I Want To Quit My Job And Work Full-Time On A Campaign...Any Suggestions?

[THUNDER HANDS]

I am really serious about this.

I'm 24, still very young, but I think I'm pretty damn politically astute. I have experience in journalism and media relations and the itch to help fight the good fight for a deserving candidate.

I also want to do this full time, travel the country, and help whatever candidate in the best way that I can.

Has anyone ever done this before? And if so, how do you go about doing it?

I don't expect to get paid for this. But I would like free room and board and eating expenses paid for by the campaign. I don't care if I have to sleep on a bus to do it.

I want to be out on the front lines and I don't want to be just sitting around waiting until New York gets its primary opportunity.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

[jiacinto]

1. Go to this website

http://www.21stcenturydems.org/

They run campaign trainings periodically. It's a great place to network and meet people.

Contact them. They might be able to put you in touch with people working on key campaigns.

[Warpy]

2. As a practical matter,

.. encourage a wealthy relative to set up a trust fund for you and then kick the bucket.

This stuff takes money, and little will be forthcoming. You can rely on the kindness of strangers only so long.

I'm delighted you're so motivated, but it might be a better idea to hang onto your job while it still exists and volunteer locally for whichever candidate you support, drumming up support far in advance of the primary.

Full time political volunteering is for the independently wealthy, alas, or at least the unemployed working class with no prospects.

[deutsey]

3. Campaign sites also sometimes post campaign jobs

Keep checking the Kerry site and, as a previous poster said, make some contacts already on the team.

Good luck!

[Bushfire]

4. Reality

those jobs are super hard to come by, but not impossible. I interviewed for a position with a US Senator this year, and it payed in the mid-$20,000's/year. You should be ready to live on that amount, and expect to work 6-7 days a week putting in 60-80hours. Contact the campaigns in your area, and let them know you will be willing to put in whatever hours asked of you. Willing to relocate would be a plus as well. They typically hire local college grads, but not always. Best of luck!!!

[jiacinto]

16. See reply #1

That org can put the original poster in touch with people.

[Eloriel]

5. I would have,

had you not been such a resolute Dean basher.

Eloriel

[THUNDER HANDS]

9. wwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh

I'm hardly a resolute Dean basher, am I?

On thread yesterday (with 170 replies, not too shabby if I do say so myself) does not a Dean basher make.

Hell, I've donated money to the guy.

I like Dean and Kerry. Those are 1 and 2 in my eyes.

Yesterday I was just pointing out why Kerry is No. 1 and Dean No. 2


Now....sim sim salabim, tell me the secrets of full-time campaigning.

:)

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[NJCher]

7. ran into a guy who held a job like this

He traveled the country and the job sounded very interesting. He worked directly for the Democratic party, I think, and he went in to help out on campaigns the Dems wanted to win.

I met him when I volunteered to do door-to-door canvassing for the Dem candidate. This person I am talking about had all the packets organized for where we were supposed to go. He sent out the canvassers and was responsible for making sure the entire area was canvassed.

Looked like a lot of hard work but also looked like a lot of fun, too.


Cher

[ewagner]

8. try this

look for an unpaid internship in a State Senate or house Office

This will give you a better set of credentials with either specific campaigns, parties or PACS.

back when Moby Dick was a minnow, I volunteered for campaigns and landed an internship and went on to a paid staff position....long hard road..and btw...don't expect to sleep too much, learn to "soar with the eagles and hoot with the owls....", and oh, yeah, don't trust anybody outside of the inner circle.

[THUNDER HANDS]

10. I pondered that

My last class my professor was so impressed with me she said she could get me an internship at Chuck Schumer or Hillary Clinton's offices.

Or even....EGADS....the White House!

I'm still undecided if I want to do that, though. Although being inside the cave of evil does have some warped intreague to it.

:)

[tameszu]

13. Oooh, I smell leak potential!

But if you do it, be very careful. Especially if someone you know is a CIA NOC officer...

Good luck with your political career!

:toast:

[jagguy]

15. jump on this

it is a rare opportunity.

You can forget what you were thinking of. That entourage is already in place and working. Best you can hope to do is local work. Getting into the system as an intern is the first (of many) step(s) to doing what you want to do.

Politics is a business my energetic friend. There are dues to be paid, skills to be learned and trust to be earned.

Working locally is the real front line of politics anyway and far more interesting and rewarding. Take it from me, been there.

[jiacinto]

17. Those positions aren't paid

Unless you can get your parents to totally support you while you do that here in DC those internships, while providing good experience, will set you back far financially.

I wanted to intern on the Hill or at the White House (when Clinton was there), but financially it just never worked out. I couldn't afford to work for free for a whole summer.

That angers me because Congress and the White House can afford to pay their interns at least minimum wage to defray some of their expenses. It only allows the rich and the upper middle class to intern, while freezing out a lot of good people.

[ewagner]

18. jump on it!

