are playing well and which demographics seem particularly persuadable/GOTVable in other races (you’re not alone!).

Additionally, consultants love to show off in each others’ territory. Fully looping your pollster in on media/mail drafting, etc. can make for added creativity (and also put the heat on your media consultants to bring their best)!

While pollsters only charge for polls, the good firms view themselves as full service consultants who are with you all the way through election day - no matter how you may need them. Don’t hesitate to ask!

12) Anything else you want us to know?

Congrats on making it this far down the interview. Given that you’re here, I’ll assume you’re into the weeds enough to hear me out on a couple of things I’d clear up on polling likely voters:

• Every election, there are many voters who show up who are “unlikely voters”. For every four voters with a 25% propensity to vote, one of them does! It’s important to reflect this fact in a poll, since these are some of the most persuadable voters out there (and GOTVable too!). A “likely voters” poll’s respondents should be a sample of the likely electorate - which is less homogenous and more persuadable of a universe than you’d get if you just called only “likely voters”
• Voters are terrible at predicting whether they will vote. Don’t rely on the difference between “Registered Voters” and “Likely Voters” in a public poll where the difference between the two groups is how they answer questions about how likely they are to vote.