Sunday, November 26, 2017

Texting, tweeting, emailing, postcarding

[Revised 11/30/17 - Texting and Postcarding sections added]
[Update 12/1/17 added at end]

Texting
I am trying to pin down whether the above is "texting [to AL voters] for Doug Jones", or whether it is to receive GOTV instructional texts from the campaign.

Whichever it is, I think all of texting, tweeting banks and emailing campaign can be pursued and provide mutual support. For example, if the texting is "texting [to ALvoters]," a special tweeting bank can be used to solicit texters.

Much depends on what the Doug Jones campaign wants to encourage, and what Doug Jones volunteers are willing to do in form of texting, tweet banking, and emailing.

Someone tweeted to me this: 
It’s a texting bank much like phone banking. You go to the Indivisible link and sign up. They give you an account and on the day you sign up for, you get texting assignments sent to your acct. at least that’s what I think. Never done it before.
SPURRING PARTICIPATION IN ALL OF THIS: I don't know how the campaign is using FB to spur volunteer efforts. Canvassers and postcard senders have tweeted using #DougJonesForSenate and possibly other hashtags to report about canvassing they have done and postcards they have sent. This reporting probably spurs other volunteers. I don't know what reporting of the texting effort will be done. If Doug Jones volunteers start sending tweets to Alabama voters or start sending emails to Alabama voters, they can report by tweeting on Twitter the tweeting they have done or the emailing they have done..

ORGANIZING ANY OR ALL OF THIS: Any or all of this needs organizing for effectiveness. There appears to be non-campaign organizing of texting and postcarding. I can't tell whether the campaign is involved in the organizing of texting or postcarding. I have been unable to get the campaign interested in tweet banking. The emailing idea has been added only recently in this blog. If the campaign is not going to be involved in organizing, any organizing has to come from outside the campaign. For the campaign not to be involved in organizing seems disadvantageous.

Where tweeting banks stand
There are sixteen days left before December 12th.

I am not privy to any Doug Jones campaign strategizing for these final two weeks. I have no idea what the campaign may be thinking about to "pull out all the stops."

I have been unable to get the campaign's attention to the tweeting banks advocated in this blog. I don't know whether campaign resources are so stretched that attention cannot be given to everything deserving of attention, or whether the campaign has concluded that the tweeting banks I am advocating are not sufficiently beneficial to justify any campaign resources and volunteer time and effort being used for tweet banking.

On the tweeting banks, there is an issue that some may view the tweeting as spam. If any say the tweeting should not be done because it is spam, I disagree. More than a year ago, I submitted the tweeting method to Twitter and gave my justifications for it. See Twitter@Support. I have been using the tweeting method for more than a year, and I have not had a problem with Twitter. I have sent tens of thousands of individually directed tweets, and the number of recipients who have complained is probably less than 25.

Because the Twitter platform is under the control of one entity (i.e., Twitter), and Twitter can ban abusers from communicating via the Twitter platform, I think people's sensibilities about spam on Twitter are less than in the email universe, in which there is not a single entity in control of the email platform and banning abusers can be very difficult, if not impossible.

Using email to pull out all the stops
I have been pushing tweeting banks for  Doug Jones for three months. I have not gotten them going with Doug Jones tweeters, and I have not been able to get the Doug Jones campaign to take an interest.

Thus it may be ridiculous to suggest now using email to "pull out all the stops" in the final two weeks, but I will make the suggestion anyway.

In suggesting email I think it is true, as mentioned above, that there is much heightened sensitivity about spam in the email universe compared to Twitter, and recipients of email are likely to object more quickly than in the case of a tweet.

In 2014 I tried to conduct an Internet campaign for Congress, in which I used email extensively. I had to battle for my email use. For further information, please read these links: An Internet political campaign, My emailing,  Governmental blocking of my political email, and Political spamming.

Both tweeting banks and an email campaign come down to how much Doug Jones and his supporters want to win, what he and they think will help (or help more than hurt) in winning, and what time and efforts he and they are willing to dedicate to what activities to try to win.

I will continue to push tweeting banks. If anyone wants to consider adding an email component to their campaign efforts, and would like to discuss the same, please join the Google group I have created and we can discuss the same.

