Wednesday, June 02, 2010

Reshma Saujani At The Huffington Post


WASHINGTON - MAY 06:  Arianna Huffington (C), ...Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Reshma Saujani At The Huffington Post
My parents, originally of Indian origin, barely escaped the brutal regime of Idi Amin in Uganda. Forced to flee during the government’s violent persecution of foreigners, my family lost everything. But amnesty in America gave them a chance to rebuild. A highly qualified mechanical engineer, my father found work in a machine shop. My mother was pregnant – arriving in a new country with little money, our family couldn’t afford medical treatment. My sister was born at a local hospital supported by Catholic Charities, and my father still describes the free care my family received as a miracle...... After the enactment of the Patriot Act, I volunteered with the New York Bar Association to offer free legal services to documented immigrants in Queens. I painfully witnessed innocent New Yorkers having their civil liberties being violated day after day. This experience emboldened me to build a national movement within the Democratic Party to encourage South Asian Americans to get involved in the political process. ...... my deep understanding of the financial industry ..... We need a bridge builder who can align the ambitions of Wall Street with the needs of Main Street to rebuild our economy. We need to reclaim the City of Aspiration, and create hope and opportunity for everyone – from the small business owner in Murray Hill, to the woman behind the counter at the bodega in Astoria, to the public school teacher in the East Village. I believe these times call for innovative policies and bold leadership to prepare the next generation for the new global economy.
Empire State of Security
The danger is that the US today risks losing the high tech race to India, China, Brazil, and other emerging economies. ........our economic competitiveness and our national security are increasingly not distinct issues, but two sides of the same coin...... The future of our national security is inextricably linked with our efforts to get our budgets back in the black, revitalize our economy, manage our borders, and reduce our dependence on foreign sources of energy. ....... We need more networked cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies to thwart terrorist plots. We need more spending on high tech port security to prevent smuggled nuclear material from landing on our shores in containers. That means reinstating the 28 percent drop in Transit Security Grant funding for New York this year. ..... . What we really need is to
rethink what national security means
, and how to achieve it. ......Increasingly, security means innovation. ..... I plan to work with President Obama to double the National Science Foundation's funding, make the Research and Experimentation tax credit permanent, and restore our national R&D investment to its previous level of 3 percent of GDP. .....as the city with the highest concentration of hospitals in the world, and the largest concentration of research facilities in the nation, New York can spearhead a new national biotech strategy. With eager investors and a rich talent pool, we're the ideal place to ramp-up a new National Innovation Fund that leverages private investment against national priorities, notably biotechnology research. ....... In 2009, for the first time, China topped the G-20 in clean energy investing, more then doubling what the US committed to this sector. ..... the President's proposal for 25 percent of our national energy portfolio to come from renewable, homegrown sources by 2025. ...... craft a comprehensive national security strategy (read: national innovation strategy) that will secure a prosperous and safe future for all Americans. ....New York can lead the way.
Comprehensive Immigration Reform to Create Jobs and Secure our Future
From 1995 to 2005, over 25 percent of technology companies started in the US had a key immigrant founder. These companies generated over $50 billion in sales and employed half a million Americans during that span. Immigrants are just 12 percent of our population but earn a staggering 47 percent of the nation's science and technology PhDs and file for 24 percent of US patents. Today, over 50 percent of the immigrants returning to India or China hold advanced degrees......We should lift the cap on H1-B and EB-5 work and investor visas and pass the "StartUp Visa" program ..... Creating a pathway towards legal status for the 12 million illegal immigrants in the US today would boost GDP by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. Implementing a guest worker program would add another $792 billion to GDP during the same period. ...... reframe the debate around cultural inclusion, economic competitiveness, and plain common sense ....... moving illegal immigrants from our under-the-table economy to our above-the-table economy is smart fiscal policy for the nation ......In 2010, New York's share of the Department of Homeland Security Transit Security Grant Program - which funds sensors and bomb detecting equipment - fell by 28 percent. This is unacceptable. ...... pass provisions for illegal immigrants who have critical witness information to come forward and help law enforcement personnel address street crimes and security threats .....3.1 million American children have at least one parent who is in the US illegally ...... the Uniting American Families Act, which would allow US citizens in same-sex couples to sponsor their partners for legal immigration status ..... 36,000 of these couples are at risk of being separated because one partner is not a citizen ...... I am the daughter of political refugees. My family was forced to flee the brutal regime of Idi Amin after he ordered the mass expulsion of Indians from Uganda. They lost almost everything, and sought asylum from many countries, but were only offered that opportunity in the United States.
On Women's Rights, Democrats Should Stand Up, Not Back Down
In times of political turmoil, when difficult decisions were required, Democrats stood their ground and fought hard for the Civil Rights Act, Social Security, Medicaid, Head Start, campaign finance reform, and other critical legislation....... As a leader of one of the most progressive districts in the nation, the representative of the 14th should always stand up and fight for core Democratic principles, such as reproductive choice. ...... Deal making is part of the political process. But a core Democratic principle like a woman's right to choose should have never been on the table for negotiation. ....... If there's one thing that separates the two parties, it's that Democrats are the party of principle. And when we stick to our principles, our party wins, and our nation wins. ....... (I spoke at event recently on the need to focus on job creation. Someone asked me if I was really a Republican. It's clear our party has lost its way when New York Democrats think job creation is the sole territory of the GOP.) ...... We need to stop "legislating in haste and repenting at leisure." We need to stop "voting against the bill before we vote for it."
Financial Reform From Soup to Nuts
.....Wall Street needs to stop obstructing reform in Washington...... Congress needs to stop demonizing Wall Street...... It's about eliminating the bad lending practices, encouraged by loose regulation, which together have conspired against the entire economy. It's about a new regulatory framework that empowers Wall Street to generate growth and jobs in New York City and across America. ...... I'm not making the case to engage the financial sector because it used to pay my rent. If the circus were the biggest employer in New York, I'd fight for every acrobat and ringmaster in the tri-state area. ..... We need to work with Wall Street to move high finance away from unsustainable short-term thinking, and toward long-term investments in clean-tech, biotech, nanotech, health-tech, and new media......
Generation Innovation: Creating Jobs and Growth in New York City
New York ... even managed to reach the highest point in the sky at the lowest moment of the depression." ..... New York City has always been a place of possibility, innovation, and imagination. That's why, in the wake of the Great Recession, our sustained economic crisis calls for an audacious economic vision. ....... The national retailer Macy's started in 1858 as a modest dry goods store on 6th Ave. and 14th Street. MetLife, one of the nation's largest insurers, began as a downtown startup during Reconstruction. ...... the world's most vibrant and diverse city, and also the world's most vibrant and diverse economy. ....... Since the 1970s, New York City's economy has been dominated by the financial services sector. ....... In 2007, an astounding 38 percent of the New York City's total payroll came from the financial sector. ....... New York must and will remain an epicenter for global finance. But we must also diversify our economy. ........ Bailouts have targeted mega-banks, and stimulus dollars have gone to construction contractors. These are necessary measures, but they're not sufficient to spark the kind of innovation we need to jumpstart economic growth in New York City. The Bloomberg Administration has certainly demonstrated progress in this area, doing what it can on a tight city budget - but there's a long way to go, and federal funding can help. ........some 47 New York venture capital firms funded startups to the tune of more than $2 billion in the first half of 2009. ..... growth industries such as clean-tech, high-speed rail, and broadband ...... investing in the dreamers and doers of tomorrow.

Morgenthau Withdraws, Cites City's 'Resentment' Of Him Huff Post Former Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau withdrew on Tuesday from his role overseeing the city's efforts to improve the hiring of black and Hispanic firefighters, citing the city's "resentment" of him. ...... He said it appears the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg "has exhibited resentment against me." ...... arguing Morgenthau's "known distaste" for Bloomberg would make it impossible for him to be impartial. ..... his performance as district attorney had "not been to its liking." ...... There are about 350 black firefighters out of 11,500 firefighters working for the Fire Department of New York. Most city residents are minorities. 

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Tuesday, June 01, 2010

An Afternoon At The Reshma 2010 Headquarters


I was at the Reshma 2010 headquarters for a few hours this afternoon: 833 Broadway. The highlight was I made 70 phone calls, and made 10 contacts with voters. It did not feel like a Buzzd office shared with Reshma 2010. It felt the other way round. There were many more Reshma 2010 staffers and interns. (Buzzd)

In my mind I have been toying with the idea of going to work full time for Reshma 2010 for three and a half months. But that might or might not be the best fit for me and/or Reshma 2010. We will have to see about that. (My Political Resume, Reshma 2010, And September 14) If I end up with a formal role, it is likely going to be amorphous.

The campaign is not in top shape right now. If the elections were held today, we would lose. Two words: name recognition. But the campaign is promising. I see victory possible. September 14 could be ours. But there has to be a willingness to try out new things, to push the envelope. But we can not be worrying about poll numbers right now, this is why: February To September: Little Change.

If we emerge victorious, September 14 is going to be the second most glowing item on Kevin Lawler's resume, the first being the Obama victory in Iowa in January 2008. Kevin was there. (My Talk With Kevin Lawler Of Reshma 2010) He told me some of the war stories. I hope to ask him more about that experience. Without that Iowa victory, Hillary might have been president.

The first debate is going to be our Iowa. We really, really have to win that first debate with Maloney.

We have to hold mock debates. A few different people could step in for Maloney.

