Personal contact is key for any party

I am a liberal Democrat, but what I'm about to explain could as well be used by conservative Republicans.

On a precinct-by-precinct basis, have a face contact with every registered voter of your party once a year. At that contact do two things: (1) ask the voter to volunteer (have a card to fill out that lists volunteer opportunities) and (2) ask for a donation to your local organization (have donor envelopes). The organization that does this will have the most volunteers and will be the best financed (without being indebted to the wealthy or special interests).

Very few people come forth voluntarily for local political organizations. You might be pleasantly surprised at how many people will volunteer if somebody asks them.

Keep statistics on how many face contacts you have, how many people volunteer and how many people donate and how much. You can expect comparable results as you go from precinct-to-precinct; however, you will have different results from subgroups such as single-family homes, apartments and townhouses.

The latter may require initial phone contacts, but seek face-to-face interviews. Phone contacts alone are better than nothing but will yield significantly less results than face-to-face. Each year your results should be better than the year before.

The precinct captain is the most important person in politics. This is especially true when it comes to turning out voters in low-turnout local elections.

After contacting the registered voters from your own party, time permitting, contact those who are not registered in either party and "ID" them to find out if they lean your way. If they do, contact them to turn out at election time and, if they are not registered, help them to register.

Of course also ask them to volunteer and/or donate.

Kent Kirkwood

Mount Prospect