Volunteers... well, they probably fall under the category of any other volunteer. They do it because they believe in what they're doing. It makes them feel good as a person and they're free to come and go as they please. Plus there's a certain social aspect of it that comes in handy sometimes. And in more unseemly situations, quid-pro-quo.
I've been a campaign volunteer. If you think it's a waste of time, fair enough, but why would you waste your time, determining how it could be a waste of time?
I worked on various campaigns for two years (as a paid staffer) so I'll try to share some insight on this question. I worked as a paid staffer on the 2010 gubernatorial race in Texas (I'm fairly certain you can guess which candidate I worked for) and I've worked on several local races in Austin and Houston. I primarily did database work for all of them and used those databases to do microtargeting for field and finance. It really varies by the type of campaign. A local race may only have one or two paid staffers. A well funded local race might have a few poorly paid field organizers on top of that. Once you get larger, staff size largely depends on how they choose to run the campaign. You can take two campaigns of say 25 million dollars each and they can be wildly different. One might focus strictly on advertising and hiring consulting for marketing strategy. The other might focus on a huge ground game (field organizing). Consequently campaign #2 will have a larger staff since field organizing will employ many more people. (Though they'd also have a lot more volunteers) As for what kind of workers a growing campaign will hire. They'll get fundraising people to research donors and make calls and solicit. They'll get an in house communications and new media staff. They'll get upper level field people (where I worked) to manage the field program and properly target the right voters. They'll hire volunteer coordinators. They'll hire strategy consultants, opposition researchers, direct mail firms, etc.. There are tons of ways to spend your money on staff. The Obama campaign, for example, already has staff in almost every state with field offices already up and running. And they're still hiring really rapidly. Their campaign size just about dwarfs anything in the Republican field. As for the actual pay, it sucks for the work you do. I worked well over 100 hours a week. And in terms of getting the job, I initially was just volunteering and later got offered a job. The nice thing is that you develop contacts and relationships that open the door to better gigs down the line (in terms of pay anyway). That said, I have no desire to work on a major campaign again. While it was incredibly fun, it just isn't healthy to work that much continuously. That said it was a great experience and for those that really want to find a job that you believe in, find a candidate that you support and go volunteer/work for them. Now is the time to do that since campaigns are just starting up and are really looking to hire. (except in Texas since our maps are still in court )
I have some friends that do national campaigns and they all started as volunteers. They did that all through college and even one of my friends continued to volunteer after he graduated till he was offered a paid position. Now he lives in DC and just got offered a consulting gig after his first paid campaign. Same goes with staff. They have a lot of unpaid interns (like myself) and they'll hire a decent amount once someone leaves or session starts and they're in need of more full time workers. I never thought there was much nepitism in campaign work, seems like there is a lot in government appointments though.
