Wow. Canvassing is absolutely exhausting. I'm in Cleveland, OH canvassing with SEIU local 1199 out of New York, my home state. We're working night and day to be sure that wards notorious for low turnout head to the polls and deliver an upset victory for Senator Obama in Tuesday's primary.
I've had experiences that were bizarre, inspiring, scary, and hilarious.
Some fun anecdotes, canvassing tips, and sad stories below the fold...
UPDATE: Quick side note, I knocked 190 doors today. That's a personal record for one day. I'm proud of that. I've knocked over 500 doors since arriving here on Tuesday. Tomorrow I'm hoping to break my record again...
UPDATE 2: H/T to davidcstanton, I forgot my donation link! Donate via Me Here, if you Believe in What I'm Doing! (Nobody's donated yet. Don't you want to be the first? You know you do...) Congratulations, Charles. You were the first. Who's second?
UPDATE 3: Some great canvassing advice: Whenever you encounter people 60 and over, MAKE SURE you mention that Obama thinks people on social security making less than $50,000 a year shouldn't pay taxes. BELIEVE ME. That works.
The first thing that hits home in a way it never had for a young guy from the suburbs of Long Island like me when canvassing in Cleveland is the reality of the foreclosure crisis. It used to be a sad tale, somewhat foreign to me. There were people somewhere who had been kicked out of their houses, I was told. It didn't quite sound fair.
Now I'm walking down their blocks though. And there are foreclosure notices and construction permits across houses everywhere. This is not the projects. This is middle class, upper class, working class homes. This is black neighborhoods and white neighborhoods, catholic neighborhoods, protestant neighborhoods, and orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. This is everywhere. Cleveland is dying.
On our "turf", there are entire blocks worth of names, people who used to live there and had been voting there for years, but their houses lay deserted when we visit. There are apartments, apartments with people who tell me they don't have time to vote because they're working too hard to make the rent. Many of these people used to live in houses in the neighborhood over. Their houses are now empty.
But there is hope. I will tell you something about Cleveland: Cleveland is fired up.
There was the mother who brought me inside and then proceeded to drill her children, "Who is Barack Obama and why we we like him?" A little boy, probably eight years old, responds "Barack Obama is a black dude who wants to be President." The woman is upset. "We don't care that he's black. We care that he's going to be the best President for your future," she reminds her son.
There was the eighty seven year old man who assured me that he was voting for Obama, that he was getting a ride from his granddaughter so they could both vote. He could barely walk, but he is fired up, and he's voting on Tuesday.
Some people are more cautious, some ecstatic. Some feel wary about telling you who their choice is for President, others cannot wait to shout it from the rooftops. But they all have the same message:
Cleveland is ready for change, and change cannot come soon enough to Cleveland.
I'm in a canvass group with four other people. I'm working out of a staging site with 10 other teams. We're an unlikely cast. We're SEIU staff and we're volunteers, we're black and white and asian and latino, we're organizers and health care workers and record store owners and political directors, we're gay and we're straight. We're people from all walks of life, from all backgrounds, and we're all going block by block for Barack, together.
Twelve hours a day, on their streets, in their churches, at their shopping malls, and in their homes, I am getting out the vote. Now, it's my job, the canvasser, to make sure my "knocks" follow through. I am making sure I let them know that I'm with the SEIU, that healthcare workers are going block by block for change. I'm making sure they know that they can vote early, that their polling location is up the street at the church or the local school, that we can give them a ride to the polls, and that the polls are open from 6:30am to 7:30pm. And I'm making sure they know that I'm coming back on Tuesday, that I'm depending on them to vote so that we win. And I'm happy to let you know that these people have already been visited by Obama volunteers (we can't coordinate with the campaign, so there is overlap) and been called by Obama volunteers.
And how important is the ground game?
Obama's success in Ohio rests on shoulders of ground troopsBut next week, both campaigns predict the fiercely contested primary may see turnout three times as high. Many of those voters will be Republicans and independents able to weigh in on the Democratic contest, thanks to the state's "semi-open" primary (registered voters can request either party's ballot at the polls.) advertisementObama's ability to draw these voters in numbers large enough to win a symbolically significant popular vote victory statewide will be seen by many as a signal of his team's effectiveness in what some volunteers are already calling a general election dry run.CNN
Obama's success in Ohio rests on shoulders of ground troops
But next week, both campaigns predict the fiercely contested primary may see turnout three times as high. Many of those voters will be Republicans and independents able to weigh in on the Democratic contest, thanks to the state's "semi-open" primary (registered voters can request either party's ballot at the polls.) advertisement
Obama's ability to draw these voters in numbers large enough to win a symbolically significant popular vote victory statewide will be seen by many as a signal of his team's effectiveness in what some volunteers are already calling a general election dry run.
CNN
I'm going block to block for Barack.
Tags: barack obama, 2008 primaries, 2008 elections, ohio primary, ohio, seiu, local 1199, Recommended (all tags) :: Previous Tag Versions
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Gandhi replied, "Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ."
by turnnoblindeye on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 06:43:29 PM PST
If Obama wins, he needs to build a monument to you guys. I just came out of the 60 Minutes "As far as I know" diary and the "Clinton is a lesbian" diary. That crap isn't going to win or lose anything. It is your work that is going to win it all.
thanks again.
by fcvaguy on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 06:45:45 PM PST
[ Parent ]
your dedication and your most excellent report. I try to use these (and Hillary's) ground reports to give a better sense of what's going on the ground than most of the polls. This is very well laid out and informative. Rec'd.
