I can't get over the office space.
Politicians work out of their car and their home. I have worked on many political campaigns, from state rep to governor, and the candidate mostly comes in to rally the troops. The only reason to have a campaign office is for staffers and volunteers, and so that people have a place to pick up canvasing materials and lawn signs. That's also why it actually has to be in the district. And for a Congressional run, there would need to be 3-4 offices around the district by the last 3 months.
Secondly, the price is crazy. $1049 a month sounds market rate for a mid-level office space in Burlington, though it depends on how large the office is. But nobody pays market rate for political office space. Most commercial landlords want a 2-10 year lease commitment, and campaigns need offices for 3 months-1 year. So they cut a deal with a landlord that owns a place that's been empty for years that the campaign will rent it at half-price for a minimum amount of time, and will do any upgrades themselves. Landlords figure some money is better than none, and hope that the place will be left in better shape than it was rented in. The places are usually pretty gross when they're rented, and volunteers will do a quick paint job and get some mousetraps.
If this campaign is about graft, then she's doing it wrong. Think of how many Amtrak trips and hotel stays and crappy food $1049 a month could buy her, instead of a pointless office.
His posts online aren’t locked down. It’s pretty clear she hired him for the Lynch family drama and inside secrets since he claims to be Stephen Lynch’s cousin.
From what I can tell; he’s done fuck all for the campaign. He attended the JP event and the Stonewall meeting, but the first one wasn’t even for Brianna. The second wasn’t either and was literally just a meeting.
As far as I can tell, she pays the guy to pretend he’s a voter who votes his heart over blood. If big bad Stephen Lynch can’t even get his cousin to vote for him, why should anyone else?
Never mind the pesky details that Warren is clearly a crazy person and also doesn’t live in the district.
I want to clear up the JP event. The JP meeting was a regular ward meeting. Right now every politician is going to every ward/town democratic committee meeting in their district and giving their stump speech. They're not events designed for any one candidate: they're monthly meetings for the town/ward democratic committee, and people running for office looking for democratic support are always welcome to come give a little speech. It wasn't a Gonzalez event, and they were probably given an equal amount of time to speak.
But the reason the politicians do this (it's a stump speech that most of the people in the audience have heard 3 times before) is to get volunteers, because the people who go to ward/town meetings are the die hards who will volunteer on every campaign. So what was funny about Frank's snit that the campaign worker wasn't talking to him was that neither Wu had any idea what the point of even being there was. The campaign worker was probably standing by the door with a clip board trying to get as many names and email addresses of potential volunteers as he could in the 10 minute rush after the meeting was over, and had no interest in talking to someone from another campaign who wasn't going to volunteer on his. It wasn't a social event, and small talk with another campaign was a waste of valuable time. There are lots of other times where everyone on all the campaigns are standing around being bored where small talk between campaigns is normal and expected and appropriate. Not while the staffer is trying to get as many volunteers as possible in a limited amount of time.
A year ago, when people were still helping her, Wu was told by everyone she asked to start going to every caucus in her district (the caucuses for the state convention are now) and meet as many people as possible, and then to start going to every ward/town meeting to give her stump speech. A year ago. To date, the JP one is the only one she's gone to.
