Carson and his wife Rebecca served as Peace Corps volunteers in Honduras where he built water systems and taught surveying. The Carsons returned to the United States upon completing their Peace Corps service in 2006. Carson was able to acquire donated surveying equipment from Wisconsin to help local residents better access drinking water. Carson lived and worked in southern Honduras in the city of Choluteca. Carson worked for Action Against Hunger and Plan International, both international NGO's that work with water and sanitation. While in the Peace Corps, Carson conducted topographic surveys, designed small-scale potable water systems and organized a class on topographic surveying for local Hondurans who work in water and sanitation. Carson says his Peace Corps experience helps him in politics because he recognizes that he speaks Spanish "like a gringo" so "knowing his limitations while communicating his intentions, serves as a metaphor for his approach" to communications in politics.
A Biography of Jon Carson (RPCV Honduras)
A Biography of Jon Carson (RPCV Honduras)
by Hugh Pickens
Jon Carson was national field director for President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008 and is on the Obama transition team.
Early Life and Education
Carson was born in Chaseburg, Wisconsin. Carson's father was a member of the Westby School Board for 15 years. Carson majored in civil engineering at University of Wisconsin-Platteville. While at Plattsville Carson got involved with tuition issues and was eventually elected President of the student senate. Carson received his master’s degree in fluvial geomorphology at the University of California-Los Angeles where he studied sedimentation in a section of the Mississippi River off Goose Island.
Peace Corps Service
Carson and his wife Rebecca served as Peace Corps volunteers in Honduras where he built water systems and taught surveying. The Carsons returned to the United States upon compleitng their Peace Corps service in 2006. Carson was able to acquire donated surveying equipment from Wisconsin to help local residents better access drinking water. Carson lived and worked in southern Honduras in the city of Choluteca. Carson worked for Action Against Hunger and Plan International, both international NGO's that work with water and sanitation. While in the Peace Corps, Carson conducted topographic surveys, designed small-scale potable water systems and organized a class on topographic surveying for local Hondurans who work in water and sanitation. Carson says his Peace Corps experience helps him in politics because he recognizes that he speaks Spanish "like a gringo" so "knowing his limitations while communicating his intentions, serves as a metaphor for his approach" to communications in politics.
Previous Campaign Work
In 1996 Carson worked as a campaign volunteer for Democrat Mark Kastel in his bid to unseat Assembly Rep. DuWayne Johnsrud and for Ron Kind in his first race for Congress. In 1998 Carson worked on Russ Feingold's U.S. Senate campaign. In 2000 Carson worked as a regional field organizer in the Iowa caucus campaign supporting Al Gore. In 2001 Carson was Director of the Wisconsin Senate Democratic Caucus. In 2002 Carson worked in South Carolina helping Democrats target African-American voters. In South Carolina Carson helped develop a database to maximize the impact of local volunteers making multiple personal contacts with voters in the African-American community and said that [technology’s] only use is to increase the efficiency of the personal contact. In 2003 Carson headed field operations for New Jersey's legislative races where Democrats took control of the state legislature for the first time in ten years.
Duckworth Campaign
In 2006 Carson managed the general election campaign for Tammy Duckworth's in Illinois' 6th Congressional District. Duckworth Communications Director Billy Weinberg said that one of the reasons that Duckworth had selected Carson to be his campaign manager was that Duckworth was impressed with Carson's Peace Corps service and was looking for "a committment to service." Carson saw his role as keeping the campaign "on task and efficient" to get Duckworth in front of as many people as possible. During the campaign Duckworth's opponent Peter Roskam accused Duckworth of supporting a "cut-and-run" strategy in Iraq. "Tammy [Duckworth] lost her legs fighting in Iraq and to accuse her of wanting to 'cut and run' is simply crude," said Carson. Duckworth lost the race but Carson met Obama chief strategist David Axelrod during the campaign and in February 2007 joined the Obama Presidential camapign.
National Field Director for Obama Campaign
In May 2007 Carson was selected to be state director for the Obama campaign in Illinois. Carson was director of voter contact during the primaries. On June 16, 2008 the Obama campaign announced that Carson had been names national field director for the campaign.
Carson was the head of 770 field offices for Obama across the nation. Carson had 15,000 "super volunteers" who donated at least 30 hours a week to the campaign. Carson says that when he heard about staffers who had made extraordinary contributions to the campaign, he would investigate he often found that they were volunteers. "We're waging a very aggressive campaign to use our network of neighborhood volunteers to persuade voters wherever they are," said Carson. "The basic concept is not a new or revolutionary one," said Carson. "Campaigns have always wanted to have a grass-roots, volunteer-driven effort. The two pieces that came together for us . . . was the sheer volume of the people who wanted to get involved and the technology making it easier than ever before to find us. It wasn't that Democrats didn't get it" in past campaigns. "It was that . . . they weren't able to make it work on this scale."
