How do people get pcked for a paid position in a campaign?

[Hardrada]

I am mystified at how people are chosen for this. Or who it is that assigns them.
This is some real insider politics I don't understand. What role does the national Democratic party have in this? (I am speaking here of congressional campaigns in particular).

[Hippo_Tron]

1. Consultants pretty much work their way from the ground up

The more campaigns you work on (successful campaigns preferably) the higher up races you get to work on. Most people start with something like state legislature or city council races and then work their way up from there. The DNC doesn't assign people per se but I think they have a hand in recommending people for certain tier races.

There's also a difference between those who work on campaigns and who consult for the money. People who work full time on campaigns tend to be more involved and more dedicated to the cause (or seeking a job in government) whereas those who consult for the money tend to move from campaign to campaign to get paid.

[Bukowski Fan]

2. Yes and No

First off, I wouldn't say consultants are any less "dedicated to the cause" although it is true that they tend to juggle multiple campaigns, make more money, and appear to be less involved, although it's merely that their services aren't needed on a day-to-day basis.

Also, the DNC has pratically no say in who gets brought on board. They are more involved in what resources go where. The DCCC is responsible for hiring Congressional campaigns and the DSCC for Senate campaigns.

But it is important to note the difference between the consultants, the campaign workers, and the coordinated campaign, which all act in separate parts of campaign that overlap somewhat. I'm kinda struggling to put it in writing.

For the OP, the way most people get hired onto a campaign is by submitting their resume to the DCCC or DSCC or state party for local races. At all levels however, it is very incestuous and you have to know, or know someone who knows the right people.

If you're more interested, you can PM and I can tell you more about it or help you out if you want. If you haven't figured it out yet, it's what I do for a living.

[Hippo_Tron]

6. I meant to differentiate consultants from staff

And while less dedicated to the cause is probably not the term I should have used, staffers tend to be extremely loyal to a particular candidate whereas consultants do multiple campaigns as you mentioned.

The key difference is that consultants tend to do just campaigning and get paid more money. Staffers want jobs in government, especially on the presidential level.

[Hardrada]

8. It is all very interesting, and for the cause of history and sociology

deserves an independent study all its own. Thanks. I will PM you when I fram some more coherent questions for this is something that has been bothering and interesting me for years. I am only interested in this in an academic way because I would like to finally figure out how this works. It was all made perfectly opaque to me by the staffers I questioned last fall.

[MattSh]

3. K&R

Gladly K&R whenever someone wants to get involved.

[SCDem]

4. Congressional Campaign Managers

I know the our Congressman's last campaign manager was selected by the Congressman's Chief of Staff.

i'm not sure what at all the DNC had in it.

[cmd]

5. From my point of view

It's a combination of work from the ground up, a background in politcal science or communications and who you know. Paid campaign managers are sent where they will do the most good. If an incumbent or celebrity is running in a primary, they may get a campaign manager from one of the congressional committees. After the primary, the winning candidate will probably get a professional campaign manager. As the campaign gets more successful, more professionals (finance director, communications director, serious wannabes, etc.) are sent in. In the final weeks a campaign is flooded with puffed up interns who think they are the most important people who walked the earth.

My favorites are the ones who will walk into the phone bank and actually sit down and make a few calls. These are the ones who get my respect.

[Hardrada]

7. Are the professionals, the ones who get staff jobs in DC,

people who are from DC or who know someone on the DCCC? And what are the congressional committees you mention. I was trying to get some of this information from people in a recent congressional campaign here, some paid people and I got nowhere or was given contradicting information. I think all this process needs to be clarified because we never end up with anyone from our district on the campaign staff calling the shots and that just seems wrong. What do think?

[Bukowski Fan]

11. Couple things

I don't fully understand who you're refering to by the staff jobs in DC. One of the things that makes this process much more complex is that there are multiple positions on campaigns, in multiple departments filled by many different types of people who do a multiple amount of things after campaigns end and all this stuff overlaps.

I'll take your last question first.

The reason no one from your district is "on the campaign staff calling the shots" is, quite frankly, because you don't know what you're doing. I've worked on 6 campaigns in 5 years and I still don't know what I'm doing. Running a campaign is just a little harder than driving a semi, blindfolded down a curvy road while doing calculus in your head. That being said, it is critical to a campaign to have locals on it in a volunteer capacity to help spread the message. It is invaluable for neighbors to talk to neighbors about the candidate and so forth. But campaigns are run in an extremely heirarchial fashion and there are very set plans dictated from the very top down. Good campaigns usually have a field department which can aggregate local concerns up to the top, but very rarely, I'm willing to say never, is a local Democratic Party official ever "calling the shots".

