Lessons From Central Oregon’s Biggest Meet and Greet Ever
We just finished five very full days manning our large campaign tent at the Deschutes County Fair and Rodeo. We had non-stop conversations and learned a lot…some of the high points of which I’ll share below. Consequently, I feel more equipped than ever to represent our region. The fair was grassroots politics at its best. It was like a crash course in what really matters to mainstream Central Oregonians.
When my campaign secured the Title Sponsorship for the Fair, many people were surprised and, in some cases, truly puzzled. In the weeks leading up to the Fair we frequently heard, “Why are you doing this?” and “No single political candidate has ever sponsored the entire Fair. What’s that about?” Even reporters from local media commented, “This has never been done before. What’s going on here?”
When my campaign secured the Title Sponsorship for the Fair, many people were surprised and, in some cases, truly puzzled. In the weeks leading up to the Fair we frequently heard, “Why are you doing this?” and “No single political candidate has ever sponsored the entire Fair. What’s that about?” Even reporters from local media commented, “This has never been done before. What’s going on here?”
I had four main objectives for sponsoring:
- While campaigning, one thing we commonly hear is that people feel disconnected from their elected officials and candidates and have little access. I wanted to address that and make myself open and accessible to 200,000 Central Oregonians. We met thousands of people during the course of the week, including hundreds I met while clearing their tables at the Buckaroo Breakfast.
- People frequently complain that they don’t feel heard by politicians. I wanted to host the biggest meet and greet Central Oregon has ever seen, so that voters would have an easy opportunity to express themselves. And man did they.
- I wanted to open a space that would support other Republican candidates without charge and bring us all together in a unified team effort. That happened.
- Every candidate needs to create broad name recognition and that costs money. Rather than spending donor money on media advertising, I wanted to invest the money back into the Deschutes County, while the campaign benefitted from the extensive print, TV, radio, billboard, website and social media advertising conducted by the Fair, all of which branded me as the Title Sponsor, two dozen banners throughout the Fair, campaign video clips playing in every building, campaign videos playing before each concert, and a 40’ campaign booth at the entrance to the Fairgrounds. Last year there were 742,000 website hits, 200,000 organic advertising impressions and 140,000 attendees (the biggest to date). This year the Fair was bigger and better in every way. See the KTVZ article on our media page for more details. The Fair turned out to be the lowest cost per impression and the highest bang for the buck we could have chosen. We got great exposure and were able to give back to the community in the process. It was a win-win.
Here's some of what we heard – over and over:
We need balance in Salem. We need commonsense in Salem. Please help with cost of living. Please help with cost of housing. Please solve the homeless crisis. Roll back the excessive regulations on business. Get rid of the CAT tax. Remove the excessive regulations on farmers. Address the water shortage. Keep our forests from burning down. Dump the flawed wildfire maps. Don’t let Central Oregon become Portland. Protect law and order and public safety. Bring back excellence in education. Stop the social and gender indoctrination of our elementary children in school. Addressing climate change matters, but so does commonsense in how we do it…move more slowly and consider all the costs and unintended consequences. Don’t take away our diesel or price it impossibly high. Protect the Snake River dams. Stop passing new laws and clean up the ones we already have. Listen to us. |
All of this direct input will go into shaping our campaign messaging and our approaches to issues going forward. I heard you and I will act. |
All of this direct input will go into shaping our campaign messaging and our approaches to issues going forward. I heard you and I will act.
For media coverage on the Fair, see the KTVZ and Bend Bulletin articles on our media page.
P.S. Deschutes County is an extraordinary place to live. A big part of that is due to the excellent work of County employees lead by County Administrator Nick Lelack. Check out my interview with him here.
For media coverage on the Fair, see the KTVZ and Bend Bulletin articles on our media page.
P.S. Deschutes County is an extraordinary place to live. A big part of that is due to the excellent work of County employees lead by County Administrator Nick Lelack. Check out my interview with him here.
(to help elect Michael Sipe, Republican Candidate for Oregon House District 53)