Barackface

Monday, May 31, 2010

My Political Resume, Reshma 2010, And September 14

The United States Congress approves federal fu...

Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Summer officially begins. I don't know about you but I like it warm better than I like it cold.

I am not exactly taking my time to decide if I want to go work full time for Reshma 2010 or not. Right now I don't have the option: Immigration Status. But my work papers should arrive soon.

I moved to the city summer of 2005 to launch my company but got sucked into working for Nepal's democracy and social justice movements full time for the better part of two years. That was a lot of eating into savings. Throwing a dictator off is way more challenging than winning a Congressional race in the US. In a democracy movement, people die, for one.

All I know is I am on the cusp of deciding to do it. I don't need much convincing. This is a historic race: the first Indian American woman ever to run for Congress. The campaign is not in top shape, and I have the option to try and make a difference. The machine is behind the opponent. That makes it even more fun.

Tomorrow I am planning on dropping by the campaign offices: 833 Broadway. I was there for the first time for the tech panel discussion event with Al Wenger and others. I have not been back since. I have stuck to the canvassing.

What Are You Doing Monday? Come Meet Al Wenger (technbiz.blogspot.com)

I think Reshma 2010 will be a great thing for me to do for three and a half months. I have toyed with a few different options. I could just keep being a dedicated volunteer. I could go do it for a month. But doing it to September 14 makes a lot of sense.

I have an impressive political resume.

Both sides of my family were political. I was born in India, grew up in Nepal. My grandfather was headman of the village for 15 years. He was sitting down for dinner and a group of men from the neighboring village came over, barged in, lifted him up, and the celebrations began. A committee of sorts had decided on his name. He was completely unawares. I was there. My father ran for parliament later. He lost. My mother's cousin was Education Minister for Bihar, the second most populous state in India with as many people as there are in France, for much of the 1990s. Laloo Yadav was Chief Minister. More recently Laloo was India's Railway Minister. The CEO of General Electric called him the best Railway Minister in the world. I am half Bihari.

I was House Captain in Class 5 and Class 10, and in Class 12 the school authorities had to offer me the office of School Captain against their desires for being the obvious candidate. All that was at the top school in Kathmandu.

After high school I was Vice General Secretary to a political party in Nepal that had two MPs. A central committee member of that party from that time is currently a cabinet minister in Nepal.

At college in Kentucky I ran for Freshman Class President and everyone else got more votes than me. Five months later I got myself elected student body president. Everybody who had ever been somebody in the SGA had run. I won by three votes.

I was a Deaniac in 2004 in Indiana. And I was one of Obama's earliest people in NYC.

Long Walk To Freedom: Just A Third World Guy Dazzled By The City April 2007
Long Walk To Freedom May 2007
Barack Has To Talk Much About His Mother
Barack's Mother Makes An Appearance
Give Me A Huge Rally In This City Before Summer Is Over September 2007
The Largest Rally In US Presidential Campaign History September 2007

I was the only Nepali in America to have worked full time for the democracy movement in Nepal a few years back. (The First Major Revolution Of The 21st Century Happened In Nepal)

Janakpur Rally, Biggest In Nepal Since 1990 January 2006
"Robin Hood Im Internet" February 2006

I think I would want the title of Director. There is the candidate. And she sits atop the campaign organization structure. Then there is the Campaign Manager and the Director. The Campaign Manager is the formal head of the organization, makes sure the trains are running on time. The Director works in partnership with the Campaign Manager but keeps an amorphous role so as to be able to do some out of the box thinking. The Field Director reports to the Campaign Manager but also directly to the candidate. All the Field Organizers report to the Field Director. But since we are talking about 20 people or less, everyone is talking to everybody.

I think I want Campaign Manager pay and status, but I want to work in perfect sync with the existing organization. I would want to conduct a brutal analysis of the campaign from November to today, which I am going to call phase one. From now to September 14 is phase two.

This can be done, victory is possible. That is why I am interested in putting my time into this. But there has to be a scientific approach. Numbers have to be faced. Where do we stand in the polls today? We don't stand well. Our candidate lacks name recognition compared to the incumbent. But that can change rapidly. We want as many debates as possible, starting as early as possible. The debates will be the turning point.

But we also have to do the JFK thing. He first ran for the House, and later for the Senate. And his number one strategy would be to seek speaking assignments every possible place. He would start out by cracking a joke, often a joke he had cracked somewhere else, and then he would dive into his speech, and next. We have to take our candidate to every possible political and community event in town. Make sure she has at least two staffers with her. Megan would be a great person to accompany her. We have to seek speaking assignments. No organization is too small. No topic too esoteric.

One third of the district is South Asian. But we don't have any South Asian staffer working the field. I guess someone like me gets to dive into that.

