Dean blog: How to Write Letters to Iowa and New Hampshire

[w4rma]

At the July and August Meetups, Dean supporters across the country sent handwritten letters to voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. Those letters made a huge difference and catapulted Howard Dean into the lead in both states.

Now, no matter where you live, you can write a letter today that will make a direct impact on a voter in one of these two early contests. And you can do it at home, whenever you choose, and you can start right now:

http://letters.deanforamerica.com

So far, 1846 letters have been written.

As many of you know, we're putting the finishing touches on the Letters tool. It went semi-public on Saturday, and your feedback and suggestions have been helpful. We'll be talking about this tool more and more as we approach the "official" launch, but you can start writing letters today. If you experience problems, send an e-mail to Clay Johnson, one of our programmers, at [e-mail].

Posted by Joe Rospars at 11:33 PM
http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/001932.html

I wanted to bring this letter writing tool to DUers' attention. It seems to generate a list of addresses to whom Dean supporters can write a single letter to. After you write your letter you log back in and inform the database that a letter to that person has been written. I assume this is to prevent multiple letters from being sent to that mailbox.

It looks like this tool is only a few hours old, but it seems to me like it's a fantastic idea!

[SCDem]

1. Thank you

Here in South Carolina that is what we planned on doing/confirming in our next unofficial meetup. Hopefully it will have some impact.

[HFishbine]

2. "So far, 1846 letters have been written."

Surely this does not include the handwritten letters from the meet-ups. Ours alone must have sent at least 150.

[pruner]

5. nope

as far as I understand that count only reflects the # of letters sent via the online system that made it's (beta) debut on Saturday.

[Dover]

3. Attempt to consolidate anti-Dean vote

Liebermann and Clark have dropped out of Iowa and New Hampshire to help consolidate the anti-Dean vote in those two states. This benefits Gephardt (in Iowa) and Kerry (in New Hampshire). The idea is to prevent Dean from looking like the front-runner at the start. If Liebermann and Clark were in the 2 early races, then you might see a vote breakdown like Dean 25% Gephardt 15% Kerry 5% Lieberman 5% Clark 5%. Although Dean has only 25%, he is the front-runner and has momentum. Now, without Lieberman and Clark not running in Iowa Gephardt can get 30% and beat Dean there. In New Hampshire, Kerry can get 35% and beat Dean there.

Of course a lot can (and will) change between now and January, but right now it looks as if the primary season is going to be very interesting next year!

-- from a poster in another forum.

I agree.

[HFishbine]

4. Wild Assumptions

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but you offer nothing beyond it to suggest that Clark and Leiberman voters will go to Gephardt and Kerry.

I could be just as "correct" in stating that the absence of Lieberman and Clark will consolidate the anti-gephardt and anti-kerry votes behind Dean.