Good Works-PAC

Good Works-PAC is an interesting idea:

A Public Service Campaign engages candidates and their volunteers in public service projects that focus on key issues. Just as college fraternities and sororities take on public service projects to highlight the positive effects of their institutions – often competing to see who can log the most volunteer hours, raise the most money, or donate the most blood – candidates can engage in public service ("good works") projects as well. The more candidates, the more volunteers, the more public good, the more voters and attention drawn to Democratic issues.

GoodWorks-PAC.org identifies and supports Democratic candidates who will run for office using a public service style of campaign. These projects provide hands-on organizational training for the campaigns while highlighting for the public the positive effects of the Democratic Party's vision of governance as investment in civic growth.

They actually encourage multiple Democratic candidates in the primaries in heavily Republican districts. Rather than have those candidates compete with each other, they work together to raise awareness of the Democratic Party. Their website is a little scattered, but to find out more about how it works in practice, check out "Our Candidate Calls For More Competitors" about Joe Otterbein's campaign to defeat Rick Santorum in November 2006.

There's also this funny story from an event they organized in Sunbury, PA for Chris Carney, who is running for Congress against Don Sherwood in PA-10, and Deb Saxton, who is running for City Treasurer of Sunbury:

At the nursing home, one of the staff members said that she was a Republican and hated Democrats. When Andrew informed her that in fact he was there (and he was cleaning a door while they spoke) with his boss, the Democratic Congressional candidate, Chris Carney, she was very impressed. She thought she might be able to vote for somebody who would come and do real work... She then went on to tell Andrew that she had thought we were all there doing community service because we'd been busted for drunk driving or something. Lesson learned! While the basic concept is sound (doing real service work can turn the heads of voters who would otherwise pay no attention), we have to advertise what we're doing for it to be effective! Some traditional political work is necessary for the GoodWorks-PAC method to succeed.