Washington Briefing Only 2 Days Away

The FRC Action Washington Briefing begins this Friday morning! Here is some key information if you're planning to attend or still thinking about attending:

• If you have not already received an email from me about plans for meeting up with other Huckabee supporters, then you haven't previously emailed me to let me know you're coming. Please email me now and get on the distribution list for these important bulletins. (I will not post this information on the blog.)

• After Mike Huckabee speaks on Saturday morning (approximately 11:00 a.m.), there will be an exclusive opportunity for Huckabee supporters to meet Governor Huckabee in person at 11:45 a.m. Again, you need to get on my email distribution list to get the details.

• If you haven't already registered for the conference, the online registration is now CLOSED. It says you can register on site when you get there. If you can't afford the $95 registration fee (particularly if you can only come Saturday), nothing is to stop you from coming to the hotel and talking with people in the hallways and meeting up with other Huckabee supporters in the public areas of the hotel, but you won't be able to get into the plenary sessions where Huckabee and other Presidential contenders will be giving their speeches (not including the exclusive meeting for Huckabee supporters), and you can't vote in the straw poll in person. If this is you, please be sure to join FRC Action for as little as $1 and vote in the straw poll online before Saturday.

Persuading Politicos Part 3: Find Your Target Audience

So you're in a hotel with a bunch of "headliners" like Dr. Dobson, Dr. Land, and Sean Hannity, and you're trying to convince these people to support Mike Huckabee for President. If, at the end of the day, you have not spoken to any of these people, should you be disappointed? NO. Because...


Rule #3: The best way to a leader's heart is through his or her aides, members or friends.


If you really want to talk directly to a "headliner," I am not discouraging you from going for it. But you may find it hard to get to him physically, and when you do, you will only get 15-30 seconds to talk, unless you know him personally or you're introduced by someone who does. Don't expect a real conversation to happen, as the "headliner" is likely to nod politely and quickly move on to the next person.


So what's the point in going to the Washington Briefing? Mostly to talk with employees, aides, and friends of the leaders and active-but-not-famous members of influential groups. In other words, the best targets for an audience are the "ordinary" people who will actually give you a few minutes of time, but who in turn have greater clout with leaders.


Let's put it this way: when you're a lobbyist on Capitol Hill, you meet and talk with Congressional staff about 25-50 times for every one time you meet with a Member of Congress! We wouldn't do it this way if it convincing aides weren't highly effective.

Members of Congress and others in leadership positions simply don't have the time to process all the detailed information they need to make informed decisions. So they rely on trusted advisers to distill information and recommend a course of action. Convince the advisor, and you have about a 90% chance you've convinced the leader, even though you've never talked to him or her.

So how to figure out who the advisers are? Some ideas:

• Watch the people standing close to the leader before and after a speech, looking official, or chatting it up like an old friend. Remember what that person looks like and introduce yourself later.
• Go to a group's booth at the exhibit hall and talk with anyone there looking older than college age. (Powerful political aids can be as young as their mid-to-late 20s.) Ask about what that person does, and either try to convince him or her or fish for an invitation to meet someone higher up in the organization.
• Rely on Providence--pray you'll meet the right people and then just go out there, shake hands, and ask people where they work or what brings them to the convention.

Especially when it comes to the last tactic, it helps to have as many Huckabee supporters attending the Washington Briefing as possible, so we can fan out. Again, if you are planning to come, please email me so I can coordinate meeting places, carpooling, etc. I'm still looking for someone driving from/through/near Norfolk Virginia, and also have received word that a couple of guys will have an extra space in their hotel room for a "Christian young man." So please let me know if you can help or need help in transportation or lodging.

Persuading Politicos Part 2: Dress for Success

Today's installment of tips for persuading GOP activists to support Huckabee at the Washington Briefing and similar events may be self-evident to a lot of people, but you know what they say about assuming, so here it is:

Rule #2: Dress Professionally and Wear a Tasteful Pin. [Updated 10/15]

The Washington Briefing is not the place to advertise your support for Huckabee with a t-shirt or baseball cap. This event is more a business convention than a pep rally. Dress as if you're going to work at a professional job, and advertise your Huckabee support with a button pin. You can buy them at the Huckabee Store, or you can get one from me (I bought 10-packs of 3 different designs) if you email me so we can arrange to meet up when you first arrive at the Washington Briefing.

