In the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire, the Trump campaign has decided to skip paying for field staff. Bad move! Via the Daily Beast:
In a Trumpian branding flourish, the campaign has devised what it is calling a “town captains” system, according to New Hampshire Republicans familiar with the plan.
In towns around the state, volunteers are expected to convince 10 other people to join the field organizing operation; those new recruits are then expected to each find 10 more people, and so on.
To some seasoned GOP operatives, the arrangement sounds more like the structure of a multi-level marketing company than a presidential campaign.
“It sounds like a Ponzi scheme,” one of Trump’s top advisers from his 2016 campaign told The Daily Beast. “My guess is they’re using these people for optics while they spend money on legal bills… What a fucking shitshow.”
Sounds like the old Amway model, doesn't it?
What do field staff do? Outreach. Knocking on doors, calling people. Getting your supporters to the polls, or making sure they sent their ballots. This might have a shot back in 2015, when people were newly enamoured of him, but it seems unlikely to work for someone who's under the shadow of federal indictments. Might cut into the enthusiasm a tiny bit!
But you can't look at this in a vacuum. We're assuming he intends to win. It's possible he's just running to gin up donations for what will be enormous legal bills.