Postcarding
The postcarding effort of volunteers sending postcards to Alabama voters has been going on for several weeks, and postcard sending is reported daily on Twitter. If you want to take up postcarding, go to Local AL Twitter addresses to get information about what to do.

Update 12/1/17
Amy Davis in Huntsville made inquiry of the Huntsville headquarters about texting, tweeting, emailing and postcarding. Amy tweeted me back about texting and postcarding (see tweets embedded below). Volunteers wanting to do texting or postcarding can follow Amy's tweets. I am going to continue to push tweet banking and emailing for whatever I can get to happen on those activities. If you are interested in the tweeting, I suggest you go to Simplifying this. 

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Saturday, November 25, 2017

Abortion issue

Those opposed to Doug Jones are trying to use the abortion issue against him. Below is example:

I am of the view that discourse and accommodation between pro-lifers and pro-choicers are possible. I am endeavoring to draw out discussion in a separate blog. See Let's talk abortion.

To persons tweeting against Doug on the issue, I am tweeting back inviting them to join in the discussion.


DougJonesForSenate tweeters should figure out how they want to tweet related to the abortion issue.

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Iron Bowl tweeting

Let's get Iron Bowl tweeting for Doug going today.

If you do tweeting, tell me what message you are tweeting, and I will post your message here.

You can also post comments below to tell what you are doing.

To talk with other Doug Jones tweeters, join the Google group that has been created.





Over the past year and a half, I have had good experience with individually directed tweet that contain a link and the link getting clicked on. Perhaps an individual tweet shows personal attention that gets responded to by clicking on the link.

You can experiment for yourself by creating a webpage to link to and that has a page view counter, proceed to send individual tweets, and see what your page view counter shows. If you want to use one of my blog entries to link to, and you tell me that you are sending individual tweets, I can report to you the page viewing that I see on my blog page view counter.
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Friday, November 24, 2017

Organizing this 2

If you have not read Organizing this, you should read that before you read this.

I continue not to be able to get the campaign's attention to the direct tweeting to Alabama voters being advocated in this blog.

I believe Damon Rieth is doing Step Two tweeting.


I believe he is doing the Step Two tweeting using follower lists on Tweeting to Republicans


I continue to receive many likes, retweets, and follows, and several people have done the Step One tweet.

Two people have joined the Google group I have created for discussing the tweeting, but there has not been any discussion in the group yet.

I talk about "blanketing Alabama Twitter accounts" with pro-Doug tweets. This can be done before December 12th, but it will take many tweeters willing to dedicate time to tweeting.

If you think blanketing Alabama Twitter accounts with pro-Doug tweets before December 12th can help Doug, you need join in and help with the tweeting here.

Please join the Google group as a way to get information to get going.


Addendum 11/25/17


I have been trying to push this blog for three months.

Organizing requires #DougJonesForSenate tweeters who are willing to tweet.

So, a first step a person can do is to urge other tweeters to decide to do the tweeting urged in this blog.

Tell them to join the Google group to discuss tweeting, ask questions, and get information.

If you want a particular new tweeting bank organized, you can suggest messaging to put in the tweeting bank, or I will draft something for your consideration. See Index of tweeting banks.


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Monday, November 20, 2017

Simplifying this

The tweeting banks I have created seek to state a reason for voting for Doug Jones, and the tweets give a link to a webpage for the recipient to click on, which link elaborates on the reason for voting for Doug Jones. The linked webpage further invites recipients to join in the tweeting. The method  gives importance to tweet recipients clicking on the links and keeping track of page views to establish that links are being clicked on.

Simplification may be called for at this juncture.

There is an active postcard sending effort going on in which Doug Jones supporters are sending postcards to Alabama voters in support of Doug Jones. At a minimum this gets Doug Jones' name in front of the eyes of Alabamians and calls to their attention that fellow Alabamians support Doug Jones. This by itself is helpful in the campaign.

The tweeting being advocated by this blog could be simplified. The tweet could say simply, "I am voting for Doug Jones, and you should too." A link to a webpage might or might not be included.