I really need to spend a few days at the office before I start laying it all out. I have a feeling some of the stuff I want to get done is already being worked upon. But then I also want to make the best of the fact that I will be new and fresh. I will be able to offer perspectives that someone who has been on the staff for months might not be able to. You get used to seeing things a certain way.

We have to track some numbers. How much money have we raised? How much do we continue to raise? How much has been spent? How much do we have in the bank? Have we paced the spending well? What will be the big ticket items down the line? Where do we stand in the polls? How many community newspapers have written about us? How many community leaders have we contacted? How many interns do we have? How many volunteers do we have? I was at John Liu's primary victory party. It felt to me like 30 young people in their early 20s delivered the city to him. If we could have 15 razzmatazz staffers, 20 psyched interns, and 30 volunteers out of the ordinary, we could do it. We have to put the volunteers on the pedestal. We need to throw a party. How about a barbecue in some park?

My Talk With Kevin Lawler Of Reshma 2010

We have to have superior debate preparation. The debates are the political equivalent of boxing championship fights. Everything we do till then will culminate in how we do during the debates. They will be crucial. What can the candidate do to maximize her chances? What are the pre-debate things to do? What are the post-debate things to do?

I think I am going to get a monthly metro card, and a Metro PCS unlimited talk, text and web phone. I want to reach out to the volunteer base in a big way, I want to reach out to community newspapers and leaders.

And I am psyched about creating the rudiments of a 2016 platform for Reshma. We have to stand by all Obama stands for. Because that is what Maloney is going to do. She is not going to offer anything new except the promise that she will vote for everything Obama wants her to vote for. Well, that much we can do too.

We are lucky to have a policy wonk candidate. That will make the task of debate preparation so much easier.

This can be done. This race can be won.

Me @ BBC

There is something we could learn from Paul English, the Kayak.com guy. His focus on customer service is out of the box and legendary. His team replies to all emails from customers. And they have a big, red phone in the office. They pick it up when it rings.

Paul English Writes Back
Kayak, Paul English, Africa, Free Wireless Internet

Maybe we should make it mandatory for all staffers and all interns. You must call up voters for at least one hour each day. And identify the top 30 volunteers, and get the campaign manager to call them up once a week. Identify the top 10 volunteers and get the candidate to call them up once a week. Identify all the community newspapers in the district. And get the candidate to visit their offices, as many as possible. I'd happily visit all of them as Director to get them to do at least one story on us. Every such story is free advertising. Do the cost benefit analysis. We come out on top.

There has got to be a way to find out about all the community events in the district. Some staffer has to show up to all of them. Maybe me. I would be okay with that. We need to have an enthusiastic volunteer in every block in the district, someone willing to throw a house party, knock on 10 doors.

The idea is to get 30,000 votes to win. We want to have called all those 30,000 people before election day.

I am getting sucked into this thing like I got sucked into the Nepal democracy movement a few years back.

A 2016 Platform (the best ideas will not come from the two policy staffers, or even the candidate, or me, or any staffer; there are policy wonks at NYU and Columbia, and Harvard and Yale we have to reach out to, think tanks; we have to build a matrix of a network of academics)
Top notch, razzmatazz debate performances (We need to start having mock debates every week. I think Megan should stand in as Maloney.)
An amazing grassroots matrix of supporters.
Community media.
Subway stops: work them like crazy. (Maybe we should make it mandatory for all staffers and all interns; you must work one subway stop for one hour during rush hour every week; pair up with someone, go do it)

We intend to hit the national headlines come September 14.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Reshma Saujani, Carolyn Maloney

Reshma Saujani - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Saujani's parents lived in Uganda, prior to being expelled, along with other Indians, in the early 1970s by Idi Amin. The Saujanis settled in Chicago. ...... Saujani attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she graduated in 1997 with majors in Political Science and Speech Communications. She attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where she received a Masters of Public Policy in 1999, and Yale Law School, where she received her Juris Doctorate in 2002. ..... She worked at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, where she handled asylum cases pro bono..... Saujani founded "South Asians for Kerry" during the 2004 presidential election. ..... Saujani served on the National Finance Board for Hillary Clinton during Clinton's campaign for president in 2008. Following the primaries, she was named Vice-Chair of the New York delegation at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. ...... Saujani has won the support of top entrepreneurs including Jack Dorsey, co-founder and chairman of Twitter; Randi Zuckerberg, director of market development for Facebook and sister of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg; Alexis Maybank, co-founder of Gilt Groupe; and Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook........ Saujani has raised a considerable amount of money for a challenger in a congressional race, outraising Maloney by almost a 2-to-1 margin in the last quarter of 2009...... Her candidacy has received the backing of prominent Upper East Side political fundraisers, including Cathy Lasry and Maureen White.

