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Chuck Muth's News & Views -
SPECIAL EDITION
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HOW YOU CAN HELP ME TRAIN THOUSANDS
OF CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATES THIS YEAR.
As y'all aren't garden variety political activists who just fell off a turnip
truck last night, I'm not going to go into a lot of detail on WHY candidate
training is so important to our cause. I'll just make a few quick
observations...and then ask for your help, OK?
1.) You can't change public policy without changing public officials.
2.) You can't beat somebody with nobody.
3.) You can't govern if you can't win.
4.) More races are lost because of lousy campaigns, not lousy candidates.
Campaigns are increasingly complicated and technical. You wouldn't try building
a house without some training, but all too many rookie candidates - with nothing
but the best of intentions - try to get themselves elected without knowing spit
from spam when it comes to running a campaign.
I have NO training for being a lawyer or a surgeon and I can GUARANTEE you don't
want me defending you in court or cracking open your skull for brain surgery.
Candidates need to think about running a political campaign the same way. They
NEED training. They WANT training. And with just a little bit of help, a large
number of "almost" winners can become ACTUAL winners.
Now here's the problem. Or I should say...problems.
Thanks to the McCain/Feingold campaign finance reform law, the Republican
National Committee can no longer take "soft" money contributions. Those were the
large corporate donations which the RNC used to fund its extensive candidate
training programs...which, at one time, were GREAT. No mas.
...And ever since Newt left Congress, GOPAC - which also once did GREAT
candidate training seminars - has been but a shell of itself and no longer
produces the workshops, tapes and books it once did.
...And the Leadership Institute, which used to conduct the best darn Grassroots
Activist training program in this hemisphere, has dramatically scaled back its
efforts for some reason. As of today, they have ONLY TWO training schools
scheduled between now and the November elections: One in Wilmington, DE, in
March...and one in Arlington, VA, in June. Not much help to folks west of the
Mississippi.
...And frankly, at the state and local level you often have people putting on
training seminars who are either (a) political hacks whose expertise stops at
which side of a stamp to lick, or (b) political consultants who are only looking
for new clients and really have no ability (or desire) to teach under-funded
candidates how to run a winning campaign without the candidate paying them major
fungolas.
Now, as you know I've been conducting training seminars around the country for
the last eight years or so. And in all modesty, I'm pretty darn good at it. In
fact, if I ever give up this political gig I'd probably want to become a teacher
(much to the consternation of that "terrorist organization," the NEA!).
But it is VERY expensive to put on a "live" seminar to train just a couple dozen
candidates in person. Between the travel expenses and the cost to rent a hotel
meeting room - not to mention some compensation for the trainer 's time - a
good, quality training workshop can easily run a couple thousand dollars. And
without some serious underwriting by some major donors, the only way to offset
those costs is to charge an arm-and-a-leg for registration fees. But, heck, if
the candidates had THAT kind of money they wouldn't NEED the seminars. They'd
just go out and hire a professional campaign manager to run their race.
Now add in the fact that, since most candidates still have jobs, you have to
conduct these seminars on weekends. That means time factors alone limit the
number of seminars you can do in the few months' time leading up to an election
to a couple dozen. With those cost and time limitations in mind, that means
seminars generally must be held ONLY in major cities.
So what about those candidates who can't get away to attend the seminar for job,
money or other reasons...not to mention those who live in small towns and cities
such as Minot, North Dakota or Elko, Nevada? THEY have to travel themselves,
stay overnight in a hotel, etc. Again, the cost keeps them from learning the
sorts of things which could very well help put them in the winner's circle on
election day.
And finally, there's my own selfishness.
I've never had a problem with traveling around the country and taking a couple
days off to help these good, deserving candidates get off on the right foot with
our "Campaign War College." But that was before I had kids. Frankly - and I KNOW
this is selfish - but given a choice between taking a weekend to fly to St.
Louis to do a training seminar...or take my 2-year-old and 4-year-old daughters
to the zoo, playground, circus, beach or camping...well, it's no contest. Sorry.
But thankfully, technology now offers us a NEW option: Webcasting.
The folks at World Profit - who have provided our listserve which distributes
News & Views every day on the 'net for the last eight years - now offer a
Webcast System...at an affordable price. With this system, I can conduct our
campaign training programs ONLINE for a fraction of what it costs to do a live
seminar. And that means any candidate with access to the Internet would be able
to participate anywhere in the WORLD. It also provides for live interactive
"chat," so participants will be able to ask questions during the presentations.
Plus, I'll be able to conduct "Campaign War College" workshops in the mornings
or in the evenings. On weekdays or weekends. East Coast time or West Coast time.
Or both. As often as we like. And the full system provides enough bandwidth to
handle up to 100 participants at a time. All at a fraction of what I'd need to
charge for a "live" seminar and...best of all...from the comfort of my own home
office. The only down side is that occasionally the kids might run in and
interrupt a webcast with some fight over a cookie or the ol' "read me a story."
But that's a manageable risk we 'll just have to take! :)
And once the system is in operation, it can be used for all kinds of seminars,
conferences, workshops, forums and meetings for any kind of group of grassroots
activists, organizations, party leaders, etc. We'll also be able to do live,
online briefings when important votes or issues pop up for activists on the
front lines...nationally or locally. The possibilities are endless.
All thanks to this thingy Al Gore invented...the Internet!
If you want to take a look at the system and how it works, just go to http://webcast.worldprofit.com/showroom/video_closing_room.cfm?id=0
and click on the "Launch Demo Video" link.
Anyway, it costs $2,500 to rent the system for a FULL YEAR with UNLIMITED use.
That's about the cost of doing just ONE "live" in-person seminar in Los Angeles.
With this system, I'll be able to help THOUSANDS of conservative candidates
instead of dozens.
I'm ready to go today. November is coming awfully fast and we have candidates
out there who need help NOW. And in the immortal words of John Wayne from his
classic "McClintock" movie: "All it takes is money."
So I'm asking you to consider kicking in a few shillings to help us purchase
this system right away and develop the online training programs we need as soon
as possible. $10, $20, $50, $100 . . . whatever you can spare for the cause. As
soon as we have the money needed to obtain the system, we'll "launch and learn."
I've created a special link to our secure online PayPal account so you can make
a donation via credit card strictly for this special project. Just click on the
link below (if the link is broken, make sure you paste the WHOLE link into your
browser, including the characters which dropped to the second line)...
https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=donations%40citizenoutreach.com&item_name=Webcast+
System&no_note=1&tax=0¤cy_code=USD
Or if you prefer, send a check made payable to Citizen Outreach via "snail mail"
to:
Citizen Outreach
"Webcast System"
611 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, #439
Washington, DC 20003
As always, I thank you in advance for your ongoing and generous support...but I
also want to thank you on behalf of all the candidates who are going to benefit
from this technological opportunity. This will mean more of THEM will get into
office...which in turn means FEWER of the "bad guys" will be in office!
Prof. Chuck Muth
Doctor of Psephology (home-schooled)
P.S. By the way, if you have a business or an organization of your own, this
webcasting program might be something YOU'D be interested in. If so, just email
Sandi Hunter at sandi@worldprofit.com and ask for additional information. And
feel free to tell her I sent you. She's GREAT to work with.
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