Essential Estrogen

It's doubtful that anyone running into Cedar Rapids resident Jason Hedges would move to the other side of the street to let him pass. He's young, tall and attractive, with bright eyes and bouncy brown curls atop his head. Until a few weeks ago, however, he was political hired gun, pitching a Republican message in the morning and a Democratic one in the afternoon.

"It was a little confusing and, at times, felt a little dirty," Hedges said and laughed at the memory. "I'd spend the morning placing high-energy fund-raising calls that bashed Democrats and flip, often in the same day, to placing soft, more relaxed calls for the Democrat I'd been bashing."

The Iowa-based telemarketing company Hedges worked for was hired, by way of a Washington, D.C.-based marketing firm, to do fund-raising calls on behalf of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican front-runner in the presidential race. The company was subsequently also hired to do identification and outreach calls on behalf of the campaign for New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Democrat ranking highest in national polling. The calls went out to households in Iowa as well as several eastern states.

"Giuliani was hard-core -- money, money, money -- always make the ask," he said. "I would get so mad at myself because I would go home at the end of the day and still be just so completely amped up after doing the Rudy calls. I mean, there was no caffeine or anything in me, but you had to get yourself in that frame of mind to do those calls and work with the pressure that was put on us."

Team leaders would come around as the workers in the call center made the pitch for Giuliani, Hedges said, and they wanted the workers to be noisy, be energized and get what they were requesting.

"We were considered the trenches," he said. "So, there was just a lot of pressure. We were constantly told to step it up, be more powerful or be more positive -- Rudy is the only one that can save this country. Of course, you can't say that on the phone, but, essentially, that's what you're supposed to feel when you are making the call."

While Hedges couldn't remember the entire Giuliani pitch verbatim, he said there were certain aspects that stuck out in his mind such as telling people that the nation "couldn't afford to have a Democrat, like Hillary Clinton, in the White House."

"Sometimes we would switch up Clinton for [Illinois Sen. Barack] Obama, but it would always be one of the big Democratic front runners," he said. "In fund raising, you are standing up. You're passionate. You've got to make these people believe that Rudy is the savior -- even at the expense of the person you know you might be pitching for later in the same day."

The standard asking price on the Giuliani calls was $250. Callers were told not to take no for an answer and to make a minimum of three asks for the money.

"Personally, I never had anyone give me the maximum of $2,500 -- but there were some in the call center who were able to get that figure," Hedges said. "Rudy's lists were all good numbers. These were people who had supported Rudy in the past, supported Republicans in the past or otherwise already had a direct connection to the campaign. The lists we were given later showed exactly how much the person we were calling had contributed previously so we could ask again for that figure -- and, of course, more."

The Clinton calls were softer and more conversational, he said, and involved both identifying supporters (or possible supporters), educating those supporting others and setting up "Hillary parties," house parties where a surrogate or strong supporter would meet with the person called and a small group of friends.

"It was different when we were doing the Clinton calls because we didn't have the team leaders walking around. People weren't screaming," he said. "It was definitely more relaxed -- more of a real conversation with the people on the other end of the line."

The conversation would begin with Hedges identifying himself and saying that he was calling on behalf of the Clinton campaign. Then the person on the other end would be asked if he or she supported Clinton. If the answer was yes, Hedges would feign excitement. If the answer was no, he'd be more subdued and immediately turn the conversation back to Clinton.

"We didn't really talk about other candidates at all, except to ask who the person was supporting," he said. "If the person wanted to talk about another choice, we'd work to bring the focus back on Clinton, her plans, policies and stances on the issues. As I said, it wasn't a high-energy sales call, it was soft and relaxed. We wanted to give information and get information. That was the goal."

Was it difficult to play at high-energy on both sides of the political aisle?

"No, not really," Hedges admitted. "It would be a little strange to start off some mornings forcefully telling people that we can't afford to have Hillary Clinton in office and then, by the end of the day, be having these easy conversations supporting Clinton. But that was my job."

One of the most interesting things in relation to the Giuliani work, according to Hedges, was the de-emphasis of Sept. 11.

"We were told not to emphasize anything about September 11th," he said. "Matter of fact, on September 10, 11 and 12, we stopped making calls to New York and the New Jersey area. We thought that would probably be his strong asset. That's where he got his national name, but he didn't want anything to do with it."

The call script, which provided information on a wide variety of issues, did not include references to that date and those making calls were instructed not to include it in the pitch.

"They really wanted us to stress Rudy's record on crime," he said. "They wanted the people we called to know that Rudy was tough on crime and had reduced it by 66 percent when he served as mayor."

Those called were also informed that by helping Giuliani get on the airwaves with advertising, they would help bring the Republican message to the nation, which would help all Republicans in the race.

"It was important for us to connect Giuliani's message with the overall Republican message," he said. "By Rudy being the front runner, when money was given to him, the callers were told they could help propel the Republican message and help other members -- and then you'd mention other candidates like Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee. I personally liked to use Huckabee because he simply wasn't that well known at the time. We wanted the callers to feel like that by giving to Rudy, that by supporting Rudy, they were helping the Republican cause."

And, it worked. Hedges estimated that during the first month alone, the call center brought in several thousand dollars for the Giuliani campaign. He was hesitant to estimate how much might have been raised during the entire time the call center was contracted.

"Rudy Giuliani pulled all of his support out of Iowa -- for fundraising -- no rhyme or reason," he said. "He just pulled the plug."

Hedges, who left employment shortly after Giuliani pulled support, says his departure from the call center was a "mutual decision," but otherwise didn't get into specifics. He has since found another job not associated with politics and, since leaving his former employer, has decided that on Thursday night he will be attending the Democratic caucus and utilize his skills of persuasion for Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd.