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InterAction co-hosted a panel discussion on effective
messaging, legal limitations and other issues related to
the upcoming presidential election. The meeting took
place at InterAction's office from 2:30 to 4 pm.
Panelists
Jeremy Ben-Ami, Senior Vice President of Fenton Communications, talked about planning your communications strategy for outreach to presidential candidates.
Meighan Stone, Director of Special Projects at the ONE Campaign, talked about their outreach efforts to presidential candidates.
John Pomeranz, a partner at the Washington D.C. law firm of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg, LLP, talked about what 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4)organizations are legally allowed to do during the 2008 presidential election season.
Guy Stevens, Chief Operating Officer at Council for a Livable World, talked about ways his organization is gearing up for the 2008 presidential election.
Gayle Smith, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and adviser to the Obama presidential campaign, talked about how nonprofits can unite and reach out to presidential candidates.
Erik Leaver, Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, talked about how they are using US Policy World (USPW), a wiki project designed to develop progressive policy papers, to engage the presidential candidates.
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Meeting Highlights
Jeremy Ben-Ami,
Senior Vice President of Fenton Communications, talked about planning
your communications strategy for outreach to presidential candidates.
While presidential
campaigns provide an opportunity to raise important issues for discussion,
limit expectations on the impact you can have, the attention you can attract
and the difference it all makes on how the candidates will govern:
1. Only a handful of issues
are really central to the debate in the election and will get significant
attention:
2. It’s just a campaign,
not the government. Even if you get a candidate to say or promise
something on the campaign trail, they may then do something different when
they’re in office. It wouldn’t be the first time.
3. It's always hard to get
candidates to make specific commitments when they can avoid it.
Candidates don't like to make solid commitments on single issues this early in
the campaign. However, if a candidate makes a pledge or promise, make sure you
get them on the record as that provides important leverage when they are in
office.
4. Elections turn more on
general image/framing than on specific issues. For instance, the
Obama/Clinton debate right now is less about the specifics of negotiating with
our enemies than about a contrast between experience and change. Find
ways to make your issues back up the central themes a candidate is trying to
promote.
Other tips:
- Try to meet with campaign
policy staff. Be a resource for them, not a nuisance. Get your
allies on their “policy teams”, offer to write position papers, etc.
- Have allies
with influence (board members, donors) reach out to candidates on your behalf.
- Work through constituency
offices – liaisons to the women’s, LGBT, union communities, etc.
- This is the right time to
engage candidates because they are doing retail politics right now, meeting
with constituents at restaurants, attending town hall meetings, etc. Have
your supporters go to those events and raise your issues personally with the
candidates over and over again.
Meighan Stone, Director of Special Projects at the ONE Campaign, talked about their outreach efforts to presidential candidates.
- They launched ONE Vote '08 in June to mobilize voters to make "to make extreme poverty and global disease an issue in the 2008 election."
- Involve both the grasstops & the grassroots in your outreach efforts.
- They are doing outreach to candidates in both parties and asking their members to get involved in the process.
- You can provide your supporters with a few talking points and questions they can ask the candidates during events. Use social networking sites like facebook and myspace to leverage support from your members.
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John Pomeranz, a partner at the Washington D.C. law firm of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg & Eisenberg, LLP, talked about what 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4)organizations are legally allowed to do during the 2008 presidential election season.
He emphasized that whether or not a 501(c)(3) could legally conduct any particular election-related activity would depend on if whether, in light of all the surrounding facts and circumstances, the activity appears to support or oppose the election of a candidate for office.
For more details, download C3 Election Rules - John Pomeranz.pdf.
501(c)(3) organizations can do the following:
501(c)(3) organizations cannot do the following:
- Support or oppose specific candidates.
- Tell people who to vote for.
- Tell people who supports their issues.
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Guy Stevens, Chief Operating Officer at Council for a Livable World, talked about ways his organization is gearing up for the 2008 presidential election.
- CLW has a 501(c)(4) and a PAC, so it is allowed to support candidates, but they have to be careful to distinguish between when are representing the (c)(3) and (c)(4).
- CLW has mobilized ex military officials to speak on their behalf to candidates.
- Since the work that they are doing to end war and the threat of nuclear arms is an important issue right now, they are able to capitalize on it to raise the profile of their issue and fundraise.
Here are some tips.
- Take advantage of social networking sites like Facebook to get new supporters and communicate with them.
- Empower your supporters to speak on your behalf at local events. Provide them with simple talking points and let them know when candidates are going to be speaking in their community.
- Take advantage of breaking stories in the news cycle that bring attention to your issues.
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Gayle Smith, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and adviser to the Obama presidential campaign, talked about how nonprofits can unite and reach out to presidential candidates.
- This is a
great time for nonprofits to unite and take advantage of this opportune
moment when global poverty is higher on the agenda than it has ever
been. Politicians are realizing that there are millions who care about
global poverty.
- Average citizens now have the power to express
themselves and make themselves heard using websites like YouTube. Your
supporters can use the power of new media to help you communicate about your
issue.
- Make sure your issue(s) are being brought up at all the forums. Your
supporters can participate in different debates and ask questions to the
candidates. Many newspapers have question and answer sections, where candidates
or their representatives, answer questions posed by readers. You can use this
to help push the debate toward issues you are advocating for.
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Erik Leaver, Research Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, talked about how they are using US Policy World (USPW), a wiki
project designed to develop progressive policy papers, to engage the
presidential candidates.
For more details, download US Policy World - Erik Leaver.pdf.
US Policy World (USPW) is a web-based, free content project designed to develop progressive policy papers with broad expert and public participation using Wiki technology.
USPW aims to be a collaborative space for the progressive community to develop common positions, language, and messaging around the key foreign policy issues of the day and to monitor the positions of the 2008 Presidential Candidates.
It focuses on the following issues: