{"id":34557,"date":"2024-06-27T12:57:55","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T19:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=34557"},"modified":"2024-06-27T12:57:57","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T19:57:57","slug":"see-how-they-run-peskins-campaign-hq-and-the-quest-for-100-vols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/06\/27\/see-how-they-run-peskins-campaign-hq-and-the-quest-for-100-vols\/","title":{"rendered":"See how they run: Peskin\u2019s campaign HQ and the quest for \u2018100 VOLS\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\" by\u00a0H.R. SMITH<\/a><\/strong> JUNE 25, 2024 (MissionLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Wall
At Peskin 2024 campaign headquarters, a volunteer\/staff photo wall is underway. Photo by H.R. Smith, June 24, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u9605\u8bfb\u4e2d\u6587\u7248<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A man. A plan. A 20-foot flatbed that needs to be turned into a Pride float. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind us, someone whacks what sounds like one of those \u201cRing Bell for Service\u201d bells, made famous by motel check-in desks.  \u201cWoo!\u201d shouts Kaitlyn Conway, communications director for the Aaron Peskin campaign. She spins in her chair, and puts a tally mark next to the name \u201cIsabel\u201d on a white board underneath the goal \u201c100 VOLS\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIsabel! You and I are tied!\u201d says Conway. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to make it a competition,\u201d Conway adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay informed on local elections \u2014 sign up for Mission Local’s free daily newsletter<\/strong> today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bells, currently scattered around the campaign headquarters, are stored in a large plastic box marked \u201cPhonebank Bells.\u201d One volunteer slot filled = one ding on the bell of your choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the scene every Monday starting at around 5 p.m., when a group of staff and volunteers start calling to find other volunteers from a list of people who signed up as interested in helping with the campaigns. \u201cThese are folks who want to be involved,\u201d says Conway. \u201cAnd to actually get them involved, we\u2019ve got to call them one by one and say, \u2018Hey, how can we get you involved? What do you want to do for the campaign?\u2019 And \u2014 boom \u2014 we have this really intense spreadsheet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pride Week is a big week \u2014 there\u2019s the Aaron 2024 Pride T-shirts, the Peskin campaign booth that will be set up at Civic Center for 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday, the 20-foot flatbed that needs to be turned into a parade float. \u201cHow are you at driving a truck?\u201d says Conway, who has begun a new call. She is wearing earbuds and staring into the middle distance, at a window opening onto an air shaft. The window has \u201cPlease keep closed \u2014 pigeons try to come in,\u201d written on it in neat cursive. The message was there when the campaign moved in, several months ago, along with a not-inconsiderable quantity of pigeon feathers scattered around it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A warning left by a previous occupant of Aaron Peskin 2024 campaign headquarters. Photo by H.R. Smith, June 24, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
Countdown at headquarters for the Aaron Peskin campaign on June 24, 2024. Photo by H.R. Smith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs there any way we can channel that energy and get you out in the field?\u201d another volunteer murmurs into their cell phone behind us. \u201cMaybe to a farmer\u2019s market?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCan I count on seeing you on Sunday?\u201d says another volunteer. All told, there are about a dozen people huddled in various corners of the campaign office, making calls, their voices rising and falling and overlapping like a sound installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Periodically, callers drift over to a centralized snack table to help themselves to slices of Costco pizza, and look longingly at an as-yet-uncut buttercream layer cake made by Madison, a 14-year-old volunteer currently making phone calls to Vietnamese voters with her mom, Thuy, who is bringing in volunteer after volunteer, plus one spontaneous donation. \u201cShe has the voice of kindness,\u201d says Madison, by way of explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Signs at Peskin\u2019s campaign headquarters on June 24, 2024. Photo by H.R. Smith.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A
Aaron Peskin buttons, and a button-making machine, at the candidate\u2019s campaign headquarters on June 24, 2024. Photo by H.R. Smith.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every would-be volunteer is different, says Jamie Hughes, who manages the campaign\u2019s volunteer list. Some just want to talk to voters and canvass all day. Others only want to talk on the phone. Others don\u2019t want to talk to anyone, but like to walk around neighborhoods dropping off campaign fliers, on the grounds that it\u2019s both civic engagement and getting their exercise. Some people are interested in being precinct captains \u2014 every district contains about 40 or 50 precincts, each of which is about six blocks by six blocks. Precinct captains are less common than they used to be, but a good one will assume responsibility for organizing within their six-by-six area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hughes\u2019 first experience as a political campaign volunteer was when he was 15, spending his summer break canvassing District 3 in support of Peskin\u2019s 2015 run for the Board of Supervisors<\/a> with a friend from Gateway High (that friend Michael Redmond, is now Peskin\u2019s field manager). Neither Redmord nor Hughes can remember if there was any student government at Gateway. They were both interested in government government, not kid stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

District 3, which encompasses North Beach, Chinatown, and the Financial District, was not easy to canvass \u2014 many of its residents live in apartment buildings and SRO hotels. Hughes and Redmond were unfazed. \u201cJamie and I would just sit there and ring every doorbell in the call box, almost like it was a phone bank,\u201d says Redmond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were both young and innocent,\u201d says Hughes, who is now 24 years old. In retrospect it seems like some creepy stuff would have happened, he said, but instead people were extremely kind and gracious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 6:30 p.m., most of the volunteers have dispersed. Those that remain deliberate over the design of the Pride march shirt \u2014 Peskin\u2019s campaign sign, but in rainbow colors? Peskin\u2019s face, but with a rainbow beard? Is having every letter on the T-shirt a different color of the rainbow laying it on a bit too thick?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redmond looks at the whiteboard appraisingly. The volunteer tally on the whiteboard is nowhere near 100. The point isn\u2019t to get to 100, he says. The point is to have a goal that makes you want to get there. Plus, the night is still young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MORE FIELD NOTES FROM THE MAYOR\u2019S RACE<\/mark><\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"See<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

See how they run: the 28-year-old woman behind Safa\u00ed\u2019s mayoral campaign<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"See<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

See how they run: To Chinese seniors meeting Safa\u00ed, it\u2019s the small things that count<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"See<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

See how they run: At bakeries and hair salons, Safa\u00ed tries to impress the Sunset<\/a><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

H.R. SMITH<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

smithzilla@gmail.com<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heather Smith covers a beat that spans health, food, and the environment, as well as shootings, stabbings, various small fires, and shouting matches at public meetings. She is a 2007 Middlebury Fellow in Environmental Journalism and a contributor to the book\u00a0Infinite City<\/a>.More by H.R. Smith<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: https:\/\/missionlocal.org\/2024\/06\/see-how-they-run-the-peskin-campaign-and-the-quest-for-100-vols\/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Mission+Local&utm_campaign=9ba69607da-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_06_26_05_46&utm_term=0_-9ba69607da-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0H.R. SMITH JUNE 25, 2024 (MissionLocal.org) \u9605\u8bfb\u4e2d\u6587\u7248 A man. A plan. A 20-foot flatbed that needs to be turned into a Pride float.  Behind us, someone whacks what sounds like one of those \u201cRing Bell for Service\u201d bells, made famous by motel check-in desks.  \u201cWoo!\u201d shouts Kaitlyn Conway, communications director… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34558,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34557\/revisions\/34558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}