The Stanton for Mayor campaign has, until last week, been based in the AZ Democratic Party office. Now we have an office, in the strip mall on the SE corner of Central Ave. and Thomas. Just a couple of doors down from Lenny's Burger Shop. (I never let myself go there but I do think about it. One of these days I'm gonna break down and get a malt and some cheese fries....mmm....cheese fries)!
As with a new office of any kind, there are a few kinks and in our case it's the internet. Just about every day a technician from the service provider comes out to "fix" the issue. In the mean time there is work to be done and about 95% of what I do can only be done online. For example, our database is web-based so I am unable to enter contributions if I can't get online. Another example is research. I might need to look up the occupation and employer of a contributor, research a potential contributor, verify an address, etc., etc., etc.
Fortunately, I can go back to the NW corner of Central Ave. and Thomas (the AZ Democratic Party HQ) and do my work, but it's made me wonder how campaigns functioned 25 years ago. How did they research contributors? Everything would have been paper-based. At least they had fax machines and were able to use computers for databases, but what about 45 years ago? I can't even imagine. Makes me wish I could time travel and see what a typical day was like.
Regardless of the upgrades in technology, campaigns are still about time, money, message, and securing votes. Technology can help save time (through efficiency), raise more money, and spread the message, but in the end it's all about who gets the most votes. That hasn't changed at all.
I imagine that campaigns were simpler before technology exploded. And while they weren't as transparent, the information required by law was probably less specific.
ReplyDeleteI think phone must be used mainly instead of the internet for the campains 25 years ago
ReplyDelete