Nothing
beats “feet on the street” and “digits on the dial.” Those are the ways that you keep in touch
with voters and potential voters. Those
are the ways that you inform, persuade and motivate.
Most
of the time I do that at the party HQ office, fielding logistical calls such
as:
Where’s
my absente ballot?
Is
there still time to get on the Permanent Early Voter List?
What
district am I in?
Sometimes
voters want to know the party’s stand on the propositions or about local,
school-board candidates.
And
often I’m able to recruit them to volunteer at a local office to call on other friendly Democrats in their neighborhood.
Then
there are the “never-darken-my-doorstep-again” callers. I spent way too long on
the phone explaining why a Republican voter and her husband get calls from
Dems, especially since she is on the Federal DNC list.
There
are --WERE-- 5 other Dems with that same number.
I
deleted their number from the listings of those 5.
I
explained the list-swapping biz to her.
We
talked about security, new credit-cards with chips, and being “cash-less.”
I
told her that it's part of the price of our democracy that people fought and
died for.
We
talked about child-birth and raising kids, which are both P-I-T-A.
In
closing, I told her that when she’s ready to vote with the other 99% to give me
a call.
This
past weekend I spent time walking the walk and talking the talk in my own neighborhood. I heard my neighbor across the street and told her that she needed to spruce up her front yard.
“Flowers?” she asked. “No. Political yard signs,” I answered.
My neighbor was OK with any of our great Democratic candidates, but especially wanted one for State
Senate Candidate Kelli Butler.
There are absolutely none left,
so I took one out of my own
yard.
Here’s proof that I’m not the only one with a sense of humor. Of course, I knocked. And yes, I was given the go-ahead to plant a Fred DuVal For Governor sign, along with others.
Using
the auto-dialer the conversations were similar to those at the office. Some people hung up on me; some people expressed thanks for my volunteering to remind them to get their early ballots back in the mail. Here I'm o n the phone at the LD 28 office next to Steve Slugocki, First Vice Chair of MCDP.
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