I asked Aaron why we don't canvass the East Side the way we canvass Astoria and Long Island City. He said it is because on the East Side we have these huge buildings that we can't get into. And at that moment an idea struck me. Take a look at this site called NYC Bloggers. It lists about 7,000 bloggers by subway stop. People on the East Side have to be digitally savvy. We should perhaps create a blogroll of all the bloggers in our district, and we have to engage them. We read their blog posts, leave comments for them, engage them, and gently guide them over to the Reshma 2010 website. This might work better than reaching out to the community newspapers, or working the subway stops. If there are 1,000 bloggers listed in our district, and each such blogger has at least 10 readers in the district, that is 10,000 people!

This NYC Bloggers idea is no argument against community newspapers, community leaders, and community events though.

There are three types of campaigning.
  1. Targeted Campaigning. And we seem to spend a lot of our time and resources on this one. We know who the potential voters for September 14 are. And we try our best to reach out to them, to identify them, to target them. 
  2. Broadcast Campaigning. This is when you put out an ad in the New York Times (Reshma Saujani Ad Spotted At The New York Times Website) or when we work a subway stop. Or when our candidate gets media coverage. Not everyone who reads a newspaper article about Reshma Saujani is a potential voter. But getting that buzz is still important. If a potential voter has already heard of her through broadcast campaigning, it becomes easier to reach out to them through target campaigning. Right now most voters are not even paying attention. Primaries tend to be low turnout events in the first place. But the real mad dash to the finish line will begin with the debates. 
  3. Getting First Time Voters. This is key. The Maloney campaign might match us in the first two categories, and we have to make up for that by reaching out to people who might otherwise not even bother voting on September 14. We have to appeal to the New Woman on the East Side. 
Talking about the New Woman and the East Side, I spent my first 15 minutes at the Reshma 2010 offices staring at the three huge maps of the district, the district split into three. That was revealing to me. The backbone of the district is the East Side. Unless we can compete with Maloney on the East Side, we can't win. And there is no reason why we can't. Reshma had a lot of early donors on the Upper East Side. You compete on the East Side, and you beat with the votes in Astoria and Long Island City. But the big chunk of the votes are on Manhattan's East Side.
Within a week, the Reshma 2010 headquarters will be moving to a bigger space in Midtown. The office could use a few netbooks - $300 each - and a few Metro PCS family plan phones: unlimited talk. 

My best phone call of the day was with a voter with whom I deviated from the script. So would you say you are very political? I asked. The guy got flattered. He took over the conversation. He told me how strongly he felt about the various issues. He said he had been voting a long, long time. He said he thought Obama was a "weak president" for not having passed immigration reform already. Finally he said, don't waste your time on me, I am already committed to voting for Reshma, go talk to someone else.

So I am working the phone, and a Buzzd staffer walks by. He points at me and exclaims, "Barackface!" And walks away. That's right, I say.

"How do you know him?" Aaron asks me.

"I don't."

Aaron gets impressed. 

A 14-7 Office For Reshma 2010
My Political Resume, Reshma 2010, And September 14
Reshma Saujani, Carolyn Maloney
My Talk With Kevin Lawler Of Reshma 2010
Reshma 2010 Get Together In Little India
Reshma Saujani Ad Spotted At The New York Times Website
Reshma Saujani, Scott Heiferman, Chris Hughes: TechCrunch Disrupt
Reshma Saujani, Haiti Earthquake, Harvard Yale, And 2016
Reshma Saujani "Gets" Tech
Reshma Saujani: Innovation, Ethnic Pride, Thought Leadership
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Monday, May 31, 2010

A 14-7 Office For Reshma 2010

I want a Reshma 2010 office that is open every day of the week from 8 AM to 10 PM all the way to September 14. Your average staffer still works about 50 hours a week, but shutting the operations down during weekends is a very, very bad idea. I volunteer to work weekends, and I volunteer to work the late hours. I get to take my day off on Monday or Tuesday. And I like sleeping in late anyways.

The hours go up as we get closer to September 14. Victors put in hours.

An open office is one that has at least one person in the office. We want people out in the field as much as in the office. But we want one person who will answer the phone. "Hi, this is Jon with Reshma 2010." "Hi, this is Kevin with Reshma 2010." We answer the phone 14-7 unfailingly. And we talk to the caller as long as they will talk to us. And we answer all emails. All emails. What is that one email address?

People still will get their days off, but not all of them will be off on Sundays. A lot of community action happens during weekends. A lot of events are evening events. Everybody on the team has to have a phone that is always on. When you are not in the physical office, you are in the mobile office. But if we plan well, the last minute fire fighting phone calls will be kept to the minimum. When you are with people, be with the people, get off the phone, concentrate on the people. Shower attention on the volunteers, shower attention on the media people, shower attention on the community leaders and activists. Get on a first name basis with all of them. You can't do that if you are on the phone with the campaign office instead.

I can do weekends, and I can do the late shift, no problem. I could take Wednesdays off. I hear the Bronx Zoo is free entry on Wednesdays.

Read, read, read. Read the New York Times. Read it every day. Read it first thing in the morning. It is a good newspaper. Got to talk up the politics of the day. What is the latest? What is happening in DC? What is happening in Albany? What's up in City Hall? What is Bloomberg up to today? Read up. Read it on online. Buy it in print. Share it. Pass it around. Ask to read the business section when someone else is reading the front page. I want to see stains on that paper, your hand stains.

On your day off go read a book.

Call, call, call. Spend at least one hour every working day calling up voters. I don't know yet what the setup is like in the office, but we need a few dedicated landlines for that express purpose. One hour is minimum. Do it at random hours of the day. Do it because you need a break from staring at that computer screen.

Meet, meet, meet. Meeting ordinary people is the best part of working on a political campaign. You should have fun doing it. You should look forward to it. You should feel like, I am having so much fun meeting people, why is Reshma even paying me to do this? Paying me to meet people is a scam. I would do it for free. This is so much fun. If you are not enjoying meeting people, you are in the wrong line of business. Go become a carpenter or something. Or a rocket scientist.

Drink, drink, drink. Do not get dehydrated. Always carry with you a bottle of water wherever you go. We just need the plastic bottles. Tap water works just fine. Bottled water is tap water with a brand name. That is all. Bring the bottles back to the office and fill them up. Never run out of water. The best things in life are free. Water is one of them. Water is officially the best drink anyone can get hold of. Better even than milk.

I demand we keep a mixer/grinder in the office, and always a ready stock of yogurt, mango pulp, icecream, and ice. I will make mango lussee for everyone, as often as I have to. But I'd prefer to teach it to you. You add two raw eggs and some milk into that mix, and it is a meal. I have tried that many times. I want an endless supply of lassee for me, lassee that I make myself. Yogurt, mango pulp, milk, eggs, icecream, ice. Kevin, if you want me to call you boss, do this. Keep the supplies stocked up. This is what I mean by keep the trains running.

Mock debates every week. Megan stands in as Maloney. Kevin moderates. I do a brutal analysis after it is over. All staffers and interns are encouraged to come watch, to offer one liners, funny and otherwise. We are opening up a bank for one liners. Donate one liners. We are not asking for blood. It is just one liners. Any staffer/intern/volunteer can apply to stand in as Maloney. If you think you are a great debater, contact me.

Work the subway stops. Everyone on the team - staffers, interns, top volunteers - must work a subway stop in the district for at least an hour during rush hour each week. We will meet many non voters in the process, but that is okay. Remember that part about meeting people? All we are trying to do is get people to visit our website. And they don't have to be in the district to donate. If they are not in the district, maybe they know someone who is. If they are not a voter, they might know someone who is. Hi, Reshma is running for Congress, and she would like you to visit her website. And you hand out the flyer.

I am assuming all staffers have the monthly metro card. I will get one too. If anyone wants to get on the Metro PCS family plan with me, holler! Unlimited talk, text, web sounds like sliced bread. I have never tried it. I am about to. On the other hand, getting the new 4G Android phone from Sprint might allow me to video blog for the campaign every day, several times a day. Video blog, tweet. Feedback welcome. I am going to ask Nihal about this tomorrow.

Buzzd: Paramendra
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Save Immigration For 2011

Official presidential portrait of Barack Obama...Image via Wikipedia
As to what will happen in November of this year is anyone's guess, but Obama has set his mind to make history again by doing the best he can to keep the House and the Senate. If he loses one chamber, the next two years start looking shaky in terms of legislative work.

Passing health care reform was historic, and puts Obama in the FDR league of greatness. Work on financial sector reform also looks promising. Success on health made work on finance easy.

Obama might get tempted to make as much headway as possible on immigration as well. His commitment to the issue is beyond doubt, and the Hispanic caucus might even argue that putting immigration reform front and center will ensure crucial Hispanic turnout. And the Hispanic voters tend to cast the deciding vote.

That might as well be the case, but my instinct tells me the best strategy would be keep the immigration issue alive but saving actual work on it to begin in early 2011, hopefully to be completed by the end of that year, if not earlier. Some of the passions exhibited during the health care debate were to do with a really bad economy. People were hurting and anxious.

Health care reform, financial sector reform, comprehensive immigration reform: these are huge issues, and huge accomplishments when work is completed.

By the end of 2011 though, as Obama gears for his reelection effort, he is going to have to talk deficits and debt loud and clear. He will have to run on the platform that he will have balanced the budget early in his second term. Actually hinting towards that eventuality might be a great theme to keep echoing in the lead up to November this year itself.

A nuanced strategy would be to begin work on immigration this year but barely, so it does rouse Hispanic turnout at the polls, enough to tilt the tide in favor of Obama keeping both chambers, but to do actual work after the election is over. It is because immigration is a volatile issue. The top priority for the rest of this year for Obama has to be to keep the House and keep the Senate.

Gulf Oil Spill
A Dirty Bomb Just Went Off In The Gulf
In South Africa They Had Apartheid, In America They Got Immigration
Do I Know Rajiv Shah?
The Obama FDR Parallels
Obama's Got Momentum: He Could Defy History In November
State Of The Union: In Good Hands
Supreme Court Vs. Obama
Iran: An Opportunity
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My Political Resume, Reshma 2010, And September 14

The United States Congress approves federal fu...Image via Wikipedia
Happy Memorial Day Weekend. Summer officially begins. I don't know about you but I like it warm better than I like it cold.

I am not exactly taking my time to decide if I want to go work full time for Reshma 2010 or not. Right now I don't have the option: Immigration Status. But my work papers should arrive soon.

I moved to the city summer of 2005 to launch my company but got sucked into working for Nepal's democracy and social justice movements full time for the better part of two years. That was a lot of eating into savings. Throwing a dictator off is way more challenging than winning a Congressional race in the US. In a democracy movement, people die, for one.

All I know is I am on the cusp of deciding to do it. I don't need much convincing. This is a historic race: the first Indian American woman ever to run for Congress. The campaign is not in top shape, and I have the option to try and make a difference. The machine is behind the opponent. That makes it even more fun.

Tomorrow I am planning on dropping by the campaign offices: 833 Broadway. I was there for the first time for the tech panel discussion event with Al Wenger and others. I have not been back since. I have stuck to the canvassing.

What Are You Doing Monday? Come Meet Al Wenger (technbiz.blogspot.com)

I think Reshma 2010 will be a great thing for me to do for three and a half months. I have toyed with a few different options. I could just keep being a dedicated volunteer. I could go do it for a month. But doing it to September 14 makes a lot of sense.

I have an impressive political resume.

Both sides of my family were political. I was born in India, grew up in Nepal. My grandfather was headman of the village for 15 years. He was sitting down for dinner and a group of men from the neighboring village came over, barged in, lifted him up, and the celebrations began. A committee of sorts had decided on his name. He was completely unawares. I was there. My father ran for parliament later. He lost. My mother's cousin was Education Minister for Bihar, the second most populous state in India with as many people as there are in France, for much of the 1990s. Laloo Yadav was Chief Minister. More recently Laloo was India's Railway Minister. The CEO of General Electric called him the best Railway Minister in the world. I am half Bihari.

I was House Captain in Class 5 and Class 10, and in Class 12 the school authorities had to offer me the office of School Captain against their desires for being the obvious candidate. All that was at the top school in Kathmandu.

After high school I was Vice General Secretary to a political party in Nepal that had two MPs. A central committee member of that party from that time is currently a cabinet minister in Nepal.

At college in Kentucky I ran for Freshman Class President and everyone else got more votes than me. Five months later I got myself elected student body president. Everybody who had ever been somebody in the SGA had run. I won by three votes.

I was a Deaniac in 2004 in Indiana. And I was one of Obama's earliest people in NYC.
I was the only Nepali in America to have worked full time for the democracy movement in Nepal a few years back. (The First Major Revolution Of The 21st Century Happened In Nepal)
I think I would want the title of Director. There is the candidate. And she sits atop the campaign organization structure. Then there is the Campaign Manager and the Director. The Campaign Manager is the formal head of the organization, makes sure the trains are running on time. The Director works in partnership with the Campaign Manager but keeps an amorphous role so as to be able to do some out of the box thinking. The Field Director reports to the Campaign Manager but also directly to the candidate. All the Field Organizers report to the Field Director. But since we are talking about 20 people or less, everyone is talking to everybody.

I think I want Campaign Manager pay and status, but I want to work in perfect sync with the existing organization. I would want to conduct a brutal analysis of the campaign from November to today, which I am going to call phase one. From now to September 14 is phase two.

This can be done, victory is possible. That is why I am interested in putting my time into this. But there has to be a scientific approach. Numbers have to be faced. Where do we stand in the polls today? We don't stand well.  Our candidate lacks name recognition compared to the incumbent. But that can change rapidly. We want as many debates as possible, starting as early as possible. The debates will be the turning point.

But we also have to do the JFK thing. He first ran for the House, and later for the Senate. And his number one strategy would be to seek speaking assignments every possible place. He would start out by cracking a joke, often a joke he had cracked somewhere else, and then he would dive into his speech, and next. We have to take our candidate to every possible political and community event in town. Make sure she has at least two staffers with her. Megan would be a great person to accompany her. We have to seek speaking assignments. No organization is too small. No topic too esoteric.

One third of the district is South Asian. But we don't have any South Asian staffer working the field. I guess someone like me gets to dive into that.