Carson helped the Obama campaign use the internet during the campaign helping to gather the emails and mobile phone numbers of 10 million supporters, donors and volunteers. "We've run sort of a giant experiment here in volunteer management and we want to take a look at the lessons learned from that," Carson says. "I think in the same way that these incredible volunteers that we had carried his message throughout the campaign - talking to their neighbours about why he was the right candidate to bring the change that we needed - I can see them in a similar way explaining a health care proposal, explaining whatever issue it is."
Carson avoided hiring people with political science degrees. His background in engineering helped him crunch the numbers in his daily reports. "It’s good to be able to understand the math," Carson said. The Obama campaign used interactive websites and social networking tools to sign up volunteers and Carson says today's techniques are light years ahead of what he used in 1998 on Russ Feingold's Senate campaign. "I was given a paper list of about a dozen volunteers to start with, and the only new volunteers I got were people who wandered by our office when it was open," Carson says. Everything a volunteer does now is tracked including how many voters a volunteer has won over. "Every bit of voter contact one of our volunteers does is entered into our central database," Carson says. "I know right down to the precinct level how many people are working for us."
Obama Campaign Activities
Camp Obama
Carson played a roll when Camp Obama was organized in May,2007 to train volunteers, mostly college students, in community-organizing techniques. Carson knows that it takes a special understanding to be effective in a state where rural issues often dominate. "We are trying to learn from the success and failures of past campaigns," said Carson.
Focus on Caucus States during Primary
In July 2007 as Obama's campaign began considering how to allocate resources among the two dozen states that would vote on February 5, Carson realized that some of the biggest gains could come from the smallest states. For example, in Idaho a campaign that was able to identify its supporters and move them across long, often mountainous, distances could overwhelm the caucuses and take a large share of the 18 available delegates. "We felt like that would be a place where the extra organization would really pay off," said Carson. Carson was part of the team that made the decision to go after small caucus states where Clinton had virtually no presence realizing that the cost-per-delegate in caucus states was very low. "I remember the day when we said, ‘'Look at this, we could win more delegates in Idaho than in New Jersey,'" Carson said.
Obama's campaign divided the Feb. 5 states into three categories: primaries like Illinois and Georgia they expected to win; those like New York and New Jersey where Clinton would be strong but Obama could work to minimize her delegate advantage; and the caucuses, the most demanding to organize but where Obama's appeal to party activists offered him a potential base of support.
As Super Tuesday approached, Carson called on the "super-volunteers," who had left their jobs to help the campaign. "It was the first time that we took an enormous leap of faith in our grass-roots network that was already out there," Carson said. On February 5, Obama carried Idaho with 80 percent of the vote against Hillary Clinton. That same day, Clinton won New Jersey's primary by 10 points, but earned only 11 more delegates there than Obama.
Cast a Wide Net during General Election
On June 16, 2008 Jay Newton-Small reported in Time Magazine that the Obama campaign had 15 full-time paid staffers in Georgia as well as staff in North Carolina and Virginia and had been "literally moving in dozens of people every week to all three states," said Carson. The campaign also expected to have staff in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana before the end of June. "It's very hard to sit here right now to say what's going to happen in November... Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Montana, North Dakota, Missouri — which of those is going to be most winnable? So our campaign is taking the approach of casting a wide net," said Carson.
On August 15, 2008 Shaila Dewan reported in the New York Times that Carson said that the Obama campaign was still ramping up but that they planned to have field offices contesting the presidential race in all fifty states. Carson said that voter registration drives were important but that the campaign would not use the same strategy in all states. "Arkansas is a state where persuasion, I think, is going to be a larger factor than a massive registration program," Carson said.
Promote Early Voting
USA Today reported on September 21, 2008 that early voting had begun in some states and that during the next few weeks at least 34 states would allow early voting in the election. The boom in early voting is fed by election officials' desire to expand turnout without overwhelming polls. "We go through massive efforts to make sure our supporters know all the ways that they can vote," said Carson. On October 24, 2008 Carson sent out a memo on the state of the early vote that said that "Democrats are voting early at significantly higher rates than Republicans compared to 2004 and new and sporadic voting Democrats are voting early at higher rates than new or sporadic voting Republicans."
On October 31, 2008 Carson announced that although there had been speculation that Obama might make a campaign appearance in McCain's home state of Arizona, it was not going to happen. "We have announced our schedule through Monday night, and we will not be visiting Arizona," Carson said. "If the election were six or seven days away, I suspect Senator Obama would make a visit."
On October 31, 2008 Carson said that Obama staffers are focused on election night. "We are solely focused on doing what we need to do to get the votes to elect Senator Obama," said Carson. "We are going to be knocking on doors up until five minutes before the polls close," said Carson.
