Page 181 - The Resilient Organization

168 Part Four: Step 3. Rehearsing a Culture of Resilience

been politically active beyond voting. The survey, which used the Dean
campaign’s own e-mail list of supporters, indicated that most Dean activists
were middle-aged, contrary to many popular perceptions, and that they
remained engaged in political action many months after Howard Dean
suspended his presidential campaign, volunteering and donating money to
support the eventual party nominee John Kerry.

THE SETTING

In the United States, a presidential campaign organization must grow
significantly during the two years preceding the general election. First, to
have electoral impact, a campaign needs to grow from inception to a multi-
million-dollar organization within 12 months, before the primary season
starts (Appleman, 2004). Therefore, in its early stages, the primary activi-
ties of a presidential campaign are fund-raising and contacting the potential
voters in a variety of states and constituencies. Next, after the primary
season, if and when candidates win the nomination of their political party,
their campaign organizations must further develop and grow, in prepara-
tion for the general election. Otherwise, if candidates lose their bid for party
nomination, their campaign organizations are terminated since the purpose
of electing the candidate has gone unfulfilled.
Howard Dean’s U.S. presidential campaign is distinguished from the
evolution of most other campaigns in two ways. First, it evolved from a
negligible to a dominant force in the primary race unexpectedly, during the
12 months preceding the start of the 2004 presidential primary season.
Dean had been governor of Vermont, a predominantly rural state that has
one of the lowest populations in the United States and has far fewer resi-
dents than many major U.S. cities. Although he was not taken seriously as
a presidential candidate in early 2003 (see, for example, the Economist,
“Cut from the Same Cloth,” November 29, 2003), he was by early 2004
the frontrunner who overshadowed all other Democratic Party candidates
in national press coverage, money, and crowds (Littwin, 2004). However,
the end of Dean’s campaign was as unexpected and dramatic as its rise.
Dean lost every state election once the primaries started, beginning with the
caucuses in the state of Iowa, before he suspended his campaign. His only