I spent a large part of the weekend passing out Reform Ohio Now flyers at a festival in downtown Columbus, and I thought I'd share my observations. I think my experience pretty clearly reveals what we need to do to win this campaign.
I talked to several hundred people over the weekend, saying, "Hi, have you heard about Issues 2 through 5 on the November 8th ballot?" and handing them a flyer. Most of the responses that I got fell into two categories:
- About 50-60% of the people replied, "No, I haven't." I would then tell them about the reforms and answer their questions. Most people then said something along the lines of, "Huh. That's a pretty good idea." A number also said, "Hold politicians accountable? Hah! Good luck with that." Their cynicism aside, they were clearly with me on the issue.
- About a 20-30% replied, "Yes! And I'm voting for them! Thank you so much for being out here doing this!" Some of these folks wanted me to tell them more about the amendments, but they basically already knew they agreed with us on what needed to be done.
(The last sliver of the passers-by were either uninterested, or took the flyer and said they would check it out.)
So are you ready for the complex strategy I've devised to win, based on my unscientific polling of random citizens? Here it is: tell people what the amendments will do. It's that simple.
Unlike the politicians and the party hacks, normal Americans get it. They know the system's broken, they know why it's so important to actually fix it, and they even have a pretty good idea of how. So all we need to do to pass these reforms is let people know about them.
Now, this is harder than it might sound, because the entrenched big-money interests that currently run things (campaigning under the newly-formed "Ohio First") are gearing up to flood the airwaves with half-truths, smears and outright lies. They also seem pretty determined to avoid talking about the actual issues. For instance, they've claimed that Common Cause and all the groups supporting Reform Ohio Now are liberal interests who endorsed John Kerry's presidential campaign and are funded by billionaire George Soros -- a blatant lie given that Common Cause has never endorsed any political candidate and, for the record, we're not funded by George Soros. They've also tried to imply that we support marijuana legalization (not only false, but kind of ridiculous).
I'd like to challenge "Ohio First" to make this campaign an informed public discussion on these reforms, rather than the intellectual mugging that they've pursued so far. But don't count on it. If these defenders of the status quo have done any polling yet, they've probably discovered that voters who actually understand the reforms already agree with us.
