mrsuper.org

Thank You

Thanks to everyone for reading and contributing to the blog over the past three months.  Today marks the 90th day of this project.  Seems that in this time we've managed to make an impression which sheds light on and debunks myth regarding the process.

Almost as soon as I started this blog, I also started writing guest posts for Democratic Convention Watch, and on Monday I'll join that page as a regular contributor.  So you can still read insights, you'll just have to venture over to that page in order to do so.  It's a great site and the style of writing and delivery by the guys over there is very similar to what you've all grown used to over here.

There are a few posts that I wanted to write here which I'll take over to DCW, such as an insight as to what it's like to be a campaign staffer and live on the road, filling out a presidential cabinet, and of course the Friday veepstakes column.

But as of today, Friday the 13th serves as a  bookend to the Superdelegate phase of the site.

This site will remain running, but I will only post intermittently.  From time to time I'll pop in and post a unique thought or two, and I'll post Open Threads for people to continue the conversation on this site.  And after the election, when I have more time on my hands again, maybe the site will evolve into something new at that time.

 

A Tribute to Tim Russert, RIP

Tim Russert, the longest running host in the history of Meet the Press on NBC, has died at the age of 58.  I had the chance to meet him twice over the years, once during the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, and again during the Nevada Presidential Debates last January.  Both times he was genuine, very engaging and just one of the nicest, most professional people you'd ever met.  A solid news man.  He will be missed.

Here is a link to Tom Brokaw breaking the news on NBC.

Things That I Will and Will Not Miss

T-minus one day and counting before the blog transitions into another form...

This has been an exciting primary season.  Full of twists and turns, surprises and suspense.  Everything a good story should have.  During the writer's strike, a buddy of mine said that the best reality show on television was "The Amazing Presidential Race."

So now that the primary season is winding down, and looking back at the past five months, I've been thinking about things that I will and will not miss from the process.  I may add to this over time...

Things I will miss:

1. Hearing from people all over America, those involved in politics, voters and readers of this blog. It's been refreshing.  Even the mass e-mails and hand-written letters have been great.
2. Having a front-row seat to an historic round of presidential primaries.
3. Working with the media, I admit, has been exciting.

Things I will NOT miss:

1. Certain media blaming Superdelegates for holding up the process by not declaring while other certain media blame Superdelegates for interfering in the process by declaring.
2. The accusation that the "big bad Superdelegates" are a bunch of backroom deal makers inserted into the process only for personal gain
3. Reporters STILL talking about Supers as elites and solely member of Congress and dismissing the notion that most of us are in fact grassroots activists.

Like I said, will probably add more as the thoughts occur...

Lobbying of Supers - Part 4 of 4

Pre-endorsement: I made the decision to endorse shortly after Perdue's primary election on May 6th.  A day after the election, I flew up to New York for some media work with CNN, and while I was crossing one of the bridges from La Guardia I got a call from Governor Richardson by phone from Mexico (old Mexico, not New Mexico).  We chatted about the race, and I decided I would endorse Senator Obama in the near future.  On the morning of Friday, May 9th, I called my contact at the Obama campaign to let them know that that I would be endorsing on Monday.  The response was something along the lines of "we need you now, man."  So I was set to endorse on that day.  But I told them I had some work to do first.

Being from Southern California, the LA Times had asked to break the story first.  So I had to call them and give them the go-ahead (this was common for all Supers around the country - their local papers wanted to break the news first, and in most cases they did).  The next three calls I made were to the Clinton campaign, two of them were people I had worked with the most and the other was a man whom I had just spoke to the night before.  It would be about an hour before the news broke, but it had already leaked to some folks I know.  I received a few text messages right away.

Announcement: The announcement came on a day when 8 other Supers endorsed, which I believe was the biggest swell of endorsements with the exception of June 4th.

But the lobbying continued on the Clinton side.  Not long after I endorsed Senator Obama, I started getting hand-written letters and emails from people all around the country.  Some were very nice, some were angry - a few contained threats.  About 700 pieces of mail in all.  To be honest, the most off-putting part of all of this was that the campaign had distributed my personal email address, not my public address, to these masses.  So much for spam control.