Carolyn B. Maloney - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia the Congresswoman for New York's 14th congressional district since 1993. .... most of Manhattan's East Side; Astoria and Long Island City in Queens; and Roosevelt Island. ...... In 1970, she visited New York City and decided to stay. ..... In 1992, Maloney was elected to the House of Representatives, narrowly defeating a 15-year incumbent, liberal Republican Bill Green, in a victory considered an upset. She is the first woman to ever represent the district, and has been re-elected eight times ....... Following Maloney's win, Republicans continued to hold most of the State Senate, Assembly, and City Council seats on Manhattan's East Side for nearly another decade. Since 2002, the Democrats have dominated the area, and now hold all of the area's seats in the state legislature and City Council. ....... among the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Maloney has the ninth-highest amount of investment in oil stocks. ........In the book, Maloney argues that progress for women has stalled and offers recommendations for resuming their advance toward full equality ...... In December 2008, Maloney hired a public relations firm to help bolster her efforts to be named by Governor David Paterson as Hillary Clinton's successor as a New York Senator. Maloney toured parts of the state, but was overshadowed by Caroline Kennedy's promotional tour for the same seat. Maloney interviewed with the governor for 55 minutes. Public opinion polls placed Maloney's support for the Senate seat in the single digits, trailing the front-runner ..... On July 20, 2009, Maloney apologized after using the word "nigger" in repeating a comment made by a third party about Gillibrand. ....... he married Clifton Maloney, an investment banker, in 1976.

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Better Know a District - New York's 14th - Carolyn Maloney

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

Fox News

Carolyn Maloney has a longer resume, but it is because she is older, twice as old. I say her resume is not long enough.

Issues in women's rights like equal pay, and reproductive rights are like a ceiling to Maloney. She tried the best she could, but she has done the best she can. Those same issues are a floor to Reshma Saujani. She will fight for equal pay, she will fight harder for reproductive rights. And she will build on all that to do much more. Maloney belongs to a generation that imagined equality. Reshma Saujani belongs to a generation that wants to be able to take equality for granted.

Obama has done so much for race without even talking about it. Reshma Saujani's focus on technology and innovation and the next generation of jobs, companies and industries is something similar. She dreams of things that a leader - man or woman - would dream of. That kind of confidence comes from wanting to take equality for granted.

This is not about okay let's just undo the good work Maloney has done for women's rights. This is about she has not done enough, although she tried, and let's build upon whatever she has been able to do. And let's also touch upon leadership issues in general. Let's also talk about creating the next generation of jobs, companies and industries.

My Talk With Kevin Lawler Of Reshma 2010

Image of Reshma Saujani

I am going to be a super engaged volunteer. That is my default mode. But I have considered going to work full time for Reshma 2010 for three and a half months. And I shared that with Kevin. He is an Obama 08 veteran, and Campaign Manager to Reshma 2010.

Reshma 2010 Get Together In Little India

I shared some thoughts. I explored a possible role for me. I shared some stories from my work into Nepal's democracy movement a few years back. I had a few things to say about the campaign.

(1) Can't Get Into On Autopilot To A Grand Loss Mode

I saw that happen to the Fernando Ferrer campaign in 2005. You showed up at the campaign headquarters. And there were these tens of super busy people. They were going to put in their hours, even work hard. But there was little experimenting, little of trying to come in from a few different angles.

First of all, Maloney is no Bloomberg, not even close. She leads in the polls now, but Obama too lagged in the polls the longest time. Reshma has raised the most money in the first two quarters like Obama did.

Got to stay in the victory mode. How do you do that? You keep having fun. You keep trying out new things. You keep working the things that work. You feel the growth of the snowball of support.

Carolyn Maloney is never going to run for president, she is a spent force, Reshma could. Maloney has done some good work, but she has had her turn. She is pre-Obama at many levels. Reshma is post-Obama. Maloney is not known nationally for any kind of thought leadership, Reshma is oozing with new ideas. Reshma deserves to win, she is going to win.

(2) Produce Plentiful Video Clips

It is free to do. Produce five minutes of video per day. Produce a video clip for every event small and big. Getting 50-100 hits on a video clip is good enough. You do this for the core team, for the staff and volunteers. Text does not do what video does. The video format has greater emotional appeal. Use a flip camera. Let some staffer volunteer to do the editing.

(3) The Subway Stops: Where It Is At

Showing up at rush hours to hand out small flyers would be a great way to reach out. My first day canvassing in Astoria was 100 knocks, 10 talks. At the subway stops you might approach 500 people in an hour, give out perhaps 200 flyers/post cards/business cards. Even if you net 20 potential voters, that is a lot. All you want is to get people to visit the site.

How many subway stops are there in the district? They are in the 20s. How about having someone at each stop every day during rush hour for the 30 days before the primary? This is about volume.

Kevin told me they already have a cropped map of the NYC subway system that shows only the stops in the district.