Washington, DC is a very conservative town when it comes to dress. Politicos are more likely to listen to you if they think you're "one of them" and "professional" (again, fair or not, this is reality). Politicos usually go all out for suits, but the Washington Briefing registration materials suggest "business casual" dress for the daytime sessions, so you could go either way.

• Men: Khakis, button-down shirt and sport jackets are a great look. Black/navy/dark gray suits give you a professional-looking edge. At the very least wear a long sleeve solid color button-down shirt.
  
• Women: Anything professional-looking will work for ladies--suits, skirts, nice pants, colors, solids, patterns. Just keep it modest--don't commit a Jeri Thompson-esq faux pas by dressing for Hollywood or Miami.
  
• Both: Scent is not a part of dressing professionally. In this town, janitors and 20-somethings going to clubs wear cologne and perfume; professionals do not.

And finally, if you can't make it to Washington October 19-20, be sure to join FRC Action and cast your Presidential straw poll vote online, and encourage others to do the same with FRC Action Straw Poll Voter Drive.

Persuading Politicos Part 1: Don't Be a Single-Issue Voter

As I promised in an earlier post about the Washington Briefing, this is the first in a series of tips on "lobbying" -- how to maximize your effectiveness in persuading GOP activists to support Huckabee.

The goal here is to show that Huckabee's supporters are thoughtful, realistic, mainstream conservatives. As evidenced by the Ron Paul movement, having a lot of very active, true believer supporters doesn't translate into electability if the supporters are perceived as being "fringe."

And with that introduction...

Rule #1: Don't be a single-issue voter.

Single-issue candidates don't win elections or know how to govern the country. So if you want your candidate to have credibility, do not tell people you support him because of one key issue. Otherwise, the listener may conclude that your candidate is a single-issue candidate because you are a single-issue supporter. (Fair or not, that is reality.)

Take a tip from the preachers: always list three different issues that are important to you when explaining your support. Two is fine sometimes, but more than three is too much information for the listener to process, while one issue is too narrow.

Example: What NOT to Say

"I support Mike Huckabee for President because he supports the Fair Tax. Let me explain to you what the Fair Tax is and why it's good for America..."

Problem: Even though you may be prepared to list 3 reasons you support the Fair Tax, it still makes Huckabee look like a single-issue candidate. Even worse, the listener may not care much about this one issue, or may even actively oppose it, causing him or her to oppose Huckabee.

Example: What You Should Say

"I support Mike Huckabee because he is the most charismatic and likable candidate who consistently supports core conservative values such as low and fair taxation, the right to life, and securing our nation's borders. He had an amazing track record as Governor of Arkansas, lowering taxes, enacting covenant marriage, and even winning elections in a traditionally Democratic state with nearly half of the African-American vote."

Why this is effective: You made 3 big points, each supported by 3 subpoints, all within less than 30 seconds!
1) Huckabee is highly electable.
a) He is charismatic
b) He is likable
c) He won Arkansas elections in a Democratic-leaning environment
2) Huckabee takes solid conservative positions.
a) He supports low and fair taxation (note: you are supporting the Fair Tax without using a buzz word that may set off alarm bells for the listener)
b) He is pro-life
c) He wants to secure our borders against illegal immigration
3) Huckabee has a strong track-record as the executive of a State.
a) He lowered taxes
b) He enacted covenant marriage
c) He won the support of a broad spectrum of Arkansas voters
(Yes, 1.c and 3.c are double-dipping, but that's not a bad thing! Keeping it concise but positive-information-packed is good.)

Check back tomorrow for the next installment of Persuading Politicos. And don't forget to email me if you're planning to attend the Washington Briefing or want to know if anyone else in your area is planning to go. (Make sure to register ASAP!) I am working to arrange a meet-up for Huckabee supporters and am also happy to give travel tips for out-of-towners.

(Speaking of which, I have a request for a ride from the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area of Virginia. Anyone coming from there or passing through?)

Go Huckabee!!

Washington Briefing - Important Scheduling Update

Over the weekend, the posted schedule for FRC Action's Washington Briefing changed. Now Mike Huckabee is scheduled to speak on Saturday morning, with the straw poll voting continuing until 1:00 p.m. Saturday.

This is good news if you couldn't take off work on Friday but you can make it to DC for Saturday, October 20. Now you can see Huckabee speak and vote in person.

