The Republican
Tara Snow, Finance Director, National Republican Congressional Committee (MBA, Lally School of Management and Technology, Rensselaer, 1998)
With campaign finance reform creating obstacles for congressional candidates seeking to raise money themselves, Tara Snow's job is to find that funding for them. She works for the National Republican Congressional Committee, an organization devoted to increasing the Republican majority in the House. Chances are, many of the political ads for Republican candidates you'll see on TV this fall will be paid for with funds that Snow and her 15-person team have procured from major donors around the country. During a particularly busy stretch recently, she dealt with Secret Service concerns, rallied politicians, and made sure the highest-dollar donors got the best seats for the NRCC's biggest fund-raising night of the year: the President's Dinner.
Wednesday_June 23_11:57 a.M.
"This morning we had a meeting with the Republican Conference-the leadership team in the House-at the Capitol Hill Club. Bob Ney, a congressman from Ohio, ran the meeting and talked about how crucial it is to have members [of Congress] raise money for the President's Dinner. We're really focusing on the importance of keeping the majority. An important part of that is making sure we raise the money necessary to get the message out. Over the next four weeks, Republican members will come to our offices every day to make fund-raising phone calls. Our goal is to raise about $14.5 million through that one event."
Wednesday_June 30_5:27 p.m.
"I'm in the Santa Ana-John Wayne Airport, getting ready to fly back from a West Coast trip. We held a fund-raiser in Seattle yesterday with Microsoft, and this morning we met with presidents and CEOs from tech companies in Southern California. Lunch was at the Four Seasons in Newport Beach with tech people and members of New Majority, a pretty moderate group based in Orange County. The idea is to get these people to buy tickets for the President's Dinner. Orange County congressman Chris Cox spoke at the lunch and talked about the key races around the country this year. One of the women who helped us put these events together heads up Arnold Schwarzenegger's money operation. She knows who the big donors in the area are and is putting us in touch with them."
Tuesday_July 6_5:59 p.m.
"We're getting ready for our leadership call hour tomorrow. The House leadership-the speaker, majority leader, the whips-will come in and make fund-raising calls for the dinner. I'm putting together their call sheets and confirming their attendance. It doesn't matter how high up in politics you get, you still have to raise money. If you don't have money, you can't run a campaign."
Thursday_July 15_11:17 a.m.
"We're working on the logistics of the dinner. It's being held at the new Washington Convention Center in D.C., and we did a walk-through yesterday with the Secret Service, the speaker's people, and the production people. Next up is figuring out the seating-not so easy with 6,000 dinner guests. We try to put a member or administration official at each table, but there are 600 tables and only so many members."
Wednesday_July 21_12:32 P.M.
"I'm stressed at the moment. The dinner is tonight and I'm dealing with last-minute seating stuff and other details. Yesterday, a guy called and said, 'I'm going to give $100,000,' which is great, but now I have to find a spot for him on the dais. The seating is almost worked out-you put higher-dollar donors in certain areas and the lower-dollar donors farther away. But everybody gets the chocolate Capitol domes as a party favor!"
Thursday_July 22_1:37 p.m.
"Between the two committees we raised $23 million [last night]. I worked before the dinner at the Chairman's Reception for the highest donors, people who give $25,000 and get to mingle and have their pictures taken with President Bush. We had an inordinate number of 'clicks' (that's what we call the photos) and were concerned that the Secret Service might stop us, but the president kept going and was very chatty and jovial with everyone. It's hard to move 200 people through a photo line quickly, but we had pushers and pullers to keep them moving. They get people to fill out their photo cards, escort them in, and then someone on the other end makes sure they exit properly. The Convention Center was beautiful, people danced, and everyone seemed to have a great time."
The Democrat
Melissa Boasberg, Deputy Director, Internet Operations, Kerry/Edwards '04 (MBA, Stanford Graduate School of Business, 1995)
Since getting her MBA, Melissa Boasberg has worked at the executive level for no less than five tech start-ups. But what the D.C. native really wanted to do was work on a presidential campaign. As a member of internet operations director Josh Ross's staff, she helps navigate the 20-person department through online fund-raising projects and Web site relaunches. But Kerry/Edwards '04 isn't like any other business Boasberg has ever been involved with. "In start-ups, there are different goals-subscribers, revenue, expense controlling, new product features," she says. "But here the only thing that matters is the number of votes John Kerry gets on November 2."
Thursday_June 24_4:00 p.m.
"I'm answering e-mail regarding our National House Party Day on Saturday. Several thousand people around the country are hosting campaign fund-raising parties at their homes, to which they invite their friends and neighbors. We launched a new online volunteer center about 10 days ago, and people can plan their parties through that. They're sometimes confused as to what they're supposed to do and how it works, so I'm trying to help troubleshoot. I just got an e-mail from a person saying that someone had made a contribution to their party but it never showed up."
Friday_June 25_10:15 a.m.
"I just got off the phone with Peter Agre, one of the Nobel laureates in science who wrote an open letter [posted on the campaign Web site] supporting John Kerry and urging the American people to support him. He wants to get more involved and go to college campuses in the Midwest to register voters. He's clearly a high-value individual: He really has a vested interest in the Midwest and in Kerry."
Monday_June 28_11:38 A.M.
"I'm working on a project plan for our Web site redesign. We're relaunching a week or so before the convention. The last several months have been all about fund-raising. After the convention, Kerry will start accepting public funds, and we won't spend as much time fund-raising on the site. So the relaunch is more about introducing him to the voters and giving people every reason to vote for him. We've been building prototypes of pages and trying to look at layouts and navigation, but today we're kicking into higher gear and working closely with different sections of the campaign: Policy helps write the policy statement, for example, and Communications is really involved with the press releases and videos."
Tuesday_July 6_12:45 p.m.
"We had a big announcement today! [Kerry named Senator John Edwards his running mate.] We're already answering the phone 'Kerry/Edwards.' Right now, I'm editing content to go up on the site. We're putting up Edwards' position on the issues, his voting records, policy statements. We get stuff from Policy and Research, and some of it isn't quite Web-friendly, so I'm trying to shorten it, make it a little bit punchier."
Friday_July 9_4:03 p.m.
"I'm working on the Internet budget through the end of November. We need to know exactly how we'll spend our share of the $75 million in public funds that the [general election] campaign is going to get and make sure that we're incredibly frugal and disciplined. Every single dime we spend needs to be about getting John Kerry votes in November. I've had four or five calls from different Internet wireless and mobile vendors wanting to work with us to do text messaging to get out the vote. But if I can't say, 'This will get us 10,000 more votes,' it's probably not something we'll go with."
Wednesday_July 21_4:31 p.m.
"I'm doing convention prep. Yes, I'm going to it. I'm very excited. A bunch of Kerry staffers are going to blog and write e-mails from the convention. Though it sounds massive, there are only going to be 30,000 people in attendance, so we're trying to bring it home for people who can't be there."
Wednesday_July 28_3:28 p.m.
"I'm in Boston, walking to the Fleet Center. It's been an incredible couple of days so far. We have a backstage operations center called the Boiler Room, and I'm helping out back there. I'm far beyond the camera range-no one can see me. We're working with all of the state delegations. Anything they need, they have a direct line back to us. I can't wait for Kerry on Thursday. I've heard his speech is tremendous. There are 10 TVs we're tuned into [back here]. Although I'm only 30 feet from the action, I don't get to go out on the floor and see it."
