SYRACUSE – Candidates in most local races spend lots time knocking on doors, talking to voters.
In campaigns where huge advertising buys are out of reach, meeting people face to face can be key to victory. Republican Joseph Griffo’s successful campaign this year for state Senate was no different,but Griffo had some technological help from CampaignBase.com, a Syracuse company that produces campaign software.
Travis Glazier, a local campaign operative who has worked on various election efforts in recent years, started the company in December 2005 and Griffo’s campaign was one of its first paying customers.
Griffo, current Oneida County executive, used the service to organize what houses he would visit when out canvassing neighborhoods. The Web-based product allowed the campaign to make fast, mobile decisions on where to door-knock, says Ryan Nobles, adviser to Griffo’s campaign.
Before CampaignBase, voter information would be carried on large spreadsheet files, making it difficult to generate door-knocking lists on the road, Nobles explains. The service also allowed the campaign to search voters by multiple categories and create highly targeted plans.
That knowledge came in particularly handy during the race’s primary, Nobles says.
“We only needed Republicans and only targeted people we knew were going to vote,” he says. “Before this came along, this kind of information was what could separate grassroots candidates from those that are bigger and more well financed.
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