You will:

1. Never regret it; and ,
2. You will never be this young/free again!

best of luck!:thumbsup:

[Abbalon]

11. I quit

masonary contracting and startted doing ood jobs like giving people rides and throttleing republicans by unmasking their reliance on rhetoric and RNC rightwing media talking points.

I have my land payed for and live in a faily new mobile home. Am building a small house no the other side of the yard.

If you plan small and spent little you can free up bookooo time to run around.

I delivery at Pizza Hut part and follow the sound of the guns when they are near enough to me for my budget and health to respond.

Can't fight every fight young fellow, but I take my ass with me when I do. DU is one of the richest sources of rational analogies from diverse circumstances. You can not cover the many angles of Current Events like DU can and does. Contrast the hope at DU with the hopelessness of Free Republic.

You see the same dynamic at work in any group. What is missing here is having to disemble the old tired rhetoric that is threaded into the public discourse for rightwingers to repeat. At Free Republic they don't know and some cases don't care that they repeat dogma and manufactured rhetoric in place of reason analogies. In more than a few cases they devote entire threads, deflecting from the thread parent, never to acknowledge or comment on the base issues.

They do it in open forums but the Dems are learning quite well to conter their spin with substance and expose their rhetoric easily.

I have noticed them running from debate much more over the last two years. No one on one knock down drag out fun anymore. To many like me enjoy the verbal combat to much I think. Heheheee,....

If you are sincere may all your winds be favorable. I am not woth much but if you need an operative around the NC area, let your boss know that I am a worthy peon with and automobile and a phone. No mission to small. No sacrifice to great. Duty first.

I will pass on Edwards campaign though I would offer him a ride to join the front lines of Iraq and stand by him to my death in an effort to engage his heart over his poltical miscalculations. Oh I had such high hopes for the boy.

Enough of me and my illusions. You go chase your own.

[Abbalon]

12. Money, heheeee..

I have never recieved any money. Lots of praise and abuse(over worked). Get to meet local candidates and national ones sometimes. Meet an interact with people who you ordinarily don't meet.

No money in it that I know of. Better build you a home base with a small income. Learn to eat smart and cheap. Watch your mileage.

But do follow the sounds of battle. Whither it is the battle cry at voting time or the silent cry of hungry childern, collecting fan's for hot schools, old shoes for bare feet, or changing the flat tire of poor folks by the side of the highway, most expecially if their skin is a different color and their purse of small size. Don't pigeon hole yourself to just serve the candidates. Your real service are those who you meet along the way. They will provide you reward aplenty.

A favored candidate can turn out to be less than inspirational sometimes.

Good Luck. Hope you are able to serve ona higher level than me. I would love to hear from you and know if you find satisfaction trying to be better than you are.

[VolcanoJen]

14. I served as a paid staffer for Dukakis '88

Magic Rat, I think it's extremely honorable for you to serve your country by particpating full-time in the election process. Best of luck to you!

I was 22 years old in 1988, fresh out of college, and went to work for Dukakis. I initially worked as an advance staffer, traveled primarily to Iowa and New Hampshire, and was paid a small daily per diem that barely covered my travel expenses.

After the New Hampshire primary, I came back to Ohio and was hired to be the volunteer coordinator in the Cleveland area. After we won the Ohio Primary (yipppee!) I became the Ohio 3rd Congressional District Coordinator, lived with a local councilman and his wife, and learned to live on gouda cheese and melba toast. I'd have to say the coolest part of working on this campaign was attending the Democratic National Convention at no expense. Damn, that was soooo much fun I can't even describe it!!!

There's very little payment involved, but if I didn't have the bills I have today, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Sure, we lost, but it was the most rewarding work I have ever done. Good luck to you in your endeavors, and I hope you'll get a chance to work on the front lines for a Dem in '04!!!

- Jennifer :-)

[ibegurpard]

19. Be prepared...

to look for a new job every year and get paid very little money for a long time.

That said, it's certainly exciting...especially if you have a passion for it. Unlike some people I've encountered, I could never work for someone or something unless I really believed in it. There are a lot of very amoral political animals out there.

[ewagner]

23. the only regret

I ever had was working for someone i didn't believe in....wrote some really shitty legislation and then half-assed backed it...

be true to yourself.........always

[knight_of_the_star]

20. If you need it

And you can play or sing, I would recommend street musicianship to make ends meet if you want to work as a full-time political volunteer.

[THUNDER HANDS]

21. I can do a mean jitterbug

But if I charge $500 an hour for street perfoming, that would be a little excessive, right?

:evilgrin:

[OrdinaryTa]

22. Whatever the Traffic Will Bear

If you can make $500 an hour jitterbugging, open a school! Send out junk mail on the web. Heck, run for office yourself.

[jfkennedy]

24. Clark

General Clark is the only one that can beat Bush in 2004.

[THUNDER HANDS]

25. thank you for that fine assessment

but I'd like to work for the campaign of someone actaully running for the nomination.

:)