(4) Build A Brain Trust

Reshma has to come across as a thought leader. Got to start collecting a brain trust of people from academia and think tanks who will offer advice on all the key policy areas. What would a 2016 platform look like? Build towards that.

(5) Phone Marathons

Modern campaigns are able to pin down the potential primary voters. Being able to call them all would be a thing to do. Working the phone has to be something all staffers do, regardless of expertise.

(6) Community Press, Community Leaders

I saw this with the John Liu campaign. John Liu ended up with more votes than Bloomberg even, but during the primary he was shunned by the establishment press. John Liu reacted by aggressively courting small, ethnic newspapers. Their circulations were small, but loyal. They were flattered by the attention and often talked glowingly about Liu.

Identifying and courting community leaders fall in a similar category. In every community there are people who make it their business to reach out to members of the community on a regular basis.

(7) Pro.Act.Ly

The first time I heard about it was in the TechCrunch Disrupt video, and it promises to be a great tool. (Reshma Saujani, Scott Heiferman, Chris Hughes: TechCrunch Disrupt)

(8) Debating Maloney

Maloney is going to try and not debate Reshma. We have to keep nudging her, and we have to make political hay out of her not saying yes, and then we have to beat her at the debates when she finally says yes. The campaign has to do a super job of helping the candidate with the best possible preparation for the debates. Those debates will be the turning points. Start watching videos of Maloney on YouTube. Google her up. Read up on her. Know her strengths and weaknesses.

(9) Money

I am not going to say much about money, except that it is money, message, organization. Those are the three pillars.

(10) Social Media

I am hoping to blog profusely. It can be a tool to boost team morale, and more.

Reshma 2010 Get Together In Little India

Image of Reshma Saujani

Yesterday I emailed my information man Jon Gardiner. What's the plan for Saturday? He emailed me back.

*Saturday, May 29th from 1:00-3:00pm at
Mad Hatter Saloon (360 3rd Ave., btwn. E. 26th St. and E. 27th St.)*

Jon is from Nashville. He went to school in Michigan. I have been to Nashville. He is on the Reshma 2010 staff.

Reshma is a great political brand name to have. It even rhymes with Obama.

Last Saturday he had talked of a barbecue in some park. Instead it was a get together in a bar.

I showed up dressed in black. It was nice and warm out. I had a steamed dumplings lunch right before I took off. The first thing I asked for was water. Other than stealing a few nachos and a few jalapenos from Reshma's plate, I stuck to the water. I stayed away from the beer. When all was said and done, four of the leading staffers stayed back inside the bar to play a game on the screen - Megan beat them all, it was a shooting game - and they got yet another pitcher. I said no, thanks.

I watched them play. Then I left. They kept playing, pointing the plastic gun at the screen. I walked over to Curry In A Hurry on Lexington and 28th. I ordered two samosas and went upstairs and sat down to a great view of the street below.

I walked over to Union Square where I hopped onto the train. Kevin Lawler, the Campaign Manager is on the L line, I am on the L line. Kevin is from Portland, Oregon. At the Farmer's Market in Union Square I bought a big bag of apples for a dollar, and some banana bread for another dollar. (Farmville Farmer's Market: My Idea)

I got to meet and talk at length to Kevin for the first time. He was on the Obama 08 staff for a year. He is impressive.

The gathering was fun. It did have a lull before the storm feeling. The entire team is getting ready to soon collect signatures to get Reshma on the ballot.

Jon's "football lawyer" elder brother showed up. So you guys are from Nashville? I asked.

"Actually I was there only yesterday," he said.

My talk with Kevin was in depth. I hope to follow up on that. I guess I am still exploring the idea of going to work for Reshma 2010 full time for three and a half months. I smell victory, and I want to make sure it does happen.

@a_buchanan showed up. Last/first I saw her was at the Al Wenger tech event.

In all 15-20 people showed up. A few were come and go. I had a great time. I was relaxed before I got there. I was relaxed while there. I was relaxed when I left. There were some great conversations. I noticed Megan and Reshma have a telepathy thing going on. Megan Simpson is the Field Director. She has more people reporting to her than anyone else on the campaign staff, I think. She is a sharp shooter too.

Megan is from Iowa. I have been all over Iowa, I said to her last Saturday which is when she revealed her Iowa roots. Now that is one political state.

The final scene of the day stayed in my mind. There were these four staffers, five, taking turns at a video game. Really getting along, having a fun time together, cracking jokes. That was small proof the campaign is in a great shape. The internal dynamics are in top shape.

Reshma Saujani is a Gujarati like Mahatma Gandhi. Never underestimate a Gujarati, especially when it comes to politics. Churchill underestimated Gandhi, and look what happened to the British Empire. Empire Maloney, watch out.

She is usually on a tight schedule. So around 2:30 she left. She came back for her sunglasses.

"We were going to put it out on eBay," I said.