I'm sure there are some things that I am forgetting, but that's pretty much the major sum of the story of the lobbying and how this particular endorsement came along.

Even through this morning, June 11th, I am still getting email from activists encouraging me to switch my vote.  Clearly these are folks who are either on the fringe or who are so truly endeared to their candidate that they feel a need to continue to push, but even Clinton is supporting Obama now.  So, that's that.

Last in a series of four.

Lobbying of Supers - Part 3 of 4

Post Pennsylvania: The line went quite for a while, but really picked up again after the Pennsylvania primary and leading up to the North Carolina/Indiana primaries.  Both campaigns started calling and emailing on a regular basis, asking what issues I cared about, if I wanted to meet anyone, etc.

As I mentioned, I was working for Bev Perdue in North Carolina at the time.  On one occasion, we learned that Bill Clinton was going to be in the city of New Bern on the same day as Bev Perdue.  We knew that if the candidates were in New Bern at the same time, there was no way that the media was going to cover Perdue - they would flock to Clinton.  But the Clinton campaign was not letting people know what time the President would be in town.

So I figured that, as an undeclared Super, they'd surely tell me! So I got a hold of one of my contacts on the Clinton campaign, told them that I heard Clinton would be in New Bern and I wondered if they could tell me what time.  About a day later I get a call back and not only do I find out when he'll be there, but I'm set up to meet with him on the airplane when he arrives!  More than I had bargained for, and New Bern is a hike from Raleigh which made it impossible for me to get there during the work day.  But the important thing was the the President was arriving at 2:30, Bev was to be out there at 11:00 - so we were all clear on the media end of things.

Post North Carolina: May 6th was not a good day for the Clinton campaign.  A big loss in North Carolina and a razor-thin victory in Indiana did not make a good case for the campaign.  I received several calls from both campaigns.  The Clinton campaign in particular had several folks from the Latino outreach desk call me and make pitches, ask if I was ready to endorse, and asked if I would be comfortable waiting to watch future primaries unfold - they were obviously banking on West Virginia, Kentucky and Puerto Rico returns.

I told both campaigns that when I was ready to announce a decision, they would hear it from me before they would hear it from anyone else.

Long time United Farm Worker leader Dolores Huerta called to try and persuade me to vote for Clinton.  She made her case, it was a good one.  I told her I'd be making a decision in the next few days.

Third in a series of four.

Lobbying of Supers - Part 2 of 4

February - March, 2008: After Super Tuesday and as the race heated up, so did the lobbying.  The added emphasis on Supers at this time had some campaigns employing more creative techniques to reach Superdelegates.  This was the first sign of hysteria around Supers. Cable news was running amok with the issue and painting a picture that was just not accurate.  Around this time I wrote an Op-Ed for Politico which attempted to calm the hysteria around the issue of Superdelegates.

Some Supers got calls from the candidates themselves (I never spoke to either of them on the phone, though Senator Clinton did sit down the California DNC delegation twice in 2007).  Some got calls from Chelsea Clinton and Michelle Obama.

This also was, pardon my French, the starfucking phase of the lobbying.  Calls from celebrities, and Senators who had endorsed each candidate started rolling in.  Some Supers really enjoyed this, though it wasn't for me.  I told each campaign that these calls wouldn't sway me - I'd rather speak to the staff.  Though I have to be honest, had a call from Terry McAuliffe or Harold Ickes come my way, it probably would have been persuasive.  I worked under Ickes at America Coming Together in 2004, and have an immense amount of respect for Terry McAuliffe.  Everyone needs to read his book, What a Party!

After my work on the last debate, I remained uncommitted.  I was gearing up to go to work for Bev Perdue who was running for Governor of North Carolina.  I told the campaigns that I wasn't going to endorse while I had that job - I didn't want my politics to get in the way of my candidate's politics.

The Clinton campaign always worked the phones on election night. First on the night of Feb. 5th (Super Tuesday), then again on March 4th (Texas and Ohio), then again on April 22nd (Pennsylvania).  I probably got about four calls on each of those nights from the Clinton camp. Not surprisingly, those were also nights when Clinton experienced big wins.  I heard more from the Obama people during the month of February when there was a string of victories (I think it was 11 in a row).

I got a call from one of my contacts at the Obama campaign on the night of the Potomac primary (VA-DC-MD). I was in DC that night heading out to meet Sean Sinclair, one of the guys I work with quite a bit on campaigns, to talk dinner and politics while watching returns. There was an ice storm taking place and I had already slipped on the ice once, but I figured that the hiking boots I was wearing would hold firm the rest of the night.

While walking to the metro, I got a call from the Obama campaign and we were talking about the race, my upcoming job with the Perdue campaign in North Carolina, and then *WHAM* I slipped on the ice.  Fell back 90 degrees and landed flat on my ass, hit my head.  My phone slid about 10 feet away on the ice.  I sat there for a good two minutes trying to regain my composure, but also trying to get up from the ice (t'was very slippery).  I called the Obama campaign back, they answered "WTF you ok?"  For the next few weeks after that, whenever I got a call from the Obama campaign, I had an immediate  neuro-association with that smack in the head. 

During this time I also spoke to other Supers, one conversation in March with an elderly DNC member and Clinton supporter from California which turned especially sour.  I was stunned.  The only way I can describe it is that my DNC colleague verbally skinned me for not endorsing Clinton, or for at least not calling this person to let her know that I would not be endorsing during a given period.  She threw the kitchen sink at me, said that everything I had done in my 12 years of activism and professional work was being undermined by not endorsing, and for not running the decision through her first.  I was speechless.  I kept my cool, told her I would be in touch.

Arm-twisting through surrogates was actually common.  It happened quite a bit. It wasn't always as egregious as the example outlined above, but it could get rough.  After all we are dealing with the most powerful office in the world here.

Second in a series of four.

Lobbying of Supers - Part 1 of 4

A few weeks back someone asked if I could shed a little light on the lobbying of Supers.  This isn't really timely anymore, but still may be of interest.

This is a long entry, so I've broken it up into four posts.  There are some stories in here I haven't talked about, both good and bad, funny and sad.  Take a look.  I've broken up the lobbying into different parts of the campaign.

A few things right off the bat: Supers were not given gifts, no promises of employment were made, and no trades for campaign contributions were explored.  These are all myths that circulated in the media and all of which are part-and-parcel untrue.

2007: All presidential campaigns sent mail to Supers, but only Clinton and Obama had staff assigned for outreach.  Most of it was not based on persuasion, but on relationship building.  The Obama camp had the strongest efforts of outreach in 2007.

January, 2008: The heat started to turn up on Supers right after Iowa and especially right after New Hampshire.  My perception on this is probably skewed, though, because I was on staff with Bill Richardson and once he dropped out of the race (after New Hampshire) my Super vote was up for grabs and I started getting more calls.

After BR dropped out on Jan. 10th, I went to work on the MSNBC debate in Las Vegas which was to take place a few days prior to the Nevada caucus.  I'm on stage at the auditorium sitting in for John Edwards at the debate table, so that they can adjust the lighting on his desk position.  So I'm sitting there, with a spotlight on me, and I get a call from a (212) area code number.  I answer and the voice at the other end says "please hold for President Clinton."

I chat with him for about 10 minutes, which, when you have a President on the line, feels like an hour.  It was impressive (and maybe a little concerning) that he had the book on me.  I mean they really did their research.  First, the President thanked me for my work as a Democratic Party staffer on his re-election campaign in 1996.  Very nice.  Then he went on talk about how well he knows Bill Richardson and all of the good work they did together in his administration, and that he and Hillary have always worked hard to reach out to the Hispanic community.  Also very nice.

Then he thanked me for my work as an Intern in the House and the Senate.  WTF the guy had my intern profile?!  From like the early 90's?!  That's impressive.  And oh it gets better.  Not only did he know I interned for Tom Daschle in DC and Rep. Jane Harman in Southern California, but he said, in classic Clintonian graciousness (paraphrasing), "I really want to thank you for working with Jane to push that budget through in 1993.  I know you were probably just answering phones for her, but that was really important."  Holy shit this guy is smooth.

It was extremely flattering and as I've stated before it is very hard to tell the former leader of the free world "I'll have to get back to you."