I really need to spend a few days at the office before I start laying it all out. I have a feeling some of the stuff I want to get done is already being worked upon. But then I also want to make the best of the fact that I will be new and fresh. I will be able to offer perspectives that someone who has been on the staff for months might not be able to. You get used to seeing things a certain way.

We have to track some numbers. How much money have we raised? How much do we continue to raise? How much has been spent? How much do we have in the bank? Have we paced the spending well? What will be the big ticket items down the line? Where do we stand in the polls? How many community newspapers have written about us? How many community leaders have we contacted? How many interns do we have? How many volunteers do we have? I was at John Liu's primary victory party. It felt to me like 30 young people in their early 20s delivered the city to him. If we could have 15 razzmatazz staffers, 20 psyched interns, and 30 volunteers out of the ordinary, we could do it. We have to put the volunteers on the pedestal. We need to throw a party. How about a barbecue in some park?

My Talk With Kevin Lawler Of Reshma 2010

We have to have superior debate preparation. The debates are the political equivalent of boxing championship fights. Everything we do till then will culminate in how we do during the debates. They will be crucial. What can the candidate do to maximize her chances? What are the pre-debate things to do? What are the post-debate things to do?

I think I am going to get a monthly metro card, and a Metro PCS unlimited talk, text and web phone. I want to reach out to the volunteer base in a big way, I want to reach out to community newspapers and leaders.

And I am psyched about creating the rudiments of a 2016 platform for Reshma. We have to stand by all Obama stands for. Because that is what Maloney is going to do. She is not going to offer anything new except the promise that she will vote for everything Obama wants her to vote for. Well, that much we can do too.

We are lucky to have a policy wonk candidate. That will make the task of debate preparation so much easier.

This can be done. This race can be won.

Me @ BBC

There is something we could learn from Paul English, the Kayak.com guy. His focus on customer service is out of the box and legendary. His team replies to all emails from customers. And they have a big, red phone in the office. They pick it up when it rings.

Paul English Writes Back
Kayak, Paul English, Africa, Free Wireless Internet

Maybe we should make it mandatory for all staffers and all interns. You must call up voters for at least one hour each day. And identify the top 30 volunteers, and get the campaign manager to call them up once a week. Identify the top 10 volunteers and get the candidate to call them up once a week. Identify all the community newspapers in the district. And get the candidate to visit their offices, as many as possible. I'd happily visit all of them as Director to get them to do at least one story on us. Every such story is free advertising. Do the cost benefit analysis. We come out on top.

There has got to be a way to find out about all the community events in the district. Some staffer has to show up to all of them. Maybe me. I would be okay with that. We need to have an enthusiastic volunteer in every block in the district, someone willing to throw a house party, knock on 10 doors.

The idea is to get 30,000 votes to win. We want to have called all those 30,000 people before election day.

I am getting sucked into this thing like I got sucked into the Nepal democracy movement a few years back.
  • A 2016 Platform (the best ideas will not come from the two policy staffers, or even the candidate, or me, or any staffer; there are policy wonks at NYU and Columbia, and Harvard and Yale we have to reach out to, think tanks; we have to build a matrix of a network of academics) 
  • Top notch, razzmatazz debate performances (We need to start having mock debates every week. I think Megan should stand in as Maloney.) 
  • An amazing grassroots matrix of supporters. 
  • Community media. 
  • Subway stops: work them like crazy. (Maybe we should make it mandatory for all staffers and all interns; you must work one subway stop for one hour during rush hour every week; pair up with someone, go do it) 
We intend to hit the national headlines come September 14.
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Saturday, May 29, 2010

Reshma Saujani, Carolyn Maloney

Reshma Saujani - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Saujani's parents lived in Uganda, prior to being expelled, along with other Indians, in the early 1970s by Idi Amin. The Saujanis settled in Chicago. ...... Saujani attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she graduated in 1997 with majors in Political Science and Speech Communications. She attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where she received a Masters of Public Policy in 1999, and Yale Law School, where she received her Juris Doctorate in 2002. ..... She worked at the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, where she handled asylum cases pro bono..... Saujani founded "South Asians for Kerry" during the 2004 presidential election. ..... Saujani served on the National Finance Board for Hillary Clinton during Clinton's campaign for president in 2008. Following the primaries, she was named Vice-Chair of the New York delegation at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. ...... Saujani has won the support of top entrepreneurs including Jack Dorsey, co-founder and chairman of Twitter; Randi Zuckerberg, director of market development for Facebook and sister of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg; Alexis Maybank, co-founder of Gilt Groupe; and Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook........ Saujani has raised a considerable amount of money for a challenger in a congressional race, outraising Maloney by almost a 2-to-1 margin in the last quarter of 2009...... Her candidacy has received the backing of prominent Upper East Side political fundraisers, including Cathy Lasry and Maureen White.



