Fred Thompson campaign recruiting volunteers to “Phone for Fred” from home

[sabra]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/11/20/thompson-camp-try-this-at-home/

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson isn’t doing particularly well in polls of early voting states Iowa and New Hampshire, but his campaign has come up with a novel way of using volunteers to help reach voters.

Today, the Thompson campaign introduced “Phone for Fred,” an online phone bank that allows volunteers to download names and phone numbers of potential voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. Supporters are urged to call between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. local time and read the following script:

“Hello! My name is ________ and I am a volunteer with the Fred Thompson Presidential Campaign. Fred Thompson is the only Consistent Conservative candidate. Fred wants to keep America strong, secure our borders, keep taxes low, reform our government and fight for our conservative family values.”

The campaign volunteer then asks the voter a series of questions about issues most important to them (Illegal immigration? Abortion and gay marriage? Protecting the 2nd Amendment? Iraq? Economy?) and asks if they’re planning on voting for Thompson.

It’s not uncommon for campaigns to use volunteers in other states to place phone calls, but they generally have a staff member on hand to help keep the volunteers on script and to ensure they aren’t upsetting the potential voters.

The Thompson campaign’s online effort represents a bold experiment in decentralization. Very few campaigns have ceded this sort of control to their volunteers because of the risks. The campaign can’t monitor what its volunteers say when they reach out to early-state voters, many of whom might not have been contacted by the Thompson campaign before. Also, since anyone who is registered on the Web site can download lists of early-state voters, supporters of other candidates (say, Ron Paul?) could use the lists of voters and have a little fun.

:rofl: