LA-02: Help Karen Carter Win

thoughts on this race (0.00 / 0)

Have you talked to Tim on what he thinks about this?  Having read some of the pre-Tim blog entries around NOLA, I am hesitant to move on the facebook suggestion.  This is a town that is very, very upset about outsiders who think they know what's best for them.  I see from the mydd.com notes that bloggers who met Tim were impressed - but rumors of the facebook could be used with lo info voters to prove she's got tons of outside influence trying to control the election (which is what people are highly sensitized to right now) and people should vote local.

Do you see a way we can demonstrate to the local people our interest in being responsive to their request for support? With a tangible, visible request, the message is clear:  we are not just the umpteenth outsider arriving with an agenda. 

What does Karen think and what do local bloggers or community members say would help?  I think they'd find it relatively radical that anyone bothered to ask.  Do they need oppo research, for example? 

Carter apparently made some faux pas in a recent debate that have damaged some confidence in her.  For example, when asked if Bush mislead the American public regarding the rush to war in Iraq, she replied, "I certainly hope not." 

I can't imagine anyone there has had much focus on anything other than Katrina since it happened, and I think her main job at this point is to be a principled voice for the people in her district related to all things Katrina.  However, I don't get to vote.

Here is a link to the Times Picayune, the local newspaper there that kept right on publishing through thick and thin during Katrina.  You have to put in some minor info to access the articles, but it's at least one window on the local scene:

http://www.nola.com/...

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by: greenpeas @ Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 17:45:18 PM UTC

I haven't talked to Tim (0.00 / 0)

I haven't talked to Tim about Facebook and like I said, I'm new to it so I don't know all the ins and outs of organizing with it. My goal with bringing up Facebook for this is that it's a tool that allows the viral spread of support for a candidate. I get five people to join, they get five people to join and before you know it there are thousands (ideally) of people informed on the race that weren't be before.

But I'm more concerned about your implication that asking people to join a group that supports a candidate or donate money in support of the same candidate is somehow dangerous because they're from New Orleans. I haven't said a word about Carter's campaign strategy and I referred people to Tim for more information.

Donating money isn't a sign of an agenda - it's support of a candidate. Like most people, I don't have the ability to do much more than that, but it counts and it's a help.

In regards to Facebook, there were 9 people in the group before I posted this. Now there are 11. I really don't know that that can somehow be translated into outside influence trying to control the election, particularly when more than half of the current membership is from New  Orleans. Honestly greenpeas I think you're overthinking this one.

Disclosure: I'm proud to work for the Service Employees International Union

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by: Matt Browner Hamlin @ Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 18:02:36 PM UTC

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also (0.00 / 0)

Do you see a way we can demonstrate to the local people our interest in being responsive to their request for support? With a tangible, visible request, the message is clear:  we are not just the umpteenth outsider arriving with an agenda.

What does Karen think and what do local bloggers or community members say would help?  I think they'd find it relatively radical that anyone bothered to ask.  Do they need oppo research, for example? 

I don't know about this stuff. Tim would be a place to start, as would the NOLA bloggers he's linked to.

These are important questions to ask and you're raising great ideas on how we can help. I just have dedicated time to thinking about them and I'm not sure that I can pursue that today.  Like I said above, donating and social organizing is a lower level of entry than a lot of other things, but it's most important that people do what they can to help out a great candidate.

Disclosure: I'm proud to work for the Service Employees International Union

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by: Matt Browner Hamlin @ Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 18:10:46 PM UTC

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Sorry - sounds like I misunderstood facebook (0.00 / 0)

I haven't used it - don't particularly want to - but had Luddite driven visions of its being used as Exhibit A.  I will retire those notions forthwith until I know what the hell I am talking about.

What I have done is try to read up on what happened there, and what is happening there through the bloggers' eyes and some news reports.  It's a big job and I certainly lay no claim to a comprehensive look.  Did you read my earlier link to a very widely circulated blog entry?

It is the most vehement I've read, but many of the blogs are expressing the "disenchanted with outsider" sentiment.  Perhaps I am overemphasizing it - I have no way of knowing to what extent it's at the core of how people feel - so since I have no way of knowing, you can give me the nanny award, okay?

What you mean by "dangerous"?  Are we clear now?  I want all good intentions to be perceived that way, basically.

I am confident Tim will establish a good rep and if he says, "They're with me," all is likely to be well.

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by: greenpeas @ Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 18:27:07 PM UTC

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dangerous (0.00 / 0)

I was describing what I thought to be the implication that involvement by people who aren't from NOLA in a campaign in NOLA is at risk to being patronizing, unwelcome, or generally bad idea. As in, it's a mistake for us non-Louisianans to get involved in the race without prior approval of people from NOLA.

I think we're back on the same page now.

Disclosure: I'm proud to work for the Service Employees International Union

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by: Matt Browner Hamlin @ Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 19:05:29 PM UTC

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I've been following some of the local blogs (0.00 / 0)

Along with Tim's reports at MyDD.  He seems to have won them over, and some of them appear in the video he is shooting.

I actually got a kick out of their skepticism.  When Tim was first hired for the Lamont campaign I felt the same way.  I wondered why the Lamont people hadn't hired a local blogger.  But of course Tim won me over, and now I think the Lamont campaign blog should be the model for every Dem running in '08.

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by: CGG @ Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 19:10:58 PM UTC

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they had to deal with brownie (0.00 / 0)

and everyone we didn't get to know on a first nickname basis who was his "equal".  If they were not skeptical, I would consider something to be seriously off kilter.

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by: greenpeas @ Tue Nov 21, 2006 at 20:16:23 PM UTC

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