Carolyn B. Maloney - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia the Congresswoman for New York's 14th congressional district since 1993. .... most of Manhattan's East Side; Astoria and Long Island City in Queens; and Roosevelt Island. ...... In 1970, she visited New York City and decided to stay. ..... In 1992, Maloney was elected to the House of Representatives, narrowly defeating a 15-year incumbent, liberal Republican Bill Green, in a victory considered an upset. She is the first woman to ever represent the district, and has been re-elected eight times ....... Following Maloney's win, Republicans continued to hold most of the State Senate, Assembly, and City Council seats on Manhattan's East Side for nearly another decade. Since 2002, the Democrats have dominated the area, and now hold all of the area's seats in the state legislature and City Council. ....... among the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Maloney has the ninth-highest amount of investment in oil stocks. ........In the book, Maloney argues that progress for women has stalled and offers recommendations for resuming their advance toward full equality ...... In December 2008, Maloney hired a public relations firm to help bolster her efforts to be named by Governor David Paterson as Hillary Clinton's successor as a New York Senator. Maloney toured parts of the state, but was overshadowed by Caroline Kennedy's promotional tour for the same seat. Maloney interviewed with the governor for 55 minutes. Public opinion polls placed Maloney's support for the Senate seat in the single digits, trailing the front-runner ..... On July 20, 2009, Maloney apologized after using the word "nigger" in repeating a comment made by a third party about Gillibrand. ....... he married Clifton Maloney, an investment banker, in 1976.

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Carolyn Maloney has a longer resume, but it is because she is older, twice as old. I say her resume is not long enough.

Issues in women's rights like equal pay, and reproductive rights are like a ceiling to Maloney. She tried the best she could, but she has done the best she can. Those same issues are a floor to Reshma Saujani. She will fight for equal pay, she will fight harder for reproductive rights. And she will build on all that to do much more. Maloney belongs to a generation that imagined equality. Reshma Saujani belongs to a generation that wants to be able to take equality for granted.

Obama has done so much for race without even talking about it. Reshma Saujani's focus on technology and innovation and the next generation of jobs, companies and industries is something similar. She dreams of things that a leader - man or woman - would dream of. That kind of confidence comes from wanting to take equality for granted.

This is not about okay let's just undo the good work Maloney has done for women's rights. This is about she has not done enough, although she tried, and let's build upon whatever she has been able to do. And let's also touch upon leadership issues in general. Let's also talk about creating the next generation of jobs, companies and industries.


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My Talk With Kevin Lawler Of Reshma 2010

I am going to be a super engaged volunteer. That is my default mode. But I have considered going to work full time for Reshma 2010 for three and a half months. And I shared that with Kevin. He is an Obama 08 veteran, and Campaign Manager to Reshma 2010.

Reshma 2010 Get Together In Little India

I shared some thoughts. I explored a possible role for me. I shared some stories from my work into Nepal's democracy movement a few years back. I had a few things to say about the campaign.

(1) Can't Get Into On Autopilot To A Grand Loss Mode

I saw that happen to the Fernando Ferrer campaign in 2005. You showed up at the campaign headquarters. And there were these tens of super busy people. They were going to put in their hours, even work hard. But there was little experimenting, little of trying to come in from a few different angles.

First of all, Maloney is no Bloomberg, not even close. She leads in the polls now, but Obama too lagged in the polls the longest time. Reshma has raised the most money in the first two quarters like Obama did.

Got to stay in the victory mode. How do you do that? You keep having fun. You keep trying out new things. You keep working the things that work. You feel the growth of the snowball of support.

Carolyn Maloney is never going to run for president, she is a spent force, Reshma could. Maloney has done some good work, but she has had her turn. She is pre-Obama at many levels. Reshma is post-Obama. Maloney is not known nationally for any kind of thought leadership, Reshma is oozing with new ideas. Reshma deserves to win, she is going to win.

(2) Produce Plentiful Video Clips

It is free to do. Produce five minutes of video per day. Produce a video clip for every event small and big. Getting 50-100 hits on a video clip is good enough. You do this for the core team, for the staff and volunteers. Text does not do what video does. The video format has greater emotional appeal. Use a flip camera. Let some staffer volunteer to do the editing.

(3) The Subway Stops: Where It Is At

Showing up at rush hours to hand out small flyers would be a great way to reach out. My first day canvassing in Astoria was 100 knocks, 10 talks. At the subway stops you might approach 500 people in an hour, give out perhaps 200 flyers/post cards/business cards. Even if you net 20 potential voters, that is a lot. All you want is to get people to visit the site.

How many subway stops are there in the district? They are in the 20s. How about having someone at each stop every day during rush hour for the 30 days before the primary? This is about volume.

Kevin told me they already have a cropped map of the NYC subway system that shows only the stops in the district.