Doug Jones tweeters would be instructed, "Just go find a Twitter account in your geographical area and send individual tweets to followers of that Twitter account. After you are done sending your batch of tweets, post a tweet on the #DougJonesforSenate hashtag that says, "I just sent individual tweets to __ followers of such and such Twitter account."

Further you might post a comment on this blog entry saying the same thing.

For example, say you live in or near Enterprise, Alabama. A follower list you could use for sending your individual tweets could be https://twitter.com/Enterprise_AL/followers. Take a look at that followers list, and see that you would probably want to be a little selective about which followers you send your tweets to.

This simpler method of tweeting gets Doug Jones' name in front of the eyes of Alabamians and calls to their attention that fellow Alabamians support Doug Jones. This should be worth doing in the campaign at this juncture.

Questions or comments
For questions or comments, there is a Google group I have created. See Google group.
Or feel free to tweet me questions or comments.

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Measuring tweeting results


The above is the first "Step Two" tweeting of which I have become aware.

The "Step Two" tweeting was ostensibly done by Blue Heron sending individual tweets to persons who had tweeted using a particular hashtag or hashtags, as opposed to sending individual tweets to persons who were followers of a third party Twitter account.

A word of caution if you go to a Twitter hashtag listing and send individual tweets to persons who show up under the hashtag: It may be better not to send your tweet to the person by means of using the reply button, but rather by right clicking on the person's Twitter name and sending your tweet as a "clean" new tweet to the person.

Measuring results
A person you tweet to may like or retweet your tweet, which you will see and which is a good result. This probably won't happen very much.

Also a person you tweet to may click on the link in your tweet and do a Step One tweet, in which case you will be able to see that person's Step One tweet on the #DougJonesforSenate hashtag. That too is a good result but that too is not likely to happen much.

The main measure of good results is whether my Blogger page view counter registers a page view, meaning the recipient of your tweet has clicked on the link. You can't see my Blogger page view counter, and only I can see it.

To provide information about whether tweet recipients are clicking on the link Step Two tweets that are sent, I am going to start posting at the bottoms of the tweeting bank pages the total numbers of page views. I will do this periodically, possibly daily, and I will include the date on which I have done the posting. I will leave in place posted information about page views from earlier dates so that how the cumulative number of page views is going up.

When I have done this tweeting, I have been able to see my page view counter go up as I am doing the tweeting. If you tell me you are doing tweeting, I may be able to watch the page view counter as you are doing your tweeting and let you know by DM or some other way.

Tweeting using cellphones
I do all my work on my laptop and don't know how "user friendly" this blog is or how easy or hard it is to send Step Two tweets on cellphones. Please give me feedback about cellphones. Thanks.

Questions or comments
For questions or comments, there is a Google group I have created. See Google group.
Or feel free to tweet me questions or comments.


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Friday, November 17, 2017

Google group

I have created a Google group for Doug Jones tweeters to discuss their tweeting activities in support of Doug Jones.

The URL for the Google group is:  https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/doug-jones-tweeters/new

If you go to the Google group, you need to request to join the group. Tweet me that you have asked to join, and I will admit you to the group.

While the Google group's discussion can be seen only by group members, I don't plan to do any vetting of people who want to join the group, and people may be admitted to the group who may report things you say in the group to others who are not in the group.
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Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Twitter storm compare

The direct tweeting to Alabama voters that is sought by the tweeting banks in this blog should be compared with Twitter Storms.

Twitter Storms
There is a Twitter Storm for Doug Jones scheduled for tommorow:
If you go to the Tweetsheet https://t.co/xERP3cRzi2, you will see the alternative tweet messages that participants may select to send in the Twitter Storm. All the tweet messages show the #DigDoug hashtag, so all the tweets that are sent in the Twitter Storm should show up under that hashtag. In addition, a participant's tweet in the Twitter Storm will show up on the Twitter feeds of the participant's followers. The Twitter Storm may have trending.

By looking on the #DigDoug hashtag tomorrow, you will be able to see how many participants send tweets in the Twitter Storm.

From that, you may try to judge for yourself how many Alabama voters will see tweets sent in the Twitter Storm, and who those Alabama voters are.

