By Otto
Banquets, strategy meetings and political information tables
were all part of DemoFest, Friday and Saturday. I went to this event on
Saturday afternoon.
One speaker I was impressed with was Thomas Witt,
who spoke at the Progressive Caucus. He has managed and helped manage the
campaigns of Kansas Democrats, such as Kansas Representative John
Carmichael.
"We need more aggressive campaigning," Witt told
the audience. "You need to take a stand on issues. And not; "I'm for
family—we're all for family. Tell us what you're going to do for the family.
You need to have details."
Witt made it clear he leaves nothing to chance. He goes
after every vote. He keeps all the data he collects and never throws it away.
He focuses on the marginal votes. That is where he said elections can be won.
He makes sure all those who agree to vote for his candidate actually do vote.
"I don't just hand them a pamphlet and walk away,"
Witt said on the subject of canvassing.
"I talk to them. They will throw a leaflet or letter away, but they
will talk to you about issues they are concerned about."
When asked by an audience member how to make use of the less
aggressive canvassing Witt said; "I don't do that. I either run an
aggressive campaign or I don't run one at all."
Another important point Witt made was to be honest and not
try to hide things. He said he worked on the campaign of Michael Puppo, who was
gay. He came right out and admitted he was gay and it didn't seem to matter to
the voters.
Another event I took part of at DemoFest was a group
discussing business & labor. The people in there discussed the damage Sam
Brownback is doing to the work ethic. With the destruction of unions, lack
of wages and benefits most people in that session said the incentive to get a
job and work hard at it are just not there. That also includes the attitude
that working people should pay more taxes than business people.
"People work better when they are happy," a man
said. "The economy is not going to pick up if most people hate their
jobs."
The also discussed the need for Democrats to work with the
Republicans and for unions to work with businesses.
The problem with the last discussion is that Republicans and
many business people just don't want to work with Democrats and unions. A lot
of us know we are in a dog vs. dog fight with the right-wingers.
We have to fight hard and for keeps.
A lot of people discussed polls that show support for Gov.
Brownback as low as 19% among Republicans. This is an opportunity to go after
those unpopular politicians who's popularity is low because of their
association with Brownback.
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