"We're all working for the Pharaoh" - Richard Thompson
by mayan on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 06:57:39 PM PST
That's what can take our country back! This Obama Movement is a real breath of fresh air, just 324 days until BushEnd, hopefully that also marks Obama Beginning.
1-20-09
The day we all start taking our country back.
by MD patriot on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:03:19 PM PST
is spell checking...
staging "SITE"
by MFL on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:15:21 PM PST
Thanks.
by turnnoblindeye on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:19:57 PM PST
hard work to obtain. and this is the kind of hard work that is going to win change for us!
Florida Kossacks Rock
Blog Florida Blue
You can't govern if you can't win.
by gatordem on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:10:08 PM PST
about 150 doors today out of Lakewood (YES WE CANvass another shift!) it was a beautiful day for speaking to the people and hanging lit -- 50 degrees and sunny best thing was, we've been doing this daily for weeks and I only ran into my first Hillary lit today...and it was only on one-third of one block...does that speak to comparative canvasser commitment?
Ohio for Obama in 08!
by Comrade Brad on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 08:10:17 PM PST
Yeah, our city is in ruins. We tried to act a several years ago, pasing local mortgage broker regulations, as did Dayton and Toledo, and got shot down by the GOP state lege who are owned by the industry. Last year, too late, they realized the sate was burning and tried to ameliorate some of the damage. The real heroes are our attorney general Marc Dann and couty treasurer Jim Rokakis who are really tackling this hard.
We're retiring Steve LaTourette (R-Family Values for You But Not for Me) and sending Judge Bill O'Neill to Congress from Ohio-14: http://www.oneill08.com/
by anastasia p on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:03:28 PM PST
When President Obama takes office the nation will get a huge economic lift because we will go from fear to hope. That will be the first step towards recovery.
"It's the planet, stupid."
by FishOutofWater on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:07:26 PM PST
There's more than enough blame to go around for everyone; that includes the parties, the Fed, the buyers, the banks, and the mortgage companies.
"[G]lobalization is...increasing the efficiency of resource allocation through stronger capital markets" - Barack Obama
by burrow owl on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:33:05 PM PST
by anastasia p on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:38:28 PM PST
Cleveland, from what I understand, was ahead of the foreclosure curve by a year or two. Cleveland's boom started a few years earlier, and foreclosures came due a couple years earlier too.
If only we, as a nation, had seen the early warning signs...
by turnnoblindeye on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:42:28 PM PST
Fighting the land sharks
Democrats moving America forward!
by ActivistGuy on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 08:12:12 PM PST
Glass-Steagall Repeal or here's a good link about the housing crisis. (hint lobbyist are involved) http://www.pbs.org/...http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/wallstreet/weill/demise.html http://www.marketwatch.com/...
by Shhs on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:37:17 PM PST
Republicans have been undoing all the protections FDR put in place....with predictable results.
Bill Clinton was a DLC Democrat....otherwise known as an Eisenhower Republican. Democrats stopped acting like Democrats. That has been one cause of this disaster.
by FishOutofWater on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:52:24 PM PST
cf. the FP article right now about FDR.
Obama reminds us that if we work together, we CAN solve these problems.
Never give up! Never surrender!
by oscarsmom on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 08:03:42 PM PST
He lives in Cleveland Heights...wonder what his take on this campaign season?
People in Eurasia on the brink of oppression: I hope it's gonna be alright... Pet Shop Boys: Introspective
by rgilly on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:37:00 PM PST
by anastasia p on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:41:55 PM PST
I was sorry to hear of the finiancial conditions created by the subprime mess for the people in Cleveland.
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
by Lefty Coaster on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:05:12 PM PST
"Animals are my friends. And I don't eat my friends." -- George Bernard Shaw
by Hudson on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:47:18 PM PST
I do not know what weapons World War III will be fought with. World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -- Albert Einstein
by elveta on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 08:02:55 PM PST
by hilage on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 06:46:36 PM PST
by Naranjadia on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:06:28 PM PST
My only worry is the weather on Tuesday which is supposed to be really bad in Cleveland. But with folks like you on the ground, I think we'll get the voters out anyway. (Now I just hope power outages don't screw up the election---does anyone know how they do voting in Ohio? Would a power outage screw up voting?)
by cavebird on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 06:47:53 PM PST
I've been starving for on the ground reports from Ohio. Also, I will call my brother to tell him his daughter, a registered independent, can vote for Obama by requesting a democratic ballot. Important info, so glad you included it.
by pamelabrown on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 06:50:49 PM PST
by anastasia p on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:06:04 PM PST
by anastasia p on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:04:33 PM PST
Heights area. That's my turf. It's going well.
by turnnoblindeye on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:43:56 PM PST
http://www.wdtn.com/...
Associated Press - February 29, 2008 6:55 PM ET
CLEVELAND (AP) - The new Cuyahoga (keye-uh-HOH'-guh) County paper-ballot scanning system failed two tests in Cleveland in advance of Tuesday's crucial presidential primary.
by jdw on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:08:09 PM PST
Why can't Cuyahogo County get this stuff right?
by smari006 on Sun Mar 02, 2008 at 07:23:59 PM PST
This is the county that had so much trouble last time.
If we continue to accumulate only power and not wisdom, we will surely destroy ourselves. -Carl Sagan
by L
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