With the appropriate social distancing measures in place across Arizona, political candidates find themselves in a quandary.
Until the public health emergency subsides, they, and their supporters, can not physically go out and canvass in neighborhoods conveying their vision for the district, county, or state office they are seeking.
They cannot hold rallies or other events that would normally draw hundreds or thousands of people.
Even small get-togethers like coffees for campaign fundraising are seriously curtailed.
How do candidates make up for the lost opportunities in this interim?
Representatives at the Arizona Democratic Party, Arizona Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (ADLCC), Maricopa County Democratic Party and Pima Democratic Party offered their views on the situation and potential prescriptions to move forward.
Several campaigns are already utilizing these approaches.
A spokesperson for the Arizona Democratic Party conveyed:
“Arizona Democrats’ first priority is the health and safety of the public and our staff and volunteers. The coordinated campaign suspended door to door canvassing following CDC guidance on March 12, and we’ve shifted our focus into digital organizing programs, with staff and volunteers working virtually to elect leaders who will fight for affordable health care and put working families first in Washington and the state legislature.”
Murphy Bannerman, the communications director, of the ADLCC echoed some of the above sentiments, writing:
“The ADLCC is working closely with legislative campaigns to ensure they have access to digital tools such as text and telephone banking from individual homes, guides on setting up virtual house parties and tele-town halls, and encouraging candidates to post short video messages to the public – to name a few. We want our communities, volunteers, and candidates to maintain all safety measures during this time, and shifted our focus to virtual outreach efforts early March 2020.”
Edder Diaz-Martinez, the Communications Director for the Maricopa County Democratic Party and Alison Jones, the chairperson of the Pima Democratic Party laid out some more specific measures they would be championing.
Director Diaz-Martinez relayed:
“The Maricopa County Democratic Party is doing several things to continue our work light of the global pandemic.”
- “Our number one priority is the health and safety of our donors, voters, and volunteers. As we begin to escalate and transition our work from physical in-person spaces to digital ones, we are keeping this in mind. We’re mindful that the public is in the midst of a deadly viral outbreak.”
- “As current elected officials respond to this public health emergency, we’re noticing that this epidemic has been exacerbated by failed GOP policies. That’s why we are hosting online events for our candidates including virtual town halls, forums and Q&As, including one tonight with Whitney Walker and Aaron Connor.”
- “We are hosting ongoing monthly digital training with our LDs providing advice, feedback, and guidelines for social media, digital organizing, and online campaigning.”
- “We are urging Governor Doug Ducey and the state legislature to enact policy which will switch Arizona to an all-mail election for the rest of the year. Our first priority is the health and safety of the public. That doesn’t mean we stop people from accessing the ballot box. As Democrats, one of our foundational principles includes expanding access to the ballot box for all voters.”
Chairperson Jones commented:
“We are planning some online debate/forums for the countywide offices (Sheriff, Assessor, Recorder, County Attorney, Treasurer, Superintendent of Schools). Joel Feinman, our second vice-chair is working on this now. We don’t rule this out for other offices, like BOS (Board of Supervisors) and Legislative races, but as the county party, our first effort will be on countywide races.”
“PCDP is also going to be concentrating on getting folks on the PEVL. We are finding that in this emergency, folks are not very open to discussing candidates. They are focused on keeping their jobs and on basic needs like rent. But we have found that they are open to discussing PEVL–given that it is consistent with social distancing. I am meeting with the LD chairs about this tonight.”
“We are encouraging PCs to go on mobilize.us and participate in virtual events–like phone banks. Check it out. And because we are hoping social distancing won’t last too long, we are asking PCs to brush up their skills through online training that we have available for PCs on a variety of topics.”
“PCDP does not endorse candidates in contested primaries–it is against our bylaws. So our efforts must benefit all of our candidates. Individuals (including PCs) however, can volunteer for the candidate(s) of their choice and we encourage this.”
The moves to a more intensive digital and virtual campaign format, online webinars and debates, and increasing the numbers of individuals receiving mail-in ballots (Democrats across the state should be working overtime on getting these mail-in ballots to people because most Republicans are not going to help) are very constructive and actually the future of campaigning and voting.
Hopefully, when the public health emergency subsides, there will be ample time in the fall for candidates to reach out and meet the voters.
For more information and updates on these efforts to adapt to the Coronavirus reality, please periodically check the below websites. It is not an all-encompassing list.
Arizona Democratic Party: https://azdem.org/
Mission for Arizona Events: https://www.mobilize.us/missionforaz/
ADLCC: https://adlcc.com/
Maricopa County Democratic Party: https://maricopadems.org/
Pima County Democratic Party: https://pimadems.org/
Coconino County Democratic Party: https://coconinodemocrats.org/
Yavapai County Democratic Party: https://www.yavdem.org/
Pinal County Democratic Party: https://pinaldemocrats.org/
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