Around this time the Obama calls started coming in as well, mostly from my counterparts on the Nevada campaign.  But I was scheduled to finish out the MSNBC debate in Las Vegas and then I was volunteering to work the following Politico.com debate in Los Angeles, so felt that in order to maintain fairness in the process that I would have to remain neutral.\

First in a series of four.

Remaining Posts

When I'm taking note of things to write about, it's usually about things not addressed in the MSM.  I'll make a draft post of the idea and write on it at length as I have time or as the subject becomes more relevant.  During the primaries, Sundays were a day when I would log most of my thoughts and I'd let them trickle out during the week.

My daily news sources revolve around the LA Times, the New York Times, the Washington Post and Politico, as well as a few blogs.  I also check the BBC from time to time, just to see what the Brits are saying.  A lot of the posts have been based on insight, but also based on conversations with other Superdelegates, people I know who work for the Democratic alphabet groups, people who work in campaigns, Capitol Hill staffers and even a few reporters who I got to know fairly well.

Looking into these drafts, there are a number that may not be timely anymore but that I'd like to write and expand upon in the remaining days of the blog.  The posts include insight on what life is like for campaign staffers living on the road, the lobbying process of Supers, why early primary states matter, filling a presidential cabinet, and a section called "things I will and will not miss about the Superdelegate campaign." 

Should be interesting stuff (well, to me anyway)! :P

I'll see if I can write the first of these remaining posts later today.

The Future of MrSuper.org

I put this blog up as a project in March, something to give the public insight into the process of the Democratic nomination for President and especially to debunk myths about Superdelegates.  But we're at the end of that process now.

Dare I say "Mission Accomplished."

The blog started off with a strict adherence to the issue of Superdelegates, though the subject matter has begun to stray of late only because that issue is pretty much moot at this point.  I don't write breaking news stories (I've had several news tips that I've sent to other sites) as much as I try to stay true to providing insight on things that are being talked about.  The page has evolved into one which provides "inside perspective for an outside readership" which appears to fill a void out there, and in fact I've taken some criticism for it.

I hate the domain name, but I knew that if the messages on this page were going to get out, that there would need to be a retail element to the branding.  If things do move forward, the name will definitely change!

As to what happens next, who knows?  I had planned on taking the blog down next Friday - which marks three months of writing.  Though the readership and traffic are still good - nearly a quarter million over three months - and I do appreciate everyone's feedback.  As of this writing, there have been 174 posts with 2,439 comments made.  But I have to be honest - putting up a quality blog is more work than I had bargained for!

So we'll see where it goes.  There are plenty of things to cover still, the VP race, the conventions, the general elections, the polls, etc.  If you have thoughts or ideas of where the blog should go next, please drop me a note at MrSuper2008 -at- yahoo dot com.

But as for now, the 7-day countdown clock is still ticking...

(Three in a series of three "The Future Of..." posts this week).

The Future of Superdelegates

Now that we've seen the process unfold, this subject will no doubt require thought, conversation and examination in the near future.  Ideally, we won't need to test this issue until the 2016 primaries after Barack Obama has concluded eight glorious years as President.  But still, let's strike while the iron is hot and look into this now.

Any proposed rule change must be voted on by DNC members, and as you know we are all Superdelegates (and contrary to the New York Times reporting, it's DNC members - not members of Congress - who represent the largest well of Supers at a tad over 50%).  And keep in mind that the idea of Superdelegates is not unique to the Democratic Party, the Republicans have them as well.

We'll probably see a commission put together to examine the process.  The commission will probably cover the topic of the early states nominating window again as well the overall presidential calendar.

Which ways should the Party deal with the issue of Superdelegates?

Some ideas to get us started:

• Reduce Superdelegate influence by cutting everyone's vote in half (ha ha)
• Remove members of Congress, Senators and Governors from the pool (they were the last ones to endorse and most of them did not revel in the notion of publicly declaring)
• Allocate votes from Supers as bonus delegates to candidates who win the majority of votes in a state
• Cage fighting match between Superdelegates supporting opposing candidates, winner gets the vote
• Leave the system as-is
• Eliminate Supers altogether

The last idea will probably be the most popular, but also the least likely to occur.  That said, let's have at it...I know you've got thoughts on the subject.

(One in a series of three "The Future Of..." posts this week).