Jeff Blodgett, Wellstone Action

Jeff Blodgett is the Executive Director of Wellstone Action and Wellstone Action Fund, a national center of training and leadership development for people involved in politics and public life. He has 23 years of experience in community organizing and political management, including 13 years as a senior aide, advisor, and campaign manager for Senator Paul Wellstone.

Jeff agreed to chat briefly with Progressive States about connecting with people, crafting a message, and winning the day with a politics of conviction.

Let's start with a broad one. What does being progressive mean to you?

Well, you know, I have, I share the same values that my parents had -- that fairness and opportunity, economic fairness and opportunity, are the cornerstone of what makes our country great. And we have to keep fighting to protect that. I also believe in democracy, with a small d, and the involvement of people in having a say in what their country looks like. And to me that's a progressive notion too.

I've heard you say that you thought Paul was successful in part because of his populism. What does that mean?

It had to do both with some of his stands on issues, some of how he presented and portrayed himself, and something to do with his style. He was seen as a regular person, a middle-class person, not fancy, not rich, who has a good sense of what most families go through in Minnesota. So that was one thing. He was seen as a common and accessible person who shares what a lot of voters share in terms of life and family experience. That's part of populism. That real connection to people.

He also saw politics as a struggle between common interests and powerful economic interests that organize around and use their money to influence policy and politics and that have overtaken Washington. So, for him, politics was about struggling against that on behalf of everyone else.

And then, on issues, he focused very much on the economic agenda. He spent much time on things like prescription drugs, things like controlling the influence of corporate interests in the political process, oil profit tax, fighting against regressive taxation. He really stayed on the economic front. And even when he went into issues like the environment, that was about whether polluters were responsible for cleaning up their mess or not.

How do you craft a strong message?

Well, first, it starts with understanding what your goal is and what you want to say. So if it's a candidate or if it's on issues, it means understanding what you want to accomplish or who you are and what you stand for. It means knowing your audience and knowing where they are and what they think and how they respond to the stuff they want to present. So it's a combination of knowing yourself and knowing your audience. And it can involve research, polling and focus groups, or it can be far more informal and based on conversations with your audience and feedback groups and things.

And what you're really trying to do is find the sweet spot between what you believe and what the voters believe. And that's the sweet spot. And for people, that's a process you need to go through and answer, "I'm running for this office because." But ultimately, you need that answer for strategy, so you can boil it down to the most salient points for your audience. It gets down to something that's concise. You want, ultimately, something that's concise, the KISS notion -- keep it short and simple. You want it to be compelling, so that it captures people's attention and imagination. And you want it to be credible, so that it's both true and rings true to your audience. And there are other tools. There's something called the message box, that's a little tool that takes you through all the questions of what the messages are on your own side as well as on the other side.

You have a background in community organizing. What lessons did you learn as an organizer that pay off today working in politics?

I think the importance of really respecting community people and community organizations as you do your electoral work, respecting that community organizations have a real place in where we're building power. You can't just come in and expect people to help you win and then leave. That's one of the fundamentals of community organizing. It's about understanding people. Sometimes people don't have those sensibilities in electoral politics. It's transactional. It's quick-and-dirty. It's helped me take a longer-term approach to work. Relational organizing is the lengthy notion of having one-on-one conversations with people and finding common values. It can be very effective employed in the political realm as well.

You talk about relational organizing in terms of community organizing, but portrayals of Paul Wellstone seem to say that he used the same approach of reaching other Senators on a personal basis to great legislative effect. Could you comment on that?

Yeah, that's a really good point. He did have a way with people. He was a good organizer. And a good organizer, part of that is listening, so that you're really hearing the other person as they talk about what makes them tick and find out if there's room to work. That's relational organizing. He was also a pleasant fellow. He had a twinkle in his eye. He had a good sense of humor. He didn't always take himself too seriously. There's just that kind of quality of person that makes it easier for other people to like and work with. He did bring that into his legislative practice.

To learn more about Jeff's model of organizing and how to win with the politics of conviction, check out Wellstone Action and their book Politics the Wellstone Way.

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