The Campaign Workshop Blog

Political campaign operations consultant Claire Stein-Ross is the principal of CSR Operations, a consulting firm that helps organizations and political campaigns run more efficiently. During the 2018 election cycle, Claire served as the Operations Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s independent expenditure program. Her background includes five years of experience in Senator Martin Heinrich’s office, serving as a fundraiser for the Heinrich campaign, and conducting public opinion research at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. We chatted with Claire Stein-Ross about her approach to operations in the realm of campaigns and beyond.

At The Campaign Workshop, we will often get calls from folks who are thinking about starting up a political campaign for the first time but don’t know where to begin. To get a sense of where they’re at in the process and learn more about their race, I usually ask the same four questions and then try to give them some suggestions and tips. But too often, candidates won’t have the answers because, in many cases, they just didn’t know the questions.

I traveled to Manhattan in May to attend the Adobe 99U Design Conference. I had never attended this type of conference before, so I was concerned it could be very brand forward and salesy. Luckily, it was not. In fact, it wasn’t anything I expected at all. Speakers were very philosophical, and workshop sessions were inspirational rather than technical. To be honest, some of it went over my head, but that was the point. To get us creatives to look up and into the future.

Every year and every election cycle, we all have important decisions to make about which political campaign to throw our time and resources behind. Whether you’re looking for a full-time job on a campaign, or simply a volunteer opportunity, it’s important to be thoughtful and strategic about which political campaign you choose.

Getting your political direct mail out the door and into voters’ mailboxes can be a confusing process if it’s new to you (and frankly, even if it’s not so new to you). There are a lot of factors to wrap your brain around, such as the printer and the mail house to work with, the type of permit you can use to mail pieces, and the approval timeline you’ll have to meet to ensure your mail is arriving when it needs to.

Deno Seder is an expert in political advertising and crafting advocacy and political videos. He has worked with candidates across all levels of government, for various advocacy groups, and on ballot measure campaigns. From creating video ads urging voters not to cast a ballot for Donald Trump to aiding in the effort to ban Greyhound dog racing in Florida, Deno has a wide array of experiences in the political space.

Eric Schnure is a former speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore who has been a freelance writer and communications consultant for over 20 years. Eric has spent his career helping elected officials, business and nonprofit executives, and entertainers hone their public speaking. He is known for incorporating humor into his speechwriting which led him to cofound the Humor Cabinet, a communications consulting firm.

With platforms like Squarespace and WordPress, it’s become pretty easy for campaigns to set up their own political campaign websites. That being said, now that the average joe can build a website without a backend developer, it’s now harder for a website to be seen via organic search. Simply put, there’s a lot of crap out there that your site is competing with.

EveryAction offers a suite of digital, fundraising, and organizing tools for nonprofits all in one unified platform. In this 7 questions interview they talk about the exciting changes they are making to their platform in the new product roadmap and how nonprofits can better use digital tools to achieve their goals. 

When it comes to producing political direct mail, it’s crucial to vet your copy before any piece goes out the door to avoid mistakes. As people in my life dating back to the second grade can probably tell you, typos are the bane of my existence (everyone has their thing). Minor mistakes in writing can sometimes warrant a laugh or be just momentarily cringe-worthy. We’ve all made errors in our spelling or grammar in final products at one point or another—famous authors, New York Times columnists, teachers, bosses, Barack Obama—and the stakes aren’t always sky-high. On the opposite end of the consequences spectrum, in some instances, something as seemingly small as a missing hyphen can set you back $80 million (I’m looking at you, NASA).

Joshua Habursky is the Founder and Chairman of the Grassroots Professional Network (GPN), an organization that helps associations, corporations, and government agencies develop skills in the world of grassroots advocacy. Joshua is also an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management and specializes in advocacy communications. 

Lewis Granofsky is a successful and experienced political and grassroots organizer, and a partner at FieldWorks. He has extensive field experience managing ballot initiatives, community-based marketing programs, canvassing, and activist recruitment.

Whether you're running for city council or congress, hiring a skilled political campaign manager is an essential part of your electoral success. From brainstorming campaign strategies and managing budgets to prepping a candidate for public appearances, the political campaign manager is the backbone of every campaign.

Zvi Band is the co-founder and CEO of Contactually, a CRM that empowers professionals to build authentic and lasting relationships. Zvi is an engineer, an entrepreneur, a developer, and a strategist based in DC. He has been named a Washingtonian Tech Titan three times and has been featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post. Zvi Band's recently published book, Success Is in Your Sphere, dives into the importance of deepening the relationships within your network.

A question we are asked frequently is how a political campaign can assess if they have reached saturation with their digital program. As with lots of things digital, the answer isn’t totally cut and dry, but we have some tips for you to assess whether or not your political campaign is reaching saturation within your target audience.