The bad news is that Huckabee won't be able to speak until a couple hours before the straw poll voting closes. This means it is extremely important that everyone who can attend on Friday urge as many other conference-goers as possible to consider Huckabee as a viable, electable candidate and to come listen to Huckabee on Saturday morning before committing to any other candidate.

This is also another reason why everyone who cannot attend at all should join FRC Action and vote in the Presidential straw poll online, and urge your friends and family to do so as well. The new schedule disadvantages Huckabee among conference-goers, so the online community needs to make up for the stacked deck. (See One Mom and I Heart Huckabee for more ideas on getting out the online vote.)

October 19 - Why Your Country Needs YOU in Washington

Reported today in the Washington Times:

Fifth-ranked in the polls, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has backing of the leaders of many small-to-medium sized evangelical congregations and interest groups but not the most widely influential leaders like [American Family Association (AFA) Chairman Donald Wildmon] and Dr. Dobson.

"It would seem that Christian leaders could well rally around Mike Huckabee if they are in search of a candidate they like," said Republican election-law attorney Cleta Mitchell. "It isn't as though there isn't any candidate they could support." Mrs. Mitchell supports no candidate but thinks Mr. Huckabee "is actually a pretty impressive candidate and is doing a credible job of making his presence felt in this race."

Mr. Wildmon agreed. "Could the social-conservative leaders support Huckabee? Yes. Have they done so yet? No," he said, adding that he is "part of a group who have pledged not to go public to endorse anybody until the end of October." If current alignments haven't changed by then, however, public declarations of fealty will reveal a badly splintered Christian right.

My friends, why do you think they're holding out until the end of October? I'd venture to say because the biggest national conclave of Christian conservatives is slated for October 19-20 in Washington, DC, and they want to test the waters there first.

If you read the rest of the Washington Times article, it discusses how Fred Thompson has failed to become the rallying point for Christian conservatives, and Evangelicals are afraid of Romney's Mormon faith, leaving them deeply divided or undecided between the two not-so-attractive candidates.

Our country needs us to do everything we can to get the Christian conservative bloc to rally around Mike Huckabee. If you're pro-life then anything else will be a disaster. Neither Thompson nor Romney can rally the base well enough to beat Hillary Clinton, and of course Giuliani is openly contemptuous of pro-lifers and family values. If Giuliani is nominated, then approximately half of Americans will have no party head to voice their deeply-held belief that all human beings possess the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And of course, a third party candidate would only guarantee the election of Hillary Clinton.

How can we do this? I hate to admit it, but blog discussions won't get us very far because very few undecided people read them. We need to get out there and talk with these very Christian conservative leaders who are waiting until the end of October and tell them why we think they need to get behind Huckabee. Moreover, we need to talk with and convert their employees and members, who the leaders will listen to more than some faceless person sending an email.

The place to do this is the FRC Action Washington Briefing on Friday, October 19! This is worth the financial sacrifice. (And conference registration is very reasonably priced, at $95/$50 for students.) People on the ground are worth far more than money when it comes to grassroots action. If there is any way you can come to DC and "work the rooms" for Huckabee, and you're weighing the cost of taking a day off of work and/or coming to DC versus donating the same amount to the campaign, come here! You can leverage your money and efforts for so much more by showing up, wearing a Huckabee pin, and telling numerous GOP activists (who will never read a Huckabee blog otherwise) why our nation needs them to give Mike their support.

Important Note: The Presidential straw poll voting concludes on Saturday at 1 pm, according to the latest schedule posted online. Gov. Huckabee's scheduled speaking time has also been moved to the Saturday morning session. This means that conference-goers will not hear Huckabee speak on Friday, making it all the more important to prime them to wait to hear him speak and not cast an ill-informed vote on Friday.

Moreover, after Q3's disappointing fundraising numbers, we need to demonstrate the power of Huckabee's grassroots network. It's one thing to vote online in the straw poll (which you definitely should do if you absolutely can't come to DC, by joining FRC Action and then casting your vote), but it's entirely another to demonstrate that Huckabee's grassroots are committed to trecking long distances for him, and not just in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Please see my post from yesterday if you would like tips on where to stay if you're coming in from out of town. Regardless of whether you're local or coming in from out of town, if you do plan to attend please email me to let me know, so we have a sense of how many Huckabee supporters are coming and have an opportunity to meet up.

Please register for the conference ASAP, because the original print form had a deadline of September 15, and who knows when they will close the online registration.

