Two Pieces of Caucus Advice: Wear Stickers, and Vote

Are you all wearing your colors?

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I caucused for the first time this morning in Maine.

I realized a few things and thought I'd share them with you guys.

First of all, I had the wrong mindset going into this. I felt as though I had to "get the message out" to everyone in town. And, I pretty much did just that. But this shotgun strategy doesn't really work well. It worked OK, we placed 2nd but when you drill down it could have been won much more easily.

A caucus presents a rare opportunity because hardly NO ONE really participates. Our town has 17,500 people. We are right next to Maine's largest city of Portland (100K or so). Out of our 17,500 only 78 people showed up to caucus. That was a record turnout.

We're not talking about large numbers. If each person already identified as a Ron Paul supporter got 2 more people each (cousin, brother, sister, mother, father, aunt, uncle, friend) that could make all the difference in the world. You could also go down your street and try to find someone to support YOU. The biggest key is getting them to commit to YOU. Make sure they know you're counting on them and counting THEM in your numbers. Tell them you will call the day before or day of caucus. Hell, go pick em up. It's really an easy sell, it doesn't cost them anything but time. Let them know that YOU want to show strong support at your meetup (treat it like a sponsorship) and that you need X number of people to pledge their support for you and show up. You'd be surprised at how many people would want to help YOU and could care less about the election.Thinking about it, I could have went to McDonald's this morning and probably convinced someone who never voted to hop in the car with me if I bought them a sausage biscuit.

The sign bombs and mass calling and surface canvassing is great and it feels good but it doesn't match up to finding people who say "yes, I will go support you at Caucus". I can't stress this enough.

This was a great learning experience for me and some other things I learned:

1. Get there EARLY and wear buttons (or have them in your pocket so you can slap em on if they are allowed.

2. Greet EVERYONE that comes into the room with a smile, a hello, and personally hand them a good piece of Ron Paul literature. If you can't get a hold of good literature, write a letter and sign it.

3. Bring a few signs to stick outside near the caucus site (when I saw the Romney signs we turned right around and went get some RP signs to throw up)

4. Have a KILLER speech prepared - you will probably be up against paid speakers by the other campaigns (grassroots stating that they LIVE there and are NOT paid by the campaign goes a long way)

5. Have a head count of Ron Paul supporters and double check the number after the final tally.

6. MOST IMPORTANT: Every Ron Paul supporter should be willing to be a delegate. In Maine, we can assign delegates and replace them later with another human being. You might be able to do the same in your state. We probably won't win Maine's popular vote, but it appears that we will have the most delegates - its very close from the results we have thus far.

BUMP ME OFTEN, SPREAD ME FAR AND WIDE

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What is the best use for my final 100 slim jims?? Nursing homes? Parking lots? Or front doors? Anyone have enough experience to recommend one above the other?

Go Ron Go

Anything wrong with setting up big screen TV's at the polls that show ron paul youtube vids all day?