(4) Build A Brain Trust

Reshma has to come across as a thought leader. Got to start collecting a brain trust of people from academia and think tanks who will offer advice on all the key policy areas. What would a 2016 platform look like? Build towards that.

(5) Phone Marathons

Modern campaigns are able to pin down the potential primary voters. Being able to call them all would be a thing to do. Working the phone has to be something all staffers do, regardless of expertise.

(6) Community Press, Community Leaders

I saw this with the John Liu campaign. John Liu ended up with more votes than Bloomberg even, but during the primary he was shunned by the establishment press. John Liu reacted by aggressively courting small, ethnic newspapers. Their circulations were small, but loyal. They were flattered by the attention and often talked glowingly about Liu.

Identifying and courting community leaders fall in a similar category. In every community there are people who make it their business to reach out to members of the community on a regular basis.

(7) Pro.Act.Ly

The first time I heard about it was in the TechCrunch Disrupt video, and it promises to be a great tool. (Reshma Saujani, Scott Heiferman, Chris Hughes: TechCrunch Disrupt)

(8) Debating Maloney

Maloney is going to try and not debate Reshma. We have to keep nudging her, and we have to make political hay out of her not saying yes, and then we have to beat her at the debates when she finally says yes. The campaign has to do a super job of helping the candidate with the best possible preparation for the debates. Those debates will be the turning points. Start watching videos of Maloney on YouTube. Google her up. Read up on her. Know her strengths and weaknesses.

(9) Money

I am not going to say much about money, except that it is money, message, organization. Those are the three pillars.

(10) Social Media

I am hoping to blog profusely. It can be a tool to boost team morale, and more.
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Reshma 2010 Get Together In Little India

Yesterday I emailed my information man Jon Gardiner. What's the plan for Saturday? He emailed me back.

*Saturday, May 29th from 1:00-3:00pm at
Mad Hatter Saloon (360 3rd Ave., btwn. E. 26th St. and E. 27th St.)*

Jon is from Nashville. He went to school in Michigan. I have been to Nashville. He is on the Reshma 2010 staff.

Reshma is a great political brand name to have. It even rhymes with Obama.

Last Saturday he had talked of a barbecue in some park. Instead it was a get together in a bar.

I showed up dressed in black. It was nice and warm out. I had a steamed dumplings lunch right before I took off. The first thing I asked for was water. Other than stealing a few nachos and a few jalapenos from Reshma's plate, I stuck to the water. I stayed away from the beer. When all was said and done, four of the leading staffers stayed back inside the bar to play a game on the screen - Megan beat them all, it was a shooting game - and they got yet another pitcher. I said no, thanks.

I watched them play. Then I left. They kept playing, pointing the plastic gun at the screen. I walked over to Curry In A Hurry on Lexington and 28th. I ordered two samosas and went upstairs and sat down to a great view of the street below.

I walked over to Union Square where I hopped onto the train. Kevin Lawler, the Campaign Manager is on the L line, I am on the L line. Kevin is from Portland, Oregon. At the Farmer's Market in Union Square I bought a big bag of apples for a dollar, and some banana bread for another dollar. (Farmville Farmer's Market: My Idea)

I got to meet and talk at length to Kevin for the first time. He was on the Obama 08 staff for a year. He is impressive.

The gathering was fun. It did have a lull before the storm feeling. The entire team is getting ready to soon collect signatures to get Reshma on the ballot.

Jon's "football lawyer" elder brother showed up. So you guys are from Nashville? I asked.

"Actually I was there only yesterday," he said.

My talk with Kevin was in depth. I hope to follow up on that. I guess I am still exploring the idea of going to work for Reshma 2010 full time for three and a half months. I smell victory, and I want to make sure it does happen.

@a_buchanan showed up. Last/first I saw her was at the Al Wenger tech event.

In all 15-20 people showed up. A few were come and go. I had a great time. I was relaxed before I got there. I was relaxed while there. I was relaxed when I left. There were some great conversations. I noticed Megan and Reshma have a telepathy thing going on. Megan Simpson is the Field Director. She has more people reporting to her than anyone else on the campaign staff, I think. She is a sharp shooter too.

Megan is from Iowa. I have been all over Iowa, I said to her last Saturday which is when she revealed her Iowa roots. Now that is one political state.

The final scene of the day stayed in my mind. There were these four staffers, five, taking turns at a video game. Really getting along, having a fun time together, cracking jokes. That was small proof the campaign is in a great shape. The internal dynamics are in top shape.

Reshma Saujani is a Gujarati like Mahatma Gandhi. Never underestimate a Gujarati, especially when it comes to politics. Churchill underestimated Gandhi, and look what happened to the British Empire. Empire Maloney, watch out.

She is usually on a tight schedule. So around 2:30 she left. She came back for her sunglasses.

"We were going to put it out on eBay," I said.
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