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The story of Chris Van Hollen’s 2002 campaign for U. S. Congress is worth telling. Unfortunately Sanford Gottlieb’s new book entitled, “Red to Blue: Congressman Chris Van Hollen and Grassroots Politics,” tells only half the story.
Gottlieb appropriately mentioned some key volunteers who performed heroically at critical tasks like precinct organizing; candidate coffees; monitoring finances; mass mailings; scheduling and office operations. He speaks justly of volunteers’ personal sacrifices and their belief in Van Hollen’s candidacy.
Those volunteers worked with smart, dedicated, tireless staff people – only one of whom got a single sentence in Gottlieb’s mythic tale. The hard-working, low-paid staff made contributions and personal sacrifices of their own and deserve to have their story told. They merit credit for the legendary status the 2002 Van Hollen for Congress campaign ultimately attained.
In 2002, Chris Van Hollen (MD-8), now chair of the DCCC, became one of only two Democrats nationwide to defeat an incumbent Republican Representative. He beat Connie Morella, a 16 year incumbent with a reputation for being nearly invincible electorally. The general election victory came just 6 weeks after beating a well-known, better-funded opponent, Mark Kennedy Shriver.
Anyone who has ever run a campaign knows that, despite the value of volunteer leaders, an upset victory is not achievable without the mighty work of a superior staff. From Gottlieb’s version of the campaign, one would have to conclude that a handful of volunteers, as Herculean as they were, were fully responsible for Van Hollen’s victory.
I know the rest of the story from the inside, because I was Van Hollen’s finance director early in the Primary, helping him to raise important early money. And at his special request, I directed the volunteer operation for the General Election. I started with Van Hollen a year and a half before the general election.
Debra Fleischaker was the first coordinator, who helped to launch the campaign, followed by others including Bret Wask. Steve Jost was later hired as the campaign manager. He directed communications, field and finance staff. He oversaw all aspects of the campaign, kept the campaign moving forward and ultimately led the team to victory.
The staff who organized volunteers in the general election included Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz, who never let a volunteer inquiry go unanswered. She found jobs for thousands, helping to generate the labor for the massive grassroots operation. The database, referred to in glowing terms in the book, was designed and managed incomparably by Ed Baptiste. Without his data on nearly 7,000 volunteers and donors, the entire operation would have stalled. Together the team in charge of volunteers recruited and organized people mostly for phonebanking and door-to-door canvassing.
The young, brilliant field staff commanders included: Katie Fisher, Josh Bushey, Martin Casas and Colleen Medlock, who often worked through mealtime and sometimes slept in the campaign office or just went without sleep, as they did when Van Hollen was endorsed by the Washington Post and they had to get the word out at the metro the next morning starting at 5:30am.
They answered the phones, attended meetings, compiled voter lists, cut turf (maps), made packets, trained volunteers and sent them out into the field to canvass door-to-door. They led the advance team, getting to myriad campaign events early, placing lawn signs, and creating visibility. The field team organized lawn sign days where we distributed thousands of lawn signs in a single afternoon. I once counted signs in lawns. Van Hollen’s outnumbered our opponent’s 30:1, creating free advertising.
Carla Pappalardo ran the phonebank and was assisted by Chris’s sister Carolyn Van Hollen. Together with volunteers, they made tens of thousands of calls: both for voter identification and Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV).
Some other field organizers included Lori Sherwood, Kevin Anderson, Peter Kusik, Jeff Jacobs and Isaac Salazar. Most of the famed grassroots operation would not have been possible without them, and the leadership of Josh, Martin, Katie, Shanna, Ed, Colleen, Carla and thousands of devoted volunteers who assisted us.
The staff in charge of volunteers and the field staff were ultimately responsible for the campaign’s GOTV effort which sent 1,200 volunteers door-to-door on Election Day, who contacted over 101,000 voters in targeted districts, and distributed 80,000 door hangers the day before the general election.
In the first 6 months, the fundraising team, which I helped lead, tripled size of the donor base from Chris’s State Senate campaigns, raising about $420,000.00 for the period and building the donor base which was used to raise $1.4 million for the successful primary election. Johanna Berkson, who is now Chris Van Hollen’s right-hand woman at the DCCC, was the fundraising assistant in the primary election.
Lindsay Lewis was the finance director for the General Election, assisted by Jason Zeisch and Berkson. Building upon the 3,000 person donor base built early in the race; the campaign ultimately raised nearly $3 million, which placed us second in the nation for fundraising among freshman Congressional candidates. It was a top-notch, professional fundraising operation without which the campaign would not have achieved its fabled status.
Afshin Mohamadi did a masterful job as Press Secretary. Winston Sale was Chris’s driver. Jonathon Cohen, Cheryl Kagan and Pablo Collins did outreach to special constituencies and Pablo was the go-to guy for computer solutions.
I sincerely hope that I've not missed anybody. As Chris Van Hollen’s star continues its meteoric rise, let the history books show that the 2002 Van Hollen for Congress campaign, the one that really mattered, was a gargantuan team effort and those mentioned herein were an indispensible part of that team.
© Karyn Strickler, 2009. Karyn Strickler is a senior fellow at the Center for New Politics and Policy. She is the producer and host of Climate Challenge, the first and only TV show in the country focused exclusively on the issue of climate change on a weekly basis.
