60 Days Out: The Campaign Operations Check

October is 30 days away. The fundraising window that decides most competitive general election races opens in two weeks and runs through Election Day. The AI operation you have right now is the one you're running with.

This is a shorter version of the July audit post. Five things to check. If any of them aren't right, there's still time to fix them before the push starts.

1. Approval workflow: Is it running on a daily schedule?

Not on a "when someone has bandwidth" schedule. A specific time, a specific person, daily. If the answer is no, this is the week to lock it.

2. Email cadence: Is it at 2x per week minimum?

October asks for 3x per week on a warmed list. If you're at 1x now, you need to increase to 2x in September before jumping to 3x in October. An abrupt frequency jump without warmup produces unsubscribes. Ramp it now.

3. Voice model: When was it last recalibrated?

If it hasn't been updated since before the primary, the drafts have drift in them. Pull five recent outputs and read them cold. If they sound like the candidate six months ago rather than today, recalibrate before October. The recalibration takes 2-3 days. Budget for it this week.

4. Major donor ask queue: Is it built?

The prospects who are getting formal asks in October should already have a relationship established. If you have prospects who haven't been touched since summer, they need a September touch before an October ask. A cold October email to a cold prospect converts poorly.

Who's on the ask queue? Who still needs a September warm-up call or email before the ask? That list should exist and have names on it today.

5. Follow-up velocity: Is it still at 24 hours?

Check the last three call sessions. Calculate actual time from session end to follow-up send. If velocity has drifted above 48 hours, find the bottleneck — it's almost always in the approval path — and fix it before October.

Eric Linder is a former California State Assemblyman (2012-2016) and founder of AutomatedTeams, an AI operations consultancy for political campaigns and advocacy organizations.