Local campaign offices have become a driving force in statewide and nationwide political campaigns for President, Senator or Governor. A Syracuse University political expert says they could have great impact on local elections as well, and should be given more attention
Newhouse School of Communications Professor Joshua Darr studied local campaign offices and the impact they can have on especially close elections for his book Storefront Campaigning. Darr spoke to us as part of our Newhouse Impact podcast series.
He found the personal connections made from the volunteers going door-to-door and making personal phone calls are more effective at getting people to the polls. The improvement of voter data has also allowed campaigns to knock on the right doors and target the groups that they feel are the most important to their campaign.
“In these field offices, they say one in every 13 doors you knock, you're going to get a voter that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise. … That comes the American Political Science Review. So, it was actually one of the first times I saw political science research being implemented by campaigns, which was exciting and interesting,” said Darr.
Darr explained that local offices and the use of volunteers in the community has increased in political campaigning. He found such efforts gave campaigns a small but meaningful impact.
“Matt Levendusky and I wrote a paper in 2014 looking at the most recent Democratic efforts and found about a 1% increase in partisan vote share in counties where there was a field office open. That's enough to flip really close states. We've had really close states in the last couple of elections.”
With slim margins in battleground areas, that 1% percent gain in voters changes outcomes.
Getting past the political divide
Darr further suggested that field offices can play a role in reducing polarization. The offices can hold events and get themselves in local media, which creates community, people talking about issues of local concern rather than polarizing national topics.
“I would prefer to see more localized manifestations of national campaigns. I would prefer to see more face-to-face conversations and not as much shouting through a television screen. I think that there's potential for politics to be less polarized and less acrimonious than it currently is,” said Darr.
He found national campaigns set up offices and get people involved in elections and politics. This benefits local and state campaigns by energizing people willing to volunteer.
“I think the presidential campaigns can be a gateway into local campaigns. (They) get people in the door that might not have otherwise known they liked volunteering or that they wanted to. And it's a recruiting tool, ideally, for local parties.”
He suggests parties keep such offices open to both keep enthusiastic volunteers engaged, and to boost campaigns at the local level.
