Back in 2004 I recall a lot of complaints when the Dean campaign had a lot of young out-of-state volunteers coming in to Iowa to canvass for their guy. They wore orange wool hats and t-shirts, making them stand out in a crowd, and the locals were not impressed. It was, I thought, a lesson learned by everyone.
But at least the Deaniacs were true believers. Guess who’s doing it again not even ten years later. And this time they’re just random people being paid to do it:
With his foot on a front porch of a stately home in Charleston, S.C., a canvasser for a $100 million field effort supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) vented on July 7 about a homeowner who he said had told him to get off his lawn.
Speaking on his phone while wearing a T-shirt with “DESANTIS” in big letters and a lanyard representing the Never Back Down super PAC, he used lewd remarks to describe what he would tell the homeowner to do to him.“And I’m a little stoned, so I don’t even care,” he added, holding materials and appearing to wait for another homeowner to come to the door.
The outburst — seen on a Ring doorbell video recording that was shared with The Washington Post — led to the canvasser’s dismissal this week, according to an official from Never Back Down. It highlighted a potentialrisk of the unprecedented effort by DeSantis donors to flood early primary states with thousands of paid door knockers armed with high-tech tools to win support one conversation at a time.
Unlike traditional presidential field organizing — which is run by an official campaign and driven largely by volunteers — the Never Back Down effort is staffed with an army of paid workers, many of whom have responded to advertisements that offer positions for $20 to $22 an hour. Trained in Iowa during an eight-day class, some come out of the system with polished pitches, as true believers. Others are just there for a job.
“After learning of the incident, we investigated and terminated the individual,” said Kate Roberts, the national field director of Never Back Down, in a statement. “Our field program is having thousands and thousands of incredible conversations around the country every day. This individual’s behavior is counter to the standards taught in our training and is not tolerated.”
[…]
“I can say one thing DeSantis has going for him over Trump is youcoming out here and talking to me. We’ve never had anyone come to our door like this before,” reads one of the voter quotes provided by the group.
But some Trump supporters who talked to The Post say they disapproved of the interactions. This is true even in cases, as in one door-knock in Marion, Iowa, also recorded on a Ring doorbell camera, where the canvasser presented a professional and enthusiastic case for DeSantis.
“I thought it was off-putting that he was from out of state,” said Geralyn Jones, the Marion resident who supports Trump and spoke with the canvasser. “If you are going to be endorsing or knocking, you need to be from here. I didn’t understand why DeSantis of all people could not get other people on the ground.”
Mike Hogan, a Trump supporter in Nashua, N.H., said he found a Never Back Down door knocker on his front porch in late May, shortly after DeSantis announced his campaign. The young man, dressed in the organization’s apparel, had ripped hems on his jeans and what he called “skater shoes,” and did not even knock on his door, he said.
“He was just standing there, which was weird. I said, ‘Can I help you?’” Hogan said,before adding that the canvasser said something and walked away. “He was not saying anything. He was just texting. He would not look up.”
Maybe it will pay off in the long run. But it isn’t showing up in the polls which have DeSantis sinking precipitously.
It seems as if he’s determined to spend hundreds of millions of dollars pursuing strategies that have long been abandoned or which almost never pay off. What a leader.