You might consider the extent to which the tweets in the Twitter Storm are seen only by like minded persons who already know who Doug Jones is, who already have an interest in Doug Jones, and/or who already favor Doug Jones.

You may conclude from considering the nature of the Twitter Storm that its reach to Alabama voters is limited, particularly to Alabama voters who don't know Doug Jones and whom you would like to reach with your tweet in order to try to persuade them to vote for Doug Jones.

Directed tweeting to AL voters
The goal of tweeting banks is the organized sending of individual tweets to as many Twitter accounts in Alabama as possible. There are probably a couple hundred thousand of those.

The tweets have links that contain pro-Doug Jones messaging. The links ask tweet recipients to join in the sending of tweets, seeking to create a pyramiding of tweets.

The main resource for finding Alabama Twitter addresses to tweet to are follower lists of Alabama Twitter accounts having lots of Alabama followers. Also hashtags, such as #RollTide, that are used by many Alabama tweeters can be availed of for finding Alabama Twitter accounts.

My experience is that I have had good success in sending directed tweets with links and the links getting clicked on.
In my tweeting banks, I say that 35 to 70 tweets can be efficiently sent in a half hour. (I think actually 3 or 4 can be sent in a minute. I have at times sent directed tweets as fast as 3 or 4 a minutes. I have not had a problem with Twitter temporarily stopping me from sending tweets.)

To have success, this tweeting effort needs Doug Jones tweeters who will tweet under Step Two of the tweeting banks. If you do the arithmetic, depending on how many Doug Jones tweeters do tweeting, and how much time they are willing to spend on tweeting, several hundred thousand could easily be sent to Alabama Twitter accounts before December 12th.
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Saturday, November 11, 2017

Will Benton

I don't know why Will Benton tweeted below:
I have made inquiry asking why working with me is discouraged. I will post any response I receive below so that Doug Jones tweeters can decide whether they want to participate in the organized tweeting I am proposing.


Will Benton needs to explain what con he thinks I am doing.


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Friday, November 10, 2017

Tweeting to Republicans

TO: As many Alabama Republicans as we can tweet to:

We who are tweeting to you wish to persuade you to vote for Doug Jones.

We believe, if Roy Moore is elected United States Senator, he would increase the polarization of our country, and further impair our broken Congress from doing its job properly for the American people.

We believe Doug Jones is the opposite, he will contribute to reducing the polarization in Congress, and this will enable Congress to work better for all of us. (We understand this means compromising, and neither side will get only its way in Congress.)

We think it is critical that Alabama voters make known they wish to reject the extremes and want more centrist forces to prevail.

We appeal to Alabama Republicans to think about this before Dec. 12th, decide that they agree, and vote for Doug Jones on December 12th.

We are using Twitter to communicate this message as far and wide in Alabam as we can.

We are sending tweets to Alabamians regardless of political affiliation asking them to join with us, and send thousands of tweets to Alabama Republicans (and others).

To help us out in this effort, please follow Steps One and Two below.

Step One
Click on the below "Tweet here" link  to send a tweet that says,
AL Republicans should vote for #DougJonesforSenate to reduce polarization and get Congress working properly. #ALSen #alpolitics http://dougjones4senate.blogspot.com/2017/11/tweeting-to-republicans.html #ALSen #alpolitics
(After you click on the below "Tweet here" link, you will see a preview of your tweet, and your tweet will not be sent until you click the "Tweet" button in the preview.)



Step Two
Send individual tweets to Twitter followers of Alabama Republican party organizations, which tweets have a link to this webpage. This will be to try to get recipients of tweets to come to this webpage, send their own tweet in Step One, and, after that, join in sending tweets to more Alabamans in this Step Two. The goal here to get a large number of "pyramiding" of tweets going to Alabama voters.

