What makes this news even more interesting is that it appears as though the Republicans in Virginia aren't quite ready to fully unite around George Allen as their candidate. He's already been facing nominal opposition in tea party candidates like Jamie Radtke, but he now has much more serious opposition as Bob Marshall has entered the GOP primary. This ultimately means that people who might have otherwise been willing to donate or volunteer for Allen will either be staying out of the race or donating to his Republican opponent. This not only has a financial consequences for the Allen campaign, but could cause some set backs as he's trying to build a campaign infrastructure and recruit all the volunteers he'll need during the general election.
So while Allen is falling behind in fundraising and facing some set backs in terms of volunteer recruitment, Tim Kaine appears to be stressing the importance of his campaign's grassroots support. Anytime a campaign is able to build up some grassroots fundraising, they usually release the number of donors as a way to show they've already had a large number of people committed enough to the campaign. If you don't see that number in the press release, it usually means the campaign's not to proud of the numbers of donors they have. Fortunately, Kaine's campaign appears to be happy with how its grassroots fundraising is going because it announced that they've already had 12,000 individual donors.
In addition to the donors, they've also already begun having a lot of people show up to events. Again this is another sign of good grassroots support and Kaine's campaign highlighted this in the statement they released today.
"I'm overwhelmed and sincerely grateful for the enthusiastic support we've received in the first nine months of this campaign," said Tim Kaine. "Anne and I were thrilled to welcome more than 400 supporters to our official campaign headquarters opening in Richmond on Sunday. These dedicated Virginians, along with thousands of others who've signed up to volunteer with our campaign, will be critical to our victory in November. I've also enjoyed traveling across the Commonwealth to hear directly from business leaders about their concerns and share my ideas for how we can rebuild our economy and create jobs by investing in education and workforce training."
While everyone knows that the money can play a crucial role in the campaign, my experience as a community organizer has taught me that having a good ground campaign goes a long ways in enforcing a message. Knowing that your neighbor supports a candidate and hearing from them why he/she is good, after all, is usually more memorable than any 30 second commercial money can (though haven't the money for commercials doesn't hurt). That's why I'm extremely pleased to see the campaign really is highlighting the grassroots. And in case you're wondering, that message wasn't just limited to a quick paragraph in a press release. They put out the following video today, for instance, that really embodies how volunteers are really energized about the campaign.
As Mike Henry (Kaine's campaign manager) put it in the email accompanying the video, this is really about having a candidate who represents the interests of the general public. It's our campaign.
"Sunday was more than just the opening of headquarters. Our headquarters is now your office, and I want you to feel comfortable here," Henry wrote. "We depend on the dedication of people like you, and we need your help to spread Tim's positive message about investing in the talent society, rebuilding our economy, and creating jobs across the Commonwealth."
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