The Saturday Read: Campaign Staffing Shortages Abound
Inside: How fundraisers can overcome staffing shortages, leadership shortages in Democratic campaigns, and an alleged threat to hit someone with a baseball bat.
1 - "We continue to see the talent pool shrink as campaigns abandon traditional fundraising methods."
Nick Daggers of 1833 Group first raised alarm bells about staffing shortages in political fundraising two years ago. Now he’s back with advice on how fundraisers can adapt to the problem.
In my experience, one model that I have found a lot of success with is hiring a younger, more junior staffer to run the day-to-day operations of the fundraising shop while the consultant manages the finance plan, liaisons with outside groups, provides mentorship to the younger staffer, and ensures the candidate is understanding the plan and doing their part.
Firms can provide seasoned professionals able to fully draft and execute a finance plan on a major race. The issue that most of us end up facing is bandwidth. But by having a junior staffer on the ground, it allows the consultant to focus on higher-level tasks.
2 - “Leadership staffing for this year’s off-year cycle campaigns was challenging and may foreshadow a shortage of managers and other top staffers for the left in 2024.”
And it’s not just fundraising where staffing shortages are an issue. Campaigns & Elections editor Sean J. Miller reports on one group that’s trying to solve a problem some Democratic campaigns have faced in 2023: a lack of leadership staff.
Blue Leadership Collaborative (BLC) Executive Director Justin Myers said his group has a cohort of 16 managers from diverse backgrounds that it has helped place on Virginia campaigns this cycle. They’ve been in their positions since March after going through a six-week training program organized by the BLC, which also supplements the managers’ salaries and benefits.
“If you looked at even how long it took for Virginia to find campaign managers to cover all of their races, that just shows you that at the moment staffing, at a high level, is somewhat hard,” he said. “I think particularly when you’re talking about two positions, managers and finance directors, those have been two of the toughest positions to fill — probably up until the congressional level, if I’m being fair.”
BLC selects candidates for its program who have two-three years of campaign experience, as well as experience managing a budget, a principal and staff. For this cohort, the program received more than 320 applications.
3 - Why campaigns need to address burnout before it becomes a problem
Gen Z brings very different work expectations to the table than the folks who’ll be managing them. If campaign leaders don’t face that reality head-on, and plan for it, they could get hit with staff burnout in 2024.
Now is the time to talk about staff burnout because the job descriptions that are being written in 2023 and the hiring processes that are being put in place today can help candidates and groups retain staff for the longer term.
At least that’s the perspective of Eboni Speight, an EVP at the progressive “strategy tank” Way to Win. Speight spoke to C&E about managing staff burnout in an era that is seeing Gen Z enter the workforce being managed by, in many cases, Gen Xers who grew up in the industry giving everything for the cause.
Entries Are Open for the 2023 CampaignTech Awards
Is your company innovating in the political technology space? Don’t miss the chance to be recognized. Entries are now open for this year’s CampaignTech Awards.
Categories include Digital Campaign Leader of the Year, Engineering Team of the Year, Startup of the Year, and Best Digital Ad Platform. (Enter Today)
Allegations Fly in the World of Advocacy Tech
A brutal fight is playing out in the Advocacy Technology world. Amongst the allegations: theft and a threat to hit someone with a baseball bat. Grab the popcorn.
A messy divorce in advocacy tech is playing out in DC civil court with both sides claiming victories from the case's latest rulings.
Chazz Clevinger’s departure as CEO of advocacy platform OneClickPolitics (OCP) back in February sparked an ongoing lawsuit as OCP alleged the long-time advocacy practitioner, among other acts, "stole" OCP’s redesign plans for its platform and used them in his own advocacy platform called CiviClick, which launched in March.
As a result, the company has asked the court to "permanently enjoin" Clevinger to shut down CiviClick and "ensure that all stolen OCP Confidential Company Information, including, but not limited to OCP’s platform re-design plans and OCP contacts is returned to OCP or permanently destroyed."
The case has been making some headlines, in part, because Clevinger has sued John Koepke, chairman of OCP, and the holding company Advocacy Holdings, Inc., alleging that Koepke "engaged in a pattern of abuse and misconduct culminating in a physical assault and a threat to strike Plaintiff with a baseball bat."
This week, the DC district court judge presiding over the case, Jia Cobb, granted part of Advocacy Holdings, Inc.'s motion for a preliminary injunction. On Aug. 15, Cobb ordered that Clevinger, CiviClick, Inc., and Superior Campaign Solutions, LLC, which Clevinger also controls, "are enjoined from using Advocacy Holdings’ platform design and interface for any purpose, including on any website, platform, or interface."
That decision had OCP celebrating. A spokesperson told C&E: "In entering the order against Chazz Clevinger and CiviClick, the Court has made it clear that they usurped the platform design and interface developed by One Click Politics. The Order speaks for itself."
Clevinger doesn’t see it that way and believes that "our case is stronger than theirs." He said in a statement to C&E regarding the Aug. 15 ruling: "The Court’s rulings speak for themselves and Judge Cobb has repeatedly upheld and reaffirmed CiviClick’s right to fully operate its business. Judge Cobb categorically ruled in favor of Clevinger and CiviClick by fully denying OCP’s motion for a preliminary injunction [July 15]."
Clevinger declined to discuss how the ruling could impact his business. But he did say he was aware that there was some risk to launching a competing business to his former employer: "I knew that venturing out on my own poses certain risks and certain costs. But I was prepared to pay those and remain prepared to pay those. I'm in a great place."
No trial date for the case is set yet.
C&E’s Best of the Rest
FEC moves toward potentially regulating AI deepfakes in campaign ads (AP)
Inside Canada’s fight with Facebook (Politico)
Agencies weigh the pros and cons of generative AI as political advertising grows (DigiDay)
A former fundraiser for Rep. George Santos has been charged with wire fraud and identity theft (AP)
AI language models are rife with different political biases (MIT Technology Review)
Why a Political Campaign Novel from 1956 is Still Relevant
Each week we ask someone to recommend a book, movie or show that they think political operatives would enjoy. This week C&E co-owner Shane Greer pitches a novel he came across by chance in a second-hand book shop.
The Last Hurrah by Edwin O’Connor follows the Mayoral reelection campaign in an unnamed city (clearly Boston) of veteran politician Frank Skeffington (clearly based on the notorious Boston Mayor/Congressman/Massachusetts Governor James Curley). Skeffington’s crew run an old school campaign that wouldn’t be out of place on a Tip O’Neill autobiography. But his young an inexperienced opponent isn’t running the standard playbook, opting instead to pour his effort into a new technology that’s scoffed at by the old guard: television.