There are usually 3 separate, yet equally important, parts of a campaign.

Finance - They raise the money
Communications - They help create and disseminate the message through mass media
Field - They're the "boots on the ground", running voter contact (phone calls, canvassing) and ultimately, running the GOTV

There are also smaller positions which are usually filled by one person.

IT - They run the databases and make sure all that technogizmo stuff works right
Opposition Research - They see what the opposition is saying, dig up dirt, track the other candidate(s)
Office Manager - They run the office
Legal - Is this getting self explanatory yet??

Outside of this, are the consultants, who consult on whatever their specialty is. That usually encompasses people for all 3 departments I listed up top.

As I said before, everyone comes onto a campaign in a different way, and goes on to something different. Some people are professional campaign hands who work a campaign, then move back to DC and bartend until the next one. Others are recent college grads looking for an "in" for a job on the Hill. Some are taking a break before law school, some are taking a break after law school. It all depends. The life is complicated, it is difficult to really convey how it works to someone who has not experienced it. I have a very hard time telling my girlfriend why I'm not working for months at a time, and then will one day get a phone call, move across the country, and work for 9 straight months, 100 hours a week.

I hope this has at least answered some of your questions. I would like more people to understand how much time, committment and energy goes into these campaigns and how truly dedicated and sacrificial the people who work on them are. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[Hardrada]

13. I imagine it would be hard work with difficult hours.

I was thinking of field people, I guess. Some of them I know have since gotten jobs as scheduler for a congressman, etc. A nice job on the hill.That was the "staff job" I was referring to. It can't be that easy though to get an "In" for such a position. I'm sure it would be complicated if one is trying to coordinate a lot of people's activities. I still am not clear as to what an entry level position is in these savage campaigns of peace. I don't remember any recruiters for this coming around any Iowa campuses.

[Bukowski Fan]

14. You actually just brought up my biggest gripe about our Party

There is no recruitment. People get hired onto campaigns largely by simply sending in their resume to the DCCC, which coordinates all congressional campaigns. An entry level position depends on how much how much schooling you have and how big the campaign you're working on is.

I truly believe the largest thing holding back our party is the lack of recruitment. Most people find their ways onto campaigns largely by accident. Republicans have recruitment down to a science. They get you right out of the Young Republicans club in college, set you up in a think tank. They even have all the interns there room together in a sort of dormitory they get for them in DC. This facilitates the networking that happens later when these people are working together. That's a big part of the reason you see so much of the cronyism in the Republican party, these people have known each other since they were rooming together while interns at AEI or whatever.

But, as a short answer to your question, most people get brought on to a congressional campaign by sending their resume to the DCCC. The DCCC runs trainings for the different positions on the campaign and then ships you out the next cycle to wherever.

[Hardrada]

15. That satisfies some of my curiousity. I knew the DCCC plays

a significant role in this and, of course, there is a senatorial counterpart. There is a signicant problem in Iowa also because, once again, it is perfectly not obvious to me as to who gets the state staff jobs in Des Moines. Now here it might be a bit of cronyism for the same people have been working there way up the system for twenty or thirty years now and they began as campaign advisors. You rarely hear of anyone new in the structure. One person who was an apparatchik in the GOP governor's days was appointed to another high post by former Governor Vilsack. My point is that this sort of thing discourages political involvement by younger folks because, perhaps, they would rock the boat and oust some old-timers so they are not encouraged and drift away. The average age of people at our county caucuses has to be about 60 or so. Maybe the state level is worse than the national level.

[UTUSN]

9. Related question: If Tweety declares he is FOR Rudy, shouldn't he have to register somewhere?

Here he has been declaring that Saint Rudy is the man for the job. Previously he has beaten the drum for McCAIN. This is same as being a lobbyist. Perhaps UNpaid (perhaps NOT). Why should he have 5 hours per week of propagandizing while using the guise of being a "reporter" or even a "pundit"?

[Hardrada]

10. That's a good point.

Does he want some cabinet position or something like that.

[gratuitous]

12. First, you have to be vetted by the Catholic League

William Donohue is the gatekeeper for anyone hired by any campaign anywhere, and he can change his mind whenever he wants, such that someone can be hired today and everything will be fine, and he can decide tomorrow that they should be fired, and if the candidate doesn't do so, there will be hell to pay.

Okay, not really, but you'd be surprised at the number of people who think this way . . .