grassroots solutions began working with the Al Franken for Senate campaign around Labor Day 2008 (for the critical final two months) and stayed engaged through the recount efforts. We were proud to partner with an incredible staff, consultant and DFL team on the closest U.S. Senate win in Minnesota history.
grassroots solutions helped strategically reorient and expand the field and political programs focusing attention on softer Democratic and Obama voters. In just eight weeks, we helped the campaign dramatically expand its political outreach and organizing capacity in an election where literally every vote mattered.
In the historic statewide recount that followed, grassroots solutions helped design the overall field strategy and structure, oversaw the training of all recount volunteers, and helped develop a real-time ballot tracking system that aided the legal strategy.
Dan Cramer, co-founder of grassroots solutions, was in the thick of it all during the critical last two months of the campaign. Here’s an insider’s view of what it was like on the campaign trail. Scroll down to view Dan’s interviews about the campaign and the recount that followed.
Franken Journal – Week of September 10, 2008
Day one. Rally at Neighborhood House with Dave Wellstone – well organized and well attended, with lots of media. Two big problems: We need to make the campaign even bigger really fast. And we have to narrow the “Obama gap” – he is winning big but we are neck and neck, which means we need to get more of his supporters including more Democrats. Meeting with political director and DFL leadership to get lay of land and guidance on how we get bigger, faster.
Week of September 16, 2008
Seven weeks left. Getting a sense of the campaign. The war-room is nuts with Eric, Andy, Jess and Matt, some short guy with long hair who shaved his beard to great acclaim, and a bunch of others whose names I don’t know. They’re sawing through Eric’s desk which kills me. The finance operation kicks unbelievable ass and the political shop has done some heavy lifting but needs to be lots bigger given how close this thing is. Stephanie started 7:30 consultant calls every day – ugh – at least the consultant team is great. Diane and Mandy did Paul’s races and Saul knows Minnesota.
Week of September 23, 2008
Six weeks left. Rolling out major expansion – “It’s Franken Time.” Adding some new political staff including superstars like Ben Goldfarb, Alana Petersen, Luchelle Stevens, and Peggy Flanagan. Now we have much greater presence with labor, issue organizing, Native Americans, etc. We also now have a big, staffed surrogate program that I think will work but am not 100% sure – could crash and burn. Gotta close that Obama gap.
Week of October 7, 2008
Four weeks left – drinking too much damn Diet Coke again but trying to wave off pizza. Big staff party with all campaign and DFL staff and Al and Franni – great feel. Partnership with DFL could not be better and they have a strong coordinated staff in place. Sense that we are gaining a little traction with base (at least constituency leaders) and winding down our undecided chase program to focus more on base expansion and the Obama gap. They started calling me “Half-Day Cramer” because I left at 8:30 one night.
Week of October 21, 2008
Two weeks to go. Kicked off bus tour but lost the bus – don’t want to talk about it. GOTV coming together but beginning to get worried about the number of volunteers we need and have. Keep watching Barkley move up and down in nightly tracking, which shows how key the base is – if we get enough D’s we win; if we stay at 70-75% D support, it’ll be really, really close.
Week of October 28
One week left. Bus tour is going great – crowds much bigger than expected, especially on campuses (plus we got more people at Carleton than St. Olaf, which is always a bonus). Feels good in the field but getting even more vicious on the air with all of this Kazeminy stuff and the back and forth. Really hard strategic questions. Great turnout for Midnight Madness the night before election day. Sent the Communications Director out and he referred to lit dropping as “cutting turf” – hysterical. Here we go.
Election Night 2:00 – 3:00 a.m.
Looks like we are headed for a recount for sure – unbelievable. Been in the war-room all night, which was really strange because it was the same room Mondale was in six years ago. 80 or so precincts still out and around 40 are Duluth, which is good for us, but still some Maple Grove and other places which are not good. Andy says we will be up 500 or down 250 or so. Did a call with all DFL staff; we are ready for the first canvasses that start right away. One of the smartest things Stephanie did was assign a recount team weeks ago. We’re as ready as we can be but we are all just god awful tired.
Week of November 11 (Election Day + One week and counting)
Unbelievable – we’re a bigger campaign today than on election day. Just back from NYC where I went for a day – came back and found myself in charge of all recount training. Need to work with the lawyers on the curriculum and who trains. Then we need to train the trainers, and this all has to happen in the next 24-36 hours because the trainings start Saturday. Most of the staff pulled an all-nighter Friday but I got some sleep – did five trainings in the Twin Cities myself, then Duluth, Grand Rapids, Morehead, and one other but can’t remember where. We’re ready and Andy has been working with JD on the tracking stuff – when the counting starts we’ll know where we stand.
To see an in-depth interview with Dan about the campaign and the recount, be sure to become a fan of grassroots solutions on Facebook, or you can check it on the grassroots solutions