Between now and October 19, I plan to provide more coordination information as the situation develops. Moreover, I plan to post my best "lobbying" tips -- expert advice on how to persuade political types. I do this for a living, and am happy to share the tricks of the trade to help you be more effective in persuading other conference-goers to put their votes, money, and efforts behind Mike Huckabee.

Let's win this one for the Gipper!!

Rock the FRC Action Washington Briefing for Huckabee!

Friday and Saturday, October 19-20, FRC Action (the political action committee connected to the Family Research Council) is hosting its 2nd Annual Washington Briefing conference in Washington, DC. All of the major GOP Presidential candidates -- except Giuliani -- will be speaking, along with a lot of favorite conservative pundits, politicians, and grassroots political leaders.

This is the time to talk person-to-person with GOP opinion leaders about why they should put their support, dollars, and influence behind Mike Huckabee. There is also a straw poll that we could help Mike Huckabee win. Though you can vote online if you join up as a member of FRC Action, you won't have the opportunity to talk with people to persuade them to support Huckabee. Plus, attending in person will be a lot of fun, and you can meet Mike Huckabee in person!

[Update - schedule has changed] Friday, October 19 is the key day for influencing conference attendees. Governor Huckabee will speak at the Saturday morning session, and the straw poll will conclude soon after.

As a Washington insider for Huckabee, I am taking it upon myself to do everything I can to help non-Washingtonians for Huckabee make it to this event and have a safe and exciting experience. I will get started by acting as your makeshift travel guide:

Tips for visiting Washington for the FRC Action Washington Briefing

• FRC Action has a reduced group rate at the Crystal City Courtyard Marriott for $129/night, if you reserve by October 8. I highly recommend this if you're flying in, because it is actually walking distance (2/3 of a mile, or take complimentary shuttle) from Reagan National Airport and the subway stop at the airport. This is not the location of the conference, but you can take the subway to the conference, and the conference hotel is more expensive ($185/night) and sold out for Saturday night. However, if you're coming in Thursday or Friday morning and leaving Saturday afternoon, you may find the on-site hotel more convenient.
• If you're driving in, I recommend looking for a motel along Route 50 (aka Arlington Blvd) on the Virginia side. There are dozens and dozens of small motels along a long stretch of this road that will be relatively cheap and safe. Route 50 also provides one of the most reliable ways for driving into DC. (If you look for another hotel in DC itself, make sure it says "NW" in the street address. This is the one quadrant of the city that is consistently safe. Some parts of Maryland might also be good places to stay, but I don't know that side very well.)
• Try to take the Metro (subway) as much as possible downtown, instead of driving. DC's Metro is perhaps the cleanest and safest subway in the country (if not the world), while DC roads are extremely difficult to navigate, it is easy to accidentally end up in a bad neighborhood, and parking is difficult to find and expensive when you find it.

Money, Money, Money

Thanks to the 5 Huckabee supporters who emailed me to let me know they completed the Top-Tier Huckabee Challenge in September! I donated $250 more to the Huckabee campaign last night on your behalf.

Fantastic news up on the Huckabee website this morning: 3,525 donations in just 2 weeks, far surpassing their goal of 2,500!! Congratulations to Mike Huckabee and all of his supporters who chipped in. I'm looking forward to finding out how much money he raised soon, and hope and pray the Q3 fundraising will finally prove he is "top-tier" to the money-obsessed pundits.

And now look who is trying to raise money to "Stop Hillary": National Review Online, that same website that poses as a conservative news source but dismisses Huckabee most of the time and when they do cover him, it is usually sarcastic or distorted.

I encourage anyone who reads NRO to write to Kathryn Jean Lopez and let her know that your money is backing the person who can really stop Hillary--Mike Huckabee--and that NRO does not deserve any financial support so long as they undermine him with unfair coverage.

3 Days Left for September Top-Tier Huckabee Challenge

So far only 3 people have written me to qualify for the Top-Tier Huckabee Challenge, in which I have pledged to donate $50 to the Huckabee campaign for each person who joins Team Huckabee and writes to major media sources explaining why Huckabee should get more coverage. (Follow the link for details.)

While I plan to continue the challenge after the end of September, Huckabee needs the contributions now, by September 30, the end of the quarterly reporting. I'm sure lots more people have fulfilled the requirements of the challenge -- they just haven't emailed me to tell me about it yet. Please email me at kstreetforhuck@hotmail.com by 6:00 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, September 30 so I can be sure to fulfill my side of the bargain by midnight.

