Convention to launch grass-roots campaignDemocrats will conduct 100 training seminars during next week's convention in Boston to instruct delegates and activists how to run campaigns, raise money, and mobilize voters, in what planners are billing as the largest effort ever to transform the energy of the party's convention into a victory in the fall.
Using well-known strategists such as James Carville and Donna Brazile, the four-day program is aimed at recruiting and training campaign-season volunteers in the hope of matching similarly extensive grass-roots efforts by the Republican Party, which has poured enormous resources and energy into political organizing in recent years. "We all know this election will be very close and competitive, and without providing our activists and leaders with the tools they need, they will not be able to take on the challenge of defeating Republicans on the ground," said Brazile. "The Bush campaign has really put together one of the most remarkable ground teams I've seen in many years, but Democrats have written the book on grass-roots politics, so there is no stealing this chapter from us." The effort, to be announced today at a news conference in Washington, is expected to attract 3,000 delegates and volunteers to the sessions during convention week. There will also be training sessions for younger activists, aged 17 to 35, this weekend. That program will end with a party at the Avalon nightclub Sunday night called "The Jumpoff." Bill Clinton, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and celebrities are expected to attend. Postpunk band Mission of Burma is scheduled to perform. "This is the largest convention training in the history of the party, so we're really setting a precedent here," said Simone Ward, executive director of Democratic GAIN, an association of Democratic operatives from environmental, women's rights, and labor groups. Organized by Democratic GAIN, the program will offer training sessions with such titles as "Road Map to Victory: Campaign Planning and Budget," "It's Party Time: Crowd Building As an Organizational Tool," "Every Voice Counts: Mobilizing New Voters," and "Fear Factor: Campaign Finance 101." "We want people to walk away [from this convention] with an opportunity where not only are people having a good time, but they're also doing substantive work as well," Ward said. "We can take advantage of the fact that people are coming across the country from all different walks of life, and we can teach them to raise money, get out the vote, use new technology, to make sure progressive operatives are on the same page." Delegates and other activists will also be trained to speak to the press for Democratic candidates, and, since presumptive presidential nominee John F. Kerry is a Vietnam veteran, there will also be special media training sessions for veterans. Democrats are also possessed with new urgency in this year's election cycle, smarting from the razor-thin margins between George W. Bush and then-Vice President Al Gore in key states in 2000. The GOP, also keenly aware of the small electoral margins of the last presidential cycle, has been putting enormous energy into old-fashioned political organizing since then. The GOP is using new technology to keep track of and motivate likely voters and volunteers, creating a corporate-type volunteer organization, and holding sessions all over the country to teach GOP volunteers how to approach their neighbors and recruit support. Party funds pay for "72 Hour" training sessions, which show volunteers how to mobilize voters in the last three days of the campaign. "We've stepped it up," said Yier Shi, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. "We realize how close this election is going to be [because of] 2000, and we have mobilized in a lot of key states. We've stepped up the effort, we've done a lot of training, and we've done a lot of organizing so far, and when the 72-hour [mark] comes, we'll get our votes." The Republican Party, unlike the Democrats, is supported by few ready-made organizing machines like the labor unions, and has been targeting wards and precincts in battleground states for several years. "Around this area, Republicans got a head start on organizing, and the Democrats have just kicked into gear," said Susan MacManus, professor of political science at the University of South Florida, Tampa. "Republicans are having their 72-hour training sessions already, teaching people how to go door to door, how to approach their neighbors, how to approach somebody you work with. This election is back to basics in terms of getting out the vote." In 2000, Florida was famously contested. Out of 6.1 million ballots cast there, Bush's margin of victory was just 537 votes. Gore won New Mexico by 366 votes, out of 616,000 ballots cast. Organizers hope the memory of those results will make delegates more willing than usual to work hard during this year's convention. Typically, the official events at conventions are evening affairs, and mornings are often spent sightseeing and nursing hangovers. But this year's training sessions will start at 10 a.m. Ward said Democrats are so eager to defeat Bush in November that they will work harder than they usually do at this convention.
"This is not your typical convention," she said. "People definitely are coming to be hung over, but they are also coming to be part of something substantive. We've had an overwhelming response from people. They're having a good time, but they're also interested in doing good things." © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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