The Gantt Report
By Lucius Gantt
This Gantt Report column will be a couple of paragraphs longer than usual. I have a few points I need to make and perhaps a personal announcement.
Congratulations to the Democratic Party on a “successful” convention. I watched parts of the event every day and thought the party did a good job.
Now, let’s get to business.
I often ask TGR readers, “Do you remember the days of slavery?”
Well, you should never forget how slavery was and how the impact of slavery continues to plague African American citizens to this very day.
You see, the enslaved men and women couldn’t approach their slave masters and request the jobs they wanted. They couldn’t say, “I don’t want to pick cotton or chop tobacco stalks, I want to work in the big house.”
The best jobs on the plantations were always reserved for overseers, slave catchers, cooks, maids, butlers, and maybe belly warmers and feet warmers.
The slaves that the slave masters disparaged, discouraged, and disrespected the most were sent to work in the hot farm fields from sunup to sundown.
Recently, I suggested in this column that Vice President Kamala Harris would get more votes than her decadent opponent and win the election if she won the most votes in the most populous states.
America’s political pundits are saying the race will be close. I say, it doesn’t have to be. The race will be close because advisors for both Presidential candidates have no clue about modern-day GOTV tactics and operations! American slaves were not allowed to work on certain jobs similarly to the way Black South Africans were denied job opportunities in apartheid South Africa.
Tell me the difference between the strategy of turning out the Democratic base of Black voters in 1964 and getting Blacks to the polls in 2024. There is zero difference. Blacks are told to contribute, told to endorse, and told to volunteer to do what they are told to do.
When I wrote that GOTV operations were too important to use poorly trained, misguided, and misled volunteers in such an important election, some readers said I was just hating or I just wanted to be hired.
If you don’t know, I haven’t worked on an important political campaign in America since the early 2000s after I was involved in a catastrophic auto accident. My health is good now, but it took years for me to rehabilitate myself after being in hospitals, rehab hospitals, and in out-patient facilities for years.
I want you to know, I don’t plan to work on any American political campaign ever again unless I’m asked to help a candidate that I know personally.
When I worked on campaigns, everybody who worked with me or provided me with professional services got paid. This idea that whites on the campaign should get paid for work and Blacks should volunteer is super unacceptable to me.
Too many Black people are just happy to be in the convention room.
Fact is, at the time of this writing, the Harris campaign had just spent 90 million dollars in Midwest advertising and had set aside 300 million dollars for ads after the convention. The Kamala campaign will spend nearly $600, 000, 000.
OK, that’s no surprise. Politics and money are parallel. Wherever you find political activity, you’ll find money. You tell me why Black women, and men, were first to endorse and contribute but have so little to show for their early support.
The GOTV plan put forth by high-paid Harris advisors has already made professional errors.
Can Lucius prove it? Yes!
No matter what the Democratic base is told, the plan is to spend every dollar possible on political media to influence and motivate white voters. If TV ad slots are sold out in early October, a few measly dollars will be sent to the NNPA, or Black newspapers, and radio stations, mostly white-owned, that play “Black music”.
The “timing” is way off! GOTV operations should start two or three weeks before early voting starts. GOTV professionals know many, if not most, Black voters vote early, and early voting may have already started in many important states.
Hmmm? What will volunteers say when they knock on your door, call your phone, or text you a message? What will volunteers give voters when they interact with registered Black voters? Why not give voters like seniors Harris-Walz refrigerator magnets with important info on them like Medicare, Medicaid and social security office phone numbers, for instance? I gave voters things they would keep. Everyone in every house will go to the refrigerator, often.
Perhaps you can give voters an opportunity to tell the campaign how interested voters want to help the campaign. For example, voters can say they need a ride to the polls, maybe they want a sign placed on their property, maybe they want literature to share with friends, neighbors, and business customers, maybe they want to have a meet-and-greet fundraiser to raise money for Kamala, etc. (Kamala’s campaign can do a video that can be shown at meet-and-greets.
GOTV research must be done. Every household doesn’t have registered voters. Frequent voters in voting precincts must be contacted and professionals know what “match-merging” is. It matches voter addresses with census data so GOTV workers can not only know where registered voters are, they also know ages, employment and other census-type data. You should want to send young voters different messages than the messages you sent to senior citizens, for sure.
I understand the use of television, but TV ads must be coordinated with other campaign efforts.
Now, I’m sure you’ve seen eight or nine “Black” spokespersons from both major parties. They have campaign titles but rarely participate in campaign purchasing transactions.
The Black spokespersons all have talking points. Campaign money and spending is prohibited from spokesperson conversations. All campaign professionals have campaign contracts, not 9 to 5 jobs.
Political professionals are usually aware of each other. Expense reports are public information, and any voter can see where some of the campaign money is being spent. I say “some” because millions of dollars are spent by PACs, political action committees. PACs are not required to disclose where money came from or where money was spent. PACs and campaigns are not supposed to communicate with, or work with each other but they do. If a candidate doesn’t want you to know who gets paid what, they can hide the money flow with their PACs.
I say all of this because campaigns get millions of dollars in campaign contributions from Blacks, but Black voters never know what their donations are spent on.
Anyway, I’m retiring from the political game. If I know you, I’ll help you but I’m not selling my people out for a T-shirt and a smile.
Good luck with poorly trained volunteers. Professionals usually know by 5pm on election day if they will win, while most candidates and volunteers have to stay up all night and still not know the election winner.
The Gantt Report will soon be going through some changes. There will be different ways to access Gantt Report columns.
The TGR network of media companies has expanded tremendously. I want to thank publishers in Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Missouri, California and the Caribbean for publishing The Gantt Report. I appreciate your love and support.
The election of your favorite candidates does not have to be close. Elections are close because the highest paid professionals want election votes to be close!