EVENT SNIFFING -- How to track the candidates

A how-to guide on sniffing out candidate events during election years 1. Political Calendars (check daily) ABC and NBC both have political calendars, which list events. abcnews.go.com/Politics/TheNote/story?id=140388 www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13302260/ 2. Candidate Websites (check daily) Every political candidate has a website. Many of them list events, but frequently you have to be sneaky to find out where all the events are. Some sites require you to type in your zip code. You can go to zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp and click on “search by city” to find zip codes in cities across the state. The best events are ones that say “Rally with Candidate X” or “Meet and Greet w/ Candidate X”. Candidates don’t attend house parties unless the website says they will be there. 3. Candidate Offices (call every other day) It is always useful to call campaign offices and ask about events. Phone numbers are listed under “contact us” on candidate websites. Call the campaign and say that “members of my church/school group/bridge club and I are hoping to support candidate x. Are there any events coming up that we could attend?” Ask if tickets are required. If no tickets are available or they’re too expensive, ask if you can volunteer. Also ask if the candidate will actually be present. FUN TIP: you should call candidates every other day, but you don’t have to call the same office each time. Many candidates have multiple state offices listed on their website. You can call one one day, and another two days later. 4. State Republican and Democratic HQs (call every three days) If you google “your state democrat” or “your state republican”, you can find out the website for the GOP and Democratic HQs for your state. These people may or may not have different information than the campaign headquarters, but it’s always worth calling and asking. You can say/do the same thing as calling candidate offices. 5. Sign up on candidate websites for their email lists (do once) All candidates have email lists. Sign up multiple times under random emails for cities across your state. You can get free email accounts at yahoo or hotmail, and have them all forward to your main email account. It’s good to sign up for every major city in your state. 6. Check local newspapers (daily) Go to the website of any local newspaper that covers local and statewide politics. Search for the candidates name, and look for articles that reference “tours” or “events” or “meets with voters”. These are good places to find information that maybe only the local paper knows about.