Last Call for Change
"Last Call for Change" was a tactic designed by Carson and California organizer Mary Jane Stevenson to harness the energy of volunteers who couldn't travel to battleground states. The campaign built targeted lists based on predictive data in all of the battleground states, and California took the lead on calling through them, ultimately identifying voters who could be counted on to vote for Obama. As the lists expanded, the California phone bank volunteer recruitment expanded and new volunteers flooded in eager to do something to help Barack Obama win the election. On election day, California volunteers got on their own phones and managed to make an astonishing 2 million calls into battleground states.
"Take the day off for Barack on Election Day and volunteer"
"Take the day off for Barack on Election Day and volunteer," emailed Carson the week before the election. "There was a link to click and fill out your pledge to 'take the day off and make history.' I filled out my name and other contact info and I'm planning to be a Poll Watcher at my local polling station. I go to training on November 2," wrote Michelle Kloske from Huntsville, Alabama. "On Saturday, I was told [by Carson] I could either take the day off on Election Day to do GOTV activities, like making calls, watching the polls, and driving voters to the polls. Two links were provided... . The email specifically targeted the grassroots of the organization and emphasized that no experience was required. Again, a donate button trails at the bottom of the message," wrote Marie Ryan McMillian from Juneau, Alaska.
Post Election Tasks
Transition Team
One day after Obama's victory, Carson reported to work as a member of Obama's transition team. On December 11, 2008 Gillian Reagan reported in the New York Observer that Jon Carson had attended a summit in Chicago of President-elect Barack Obama's key organizers during his campaign "to brainstorm on what to do with the huge grassroots network and how they can continue to mobilize their online and offline organizers during the new administration." The goals of the new network are to "rally support for the legislative agenda," to support candidates, to tap into volunteerism and promote a two-way conversation between the Obama Presidency and the electorate.
"As President-elect Obama takes office and a legislative agenda is put together," Carson says, "I think in the same way these incredible volunteers that we had carried his message throughout the campaign, talking to their neighbors about why he was the right candidate to bring the change that we needed — I can see them, in a similar way, explaining a health care proposal, explaining whatever issue it is."
Personal
Carson's wife, Rebecca, served with him in the Peace Corps in Honduras. The Carson have one child, Noah, born in June, 2008.
References
1. Westy Times. "Chaseburg native played pivotal role for Obama" by Chris Hubbuch. December 1, 2008
2. Wurfwhile. "Duckworth Campaign's New Beginning in the Illinois 6th - Jon Carson" by Hiram Wurf. June 13, 2006.
3. Con Agua. "Who We Are: Jon Carson. December 2, 2008.
4. Geroge Washington University. "Key People-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)" Updated July 21, 2008.
5. Chicago Sun Times. "Taking it Personally" September 27, 2006.
6. Chicago Sun Times. "Getting ready to roll" by Lynn Sweet. May 3, 2007.
7. USA Today. "Obama adds staff, taps ex-Clinton campaign manager" June 16, 2008.
8. USA Today. "The campaign's got your number, and your bar code" by Liz Sidoti. October 11, 2008.
9. Washington Post. "Obama Camp Relying Heavily on Ground Effort" by Alec MacGillis. October 12, 2008.
10. ABC News. "Obama expected to rally online army" November 15, 2008.
11. USA Today. "Campaigns' foot soldiers hit battleground states" by Martha T. Moore. October 29, 2008.
12. Chicago Tribune. "Camp helps Obama team hit trail: Volunteers learn campaign techniques" by John Mccormick. May 28, 2007.
13. Boston Globe. "Small-state plan pays dividends for Obama" by Sasha Issenberg. May 4, 2008.
14. The New Yorker. "Battle Plans" by Ryan Lizza. November 17, 2008.
15. Time Magazine. "Can Georgia Be Obama's Ohio?" by Jay Newton-Small. June 16, 2008.
16. New York Times. "Obama’s Southern Strategy Omits Arkansas, So Far" by Shaila Dewan. August 15, 2008.
17. USA Today. "Early voting starts today in some states" by Richard Wolf. September 21, 2008.
18. BarackObama.com "Memo from Jon Carson: State of the Early Vote" by Christopher Haas. October 24, 2008.
19.PolitickerAZ: Inside Politics for Political Insiders" by Evan Brown. October 31, 2008.
20. McClatchy Newspapers. "Will the next president have a mandate to govern?" by Margaret Talev. October 31, 2008.
21. Los Angles Times. "McCain, Obama dash through swing states" by Cathleen Decker. November 3, 2008.
22. Huffington Post. "Obama and His Field Force: How California Roared" by Jamie Alter Lynton. November 21, 2008.
23. Facebook. "Volunteers Report on the Full-Media Campaign" by Beverly Davis. October 30, 2008.
24.New York Observer. "Obama's Key Organizers: New Network Will Be Formed With 'Deliberate Haste" by Gillian Reagan. December 11, 2008
25. National Public Radio. "Obama Looks To Harness Grass-Roots Support" by Mara Liasson. November 12, 2008.
