(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . An Update From a Rural Progressive: Against an Incumbent and Establishment Thinking [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-29 Progressives who do the work don't like the status quo, we want to do more Hi to whomever reads this. I felt I would give an update on my Centre County Recorder of Deeds office (Central PA) First of all, I’ve done an interview regarding the position and here is the link: videoplayer.telvue.com/… I want to acknowledge that since I don’t ever write down anything, I apparently favored the word “so” when making transitions and misspoke when I stated about the Valley Community Business Alliance (I called it association, part of the old name it used to be). Overall, I think the interview went well, especially when compared to my opponent, but that is beside the point. Since my first post about 19 days ago, I have continued to do some door knocking and calling folks. Here in Centre County, my campaign (roughly two weeks ago) texted over 20,000 Democratic voters regarding mail in ballots. This was accomplished within two days. The texting is a good way to get younger voters more invested and provide a quick way to clean up data within the system to save on future costs. Furthermore, it drives name recognition. We also rotated a print ad between three different (four technically) publications, spacing it out to do one a week. I was the first candidate out of any county candidates to text voters. Most people talk about turnout, getting people out to vote, but often ignore infrequent voters. Recently, a group that has done some work in Texas, Georgia, Virginia, and some other areas contacted me about their service. They get volunteers to give rides to voters who need or want them and they also contact infrequent voters. What qualifies as an infrequent voter? Anyone who votes less than 60% of the time. They not only do robocalls, but live calls and send texts as well. It’s an impressive service and network. Their track record is to increase turnout by the “infrequent voter” demographic by roughly 35% (the range typically is 32 to 38% with a few outliers at both ends). It’s an expensive service, but it cleans up information and makes outreach much stronger in those nooks and crannies. And I’m all about good data regarding the voters, but apparently nobody else has been talking about this in the state. Now, with me being the type of guy I am, I’d like to invest in this service and I think it can have a bit of an influence on rural PA. Since Centre County is often that blue dot in the middle of PA when it comes to election time, we are a great opportunity to get progressive ideas for field strategy in place because they typically work. I have also been speaking at some events which is a good opportunity to express my support to other Democratic candidates running, notably school board candidates. I think municipal and school board candidates often feel neglected by county and state level candidates. Honestly, they sometimes are. I had an event on 4/23 (a Name That Tune event, it was fun) which was rather successful. I netted enough funds to… well let’s say pay for the event, my email program, and the texting. But, the best part is that I also raised some money for a couple of other county candidates and the local school board candidates in State College. It wasn’t a lot, but my fundraiser events aren’t just about me, it’s about helping other candidates as well. Regarding new endorsements, I also got endorsed by Ricky’s Pride PAC (rickyspride.org) and AFSCME local 83 (for those who don’t know, a labor union for federal, state, county, and municipal employees, the local covers my county). I have been applying for other endorsements, as I came to the conclusion that I should not only drive my own successful, but help push other candidates to drive up excitement as well (this is not to judge them, I just know how competitive my peers are). The final bit here is to inform people that I am still a locally elected municipal leader as well as community leader. I’m working on getting medical access to the Penns Valley (the region I live in within Centre County) while also setting up large community/business events to help benefit the region as a whole. I do this while working full-time with one job and part-time with another. I’ll have more updates soon (I hope), but I just want folks to know what I am doing here and the groundwork or plans I am putting down. My goal is not to have the office define the candidate, but rather that the candidate define the office, but that’s a topic to touch on next time. Oh, and thank you to those few folks who donated to my campaign, I appreciate the support. Once again, my website is very basic: zeiglerforpa.com and my social media (FB, IG, Twitter) is @ZeiglerForPA. If you want to chip in to my grassroots campaign, the best ActBlue link is here: secure.actblue.com/… Once again, thank you and I’ll do my best to keep you all posted as we continue to fight for everyday folks and hope to protect Democracy itself. In Solidarity, Robert L. Zeigler [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/29/2166652/-An-Update-From-a-Rural-Progressive-Against-an-Incumbent-and-Establishment-Thinking Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/