Go Huckabee!

Top-Tier Huckabee Challenge

[Updated 9/19 with simplified rules to qualify - see "fine print" below.]

I firmly believe that if voters merely get to know Huckabee as a "top-tier" candidate, he can win. He is the most dynamic and appealing of the Republican candidates, and the most in touch with the values of the "Republican base." At the same time, he has the most appealing message for middle class independents, who will determine who sits in the White House. Every conservative friend or family member I talk to says "I like Huckabee the best, but can he win?" My answer is this: he just needs to be seen by the American public (or at least likely Republican primary voters for now) as a top-tier candidate and yes, he can win.

How do we Huckabee supporters help him be seen as top-tier?

1. We announce our support publicly with bumper stickers and other signs that can be viewed by friends and strangers alike.
2. We influence the pundits who lead the opinions of Republican voters to start covering Huckabee as a serious candidate.
3. We help him raise more money so he can pay for ads and events that get him more exposure.

I realize that #3 is particularly hard because Huckabee does not appeal to the Republican moneybags so much as the middle class rank-and-file. He freely admits this on his Team Huckabee fundraising appeal video. So I'm proposing this challenge so together we can maximize our impact to help elect the best Presidential candidate in the field.

For each person who (1) joins Team Huckabee with a contribution of $20.08 or more, (2) prominently displays a Huckabee sign or sticker, and (3) writes letters urging well-known pundits or media sources to give Huckabee top-tier coverage, I will donate $50 to the Huckabee campaign, up to the legal couple limit of $4,600.

Let's leverage our support for all it's worth! Your letters to pundits and signs of support are worth far more than my $50 because they have the potential to draw in many, many more supporters who would each be willing to join Team Huckabee. But if you also report your donation to Kevin Tracy's blog, you can get another 50% match of your donation. Think about it: your $20 for Huckabee + my $50 match + "Semp's" $10 match = $80. You've just quadrupled your monetary gift to the Huckabee campaign, and the exposure you're giving him is priceless.

Power to the People, as Laura Ingraham says!

I'm a lawyer, so here's the fine print on how to take me up on this challenge:

1. Join Team Huckabee with a donation of $20.08 or more. Please note you must go through the Team Huckabee website, instead of the Mike Huckabee website, or your donation will not be treated as "joining." (Don't ask me why. Take it up with the Huckabee campaign staff.) You will get an ID card and bumper sticker in the mail. (It's okay if you did this already some time ago.)

2. Put that bumper sticker or other Huckabee paraphernalia some place a lot of people will see it, like your car bumper, on the bag you carry to work, a sign in your front yard if you live on a busy street, etc.

3. Write a letter to a well-known media source or pundit explaining why you think Huckabee can win and deserves "top-tier" coverage and either have it "published" in that source or get an individualized response back from the person you wrote to. Posting comments on other articles doesn't count, but if The Corner on NRO quotes something you wrote, for instance, that does count. Getting through on a talk radio show also counts. If you aren't successful in getting recognized by the "opinion gatekeepers" then you can show me 3 attempts instead. (By "well-known" I mean something that is read, heard or viewed by thousands or at least hundreds of people regularly, preferably targeted at key Republican primary voter groups such as political conservatives, conservative Catholics, Evangelicals, or homeschoolers.) One Mom's blog has great pointers on writing these letters and sending them to radio and "print" media.

Email me with forwarded copies of your letters to media, your Team Huckabee ID number (if you signed up recently and don't have an ID card yet, you can forward me the email showing you signed up instead), and a description of how you're publicizing Huckabee to: kstreetforhuck@hotmail.com. Please send it all in one email - I can't keep track of challenge-takers "in progress." In return, I will report publicly on this blog once a month how many Team Huckabee members qualify for the match (no names), and if you're one of that group, I will email you a redacted copy of the receipt for my donation for that amount.

I am not in any way associated with the Huckabee campaign. This challenge is in no way "coordinated" with Huckabee's campaign. This is pure and spontaneous grassroots activity - you be the seed and I'll be the fertilizer. (It's okay - lawyers are frequently called worse.)

What Have You Done to Promote the Huckabee Revolution Today?

I'm reading "From Hope to Higher Ground" on the subway during rush hour, perching my book high so plenty of people can see the dust jacket. How about you?