A suggested tweet message to send in this Step Two is:
Tweet for Alabama Republicans to vote for Doug Jones to reduce polarization in our country and get Congress working properly.
http://dougjones4senate.blogspot.com/2017/11/tweeting-to-republicans.html
Below are follower lists of some Alabama Republican party organizations that you can utilize.
https://twitter.com/ShelbyCountyGOP/followers
https://twitter.com/4gop/followers
https://twitter.com/DekalbALGOP/followers
https://twitter.com/GBYRs/followers
https://twitter.com/marshallcoalgop/followers
https://twitter.com/JeffCo_GOP/followers
https://twitter.com/YRNEA/followers
https://twitter.com/gopmonroecounty/followers
https://twitter.com/CentralALGOP/followers
https://twitter.com/MontgomeryGOP/followers
https://twitter.com/baldwingop/followers
https://twitter.com/YRFAL/followers
https://twitter.com/MobileGOP/followers
https://twitter.com/ALGOP/followers


FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUR TWEETING
A. General
This tweeting involves a non-standard use of Twitter, namely, the sending of large numbers of individually directed tweets to followers of other Twitter accounts (not your own followers).
A ground has been staked out with Twitter for this method of tweeting. See letter to Twitter @Support.
The object of this method of tweeting is to get a "pyramiding" of tweets going in Alabama.

B. How to send your tweets efficiently from laptops
In doing your tweeting, you are repetitively sending the same tweet message. This can be done very efficiently, at least on a laptop computer. Get the tweet message on your mouse clipboard, go to the follower list  you are using for your tweeting, start with the first person on the list you want to tweet to, and do this:
1. Right click on person's Twitter name.
2. Choose "open in new tab"
3. Go to the new tab.
4. Click on the "Tweet to" button.
5. Paste the tweet message in the box.
6. Hit the "Tweet" button.
7. Close the tab, which takes you back to the list
8. Go on to next person, and repeat above steps.
You should be able to send 35 to 70 tweets in a half hour. Send as many tweets as you are willing to. Don't worry about any duplication that you think may arise.

C. How to send your tweets efficiently on smartphones
[to be added]



DISCLAIMER
This communication is not authorized by Doug Jones or any other candidate, or authorized committee of Doug Jones or other candidate, or an agent of any of the foregoing. The author of this blog Robert Shattuck is paying for this communication. His permanent address is 3812 Spring Valley Circle, Birmingham, AL 35223, tel. no. (205) 967-5586. 
Under Federal election law, an uncompensated individual or group of uncompensated individuals may engage in certain voluntary Internet activities for the purpose of influencing a federal election without restriction. These exempted Internet activities do not result in a contribution or an expenditure under the Federal election law and do not trigger any registration or reporting requirements with the FEC. This exemption applies to individuals acting with or without the knowledge or consent of a campaign or a political party committee. Exempted Internet activities include, but are not limited to, sending or forwarding electronic mail, providing a hyperlink to a website, creating, maintaining or hosting a website and paying a nominal fee for the use of a website. The author of this blog is not receiving any compensation.
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Organizing this

The Doug Jones campaign includes the candidate's appearances, TV advertising, bumper stickers and yard signs, door to door canvassing, phone banking, and postcard sending.

This blog seeks to add an organized tweeting effort.

The goal is sending individual tweets to as many Twitter accounts in Alabama as possible. There are probably a couple hundred thousand of those.

The tweets to be sent have links that contain additional pro-Doug Jones messaging. The links ask tweet recipients to join in the sending of tweets, seeking to create a pyramiding of tweets.

The main resource for finding Alabama Twitter addresses to tweet to are follower lists of Alabama Twitter accounts having lots of Alabama followers. Also hashtags, such as #RollTide, that are used by many Alabama tweeters can be availed of for finding Alabama Twitter accounts.

Please look at my main tweeting bank for general use Tweeting for Doug Jones to see how this is supposed to work.

I have set it up to have a Step One (which is a single tweet that will be on #DougJonesforSenate hashtag), and a Step Two which is for doing the critical tweeting of sending individual tweets to large numbers of Twitter accounts in Alabama.

This organized tweeting effort for Doug Jones has been submitted to the campaign, but currently there has been no response from the campaign. See Social Media Director.

Some may view the tweeting as spam. The tweeting method has been submitted to Twitter. See Twitter@Support. I have been using the tweeting method for more than a year, and I have not had a problem with Twitter. I have sent tens of thousands of individually directed tweets, and the number of tweet recipients who have complained is probably less than 50.

I have used my blog page counter for evidence of whether tweet recipients click on links in the tweets. My page view counter has shown very good success in getting links in my tweets clicked on.

This tweeting effort needs Doug Jones tweeters who will send tweets under Step Two of the tweeting banks. While I have had lots of "likes" and "retweets" and a few tweeters who have done the tweet in Step One, I am not aware of any tweeters who are sending tweets in the critical Step Two.

To get Doug Jones tweeters to step forward to do Step Two tweeting, I am soliciting that supporters search for Twitter accounts of the geographical area in which they live and that have good follower lists for sending tweets to. See Local Twitter account addresses.

Please tweet me if you are willing to get going with doing the critical Step Two tweeting.

Please give me any suggestions you have for getting Step Two tweeting going.

Addendum 11/20/17
See Measuring tweeting results.
For questions or comments, there is a Google group I have created. See Google group.
Or feel free to tweet me questions or comments.
Also please consider whether you prefer a simpler approach for tweeting to Alabama voters. See Simplifying this.

Addendum 11/24/17
See Organizing this 2.
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Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Local AL Twitter addresses

There is an active postcard writing effort going on for Doug Jones.

My understanding that one resource supporting this is @DemocratWit in Atlanta

May hundreds of Doug Jones supporters get mailing addresses for Alabama voters, and may they write and mail to Alabama voters thousands of postcards for Doug Jones.

My interest is in tweeting banks for tweeting messages to Alabama voters. For an example, please take a look at Auburn for Doug. 

As you will see from Auburn for Doug, Twitter addresses to tweet to are to be found using follower lists of Alabama Twitter accounts with large numbers of followers.

In  the Auburn tweeting bank, I suggest the below follower lists to find Twitter addresses to tweet to in the Auburn area.
https://twitter.com/oanow/followers
https://twitter.com/AuburnChamber/followers
https://twitter.com/CityofAuburnAL/followers
https://twitter.com/AUCDems/followers

If you will look for and provide to me links for follower lists of Twitter accounts in your geographic location with Twitter followers you think should be tweeted to, I will create a tweeting bank for you and other Doug Jones tweeters in your area to utilize.

Calling for Dothan-based tweeter

What Twitter accounts in Dothan do you think have a good list of followers to send individual tweets to in a "Dothan for Doug" tweeting bank?
What do you think of the below two follower lists:
https://twitter.com/dothaneagle/followers
https://twitter.com/CityofDothan/followers
Please give me your suggestions and thoughts.

Calling for Florence-based tweeter
What Twitter accounts in Florence do you think have a good list of followers to send individual tweets to in a "Florence for Doug" tweeting bank?
What do you think of the below two follower lists;
https://twitter.com/_FlorenceAL/followers
https://twitter.com/TimesDaily/followers
Please give me your suggestions and thoughts.



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Saturday, November 4, 2017

Tracy James

The below Doug Jones tweet currently shows 48 replies, 780 retweets, and 1732 likes.
The video, made by Tracy James of Birmingham, should be pushed out to Republicans in Alabama via Twitter.

The same should be done with other similar videos that are made.

Do you want to help with pushing such videos out to Republicans in Alabama via Twitter?

--------------------------------
N.B. For weeks I have been advocating that the Doug Jones campaign use tweeting banks to push out pro-Doug messaging to Alabama voters via Twitter.
Tweeting banks involve sending individually directed tweets to Alabama persons who have Twitter accounts. I suspect there are at least a couple hundred thousand Twitter accounts in Alabama. (While they presumably are not all in Alabama. Al.com, for example, has 269,000 followers).
Many Doug Jones tweeters have "liked" and "retweeted" the tweeting bank idea, but none have indicated they are willing to do the tweeting called for by a tweeting bank. I presented the idea to the Doug Jones campaign Social Media Director more than than three weeks ago, but I have heard nothing back from him.
The most recent poll I am aware of, reported October 31st, shows Doug Jones behind by 17 points. Poll: Moore up 17 points in Alabama Senate race. The campaign would seem to have a lot that it must overcome by December 12th. I have no idea what campaign strategizing is going on, but it would seem that all stops need to be pulled out by the campaign and its volunteers.
I strongly urge that the campaign get tweeting banks going.
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