I love canvassing; I really do. But sometimes it just takes a little too much out of you. That seemed to be the case this past weekend when we went to canvass for Larry Kissell.
It shouldn't have been bad. I emailed the guy a week in advance, touched base, sent him another email Wednesday letting him know how many people we had and asking if he had a specific area he wanted us to cover. His district is a good ways away, we definitely didn't want to spend the entire trip in the car simply trying to get down there. I stated this in my emails, asking if there were any turfs closer to our district (literally anywhere up US-49 would have saved us half an hour each way). Then: nothing. Not a word until Sunday. freaking. morning. Then I get an email simply asking to meet at the field office. In Concord.
I don't want to be mad at the entire campaign; nor am I rooting against Representative Kissell. But his campaign was definitely not one I would have been willing to work with if I had known ahead of time exactly what a hassle it would be. We were only able to canvass for about an hour, yet spent almost four in the car. It was ridiculous.
Rough start to the week; but it's all downhill from here. The rest of the canvasses are really close, with local candidates that should be able to put in a lot of time working with us. Can't wait for that.
So, until then. Phonebank, phonebank, phonebank. Registration, registration, registration. Then Deb McManus next Sunday. Fired up!...
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
R-E-P-E-T-I-T-I-O-N
All the days are started to roll into one another. And it's only September 19th. We still have a month til early voting begins. Another three weeks til actual Election Day. And we're already in high gear.
Ah, where'd I leave off? Last update was Mike McIntyre's canvass. Not even a day of rest; we went west Sunday to canvass for Patty Philipps in Alamance County. She's absolutely amazing. It was great to have a very strong democratic woman (loves educational funding, Lillian's List endorsed, experienced councilwoman, etc.) after knocking on doors all day for a fairly conservative Democrat in an extremely conservative area.
We met over in Graham and canvassed most of the neighborhoods adjacent to what they would call "downtown." Really easy walks, and the rain held off; although it was really overcast all day. But whatever, my fair skin didn't get sunburnt so it was great. Actually, beyond great. Pretty damn incredible. We took six volunteers. For only two hours. And knocked on OVER 300 DOORS. Afterwards, we met back up with the campaign manager, Charlie, and he was blown away. Apparently we knocked out 1/20th of all the doors in their district. Which is a lot.
That's why I love local and state races. You show up for these large, national races, and it's so easy to get involved and be a part of this absolutely enormous team. But when you compare the relative impact you, yourself, are making on the campaign, it's so much more rewarding to end a day with a local race, because you're actually able to see the difference you're making: there are numbers that change simply because you went out and volunteered a couple of hours. And that's so rewarding to me.
Besides the weekend canvass, we also had our second general body meeting for the Young Dems on Monday. This week's theme was local elections. We had our lovely Lee Storrow (current town council member, UNC graduate in 2011, and former Young Dems president) swing by to speak a little on the impact Young Dems has made in the town of Chapel Hill over the past several years. Of course we loved him. After he finished, he introduced Bernadette Pelissier, who is running for a county position and really really involved with the transit tax up for a vote this November. She talked to us a good bit about the pros of the transit tax (which I believe we're all on-board with) before handing over the reins to Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt. He gave an incredibly impassioned speech about the need to be active in this campaign, always referencing the impact the Young Dems had in the past. In fact, after he was done, we had our best sign-up session yet. We had sooooo many people put their names down for our canvasses and phone banks this week.
In fact, speaking of phone banks, I just got back from one. It was by far our best of the year: we had 15 people make a total of OVER 300 CALLS for Deb McManus, who is running for the US House down in Chatham County in district 54. That is an enormous boost to her campaign. Her manager is actually Nathan Westmoreland, who not only graduated from Chapel Hill jut last year, but who I've also been great friends with since my first year here.
So yeah, it's been a great couple of days. Hopefully the rest of the week will finish suit.
Ah, where'd I leave off? Last update was Mike McIntyre's canvass. Not even a day of rest; we went west Sunday to canvass for Patty Philipps in Alamance County. She's absolutely amazing. It was great to have a very strong democratic woman (loves educational funding, Lillian's List endorsed, experienced councilwoman, etc.) after knocking on doors all day for a fairly conservative Democrat in an extremely conservative area.
We met over in Graham and canvassed most of the neighborhoods adjacent to what they would call "downtown." Really easy walks, and the rain held off; although it was really overcast all day. But whatever, my fair skin didn't get sunburnt so it was great. Actually, beyond great. Pretty damn incredible. We took six volunteers. For only two hours. And knocked on OVER 300 DOORS. Afterwards, we met back up with the campaign manager, Charlie, and he was blown away. Apparently we knocked out 1/20th of all the doors in their district. Which is a lot.
That's why I love local and state races. You show up for these large, national races, and it's so easy to get involved and be a part of this absolutely enormous team. But when you compare the relative impact you, yourself, are making on the campaign, it's so much more rewarding to end a day with a local race, because you're actually able to see the difference you're making: there are numbers that change simply because you went out and volunteered a couple of hours. And that's so rewarding to me.
Besides the weekend canvass, we also had our second general body meeting for the Young Dems on Monday. This week's theme was local elections. We had our lovely Lee Storrow (current town council member, UNC graduate in 2011, and former Young Dems president) swing by to speak a little on the impact Young Dems has made in the town of Chapel Hill over the past several years. Of course we loved him. After he finished, he introduced Bernadette Pelissier, who is running for a county position and really really involved with the transit tax up for a vote this November. She talked to us a good bit about the pros of the transit tax (which I believe we're all on-board with) before handing over the reins to Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt. He gave an incredibly impassioned speech about the need to be active in this campaign, always referencing the impact the Young Dems had in the past. In fact, after he was done, we had our best sign-up session yet. We had sooooo many people put their names down for our canvasses and phone banks this week.
In fact, speaking of phone banks, I just got back from one. It was by far our best of the year: we had 15 people make a total of OVER 300 CALLS for Deb McManus, who is running for the US House down in Chatham County in district 54. That is an enormous boost to her campaign. Her manager is actually Nathan Westmoreland, who not only graduated from Chapel Hill jut last year, but who I've also been great friends with since my first year here.
So yeah, it's been a great couple of days. Hopefully the rest of the week will finish suit.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
"Yeah, they're gonna be a five..."
First canvass of the school year! Well, I might just count it as the first canvass total. I went back on one in July with my good friends Nathan (campaign manager for Deb McManus) and Lee Storrow (CH Town Council) to knock on some doors down in Chatham County. And while it was really really awesome and successful and fun...it was also hot as s***. So yeah, we can count today's as numero uno.
We (6 of us from Young Dems) headed down to Clayton which is about a 45 minute drive southeast of campus. Straight up Republican stronghold. It was a little intimidating. We were canvassing for Representative Mike McIntyre's campaign, a Blue Dog, socially conservative Democrat who's had to cross party lines quite often the past few years to maintain a favorable view in his district. Never in my life would I have imagined canvassing for a candidate who was pro-life, anti-bailout, and in the midst of a major push to distance himself from the president. But hey, his opponent is horrible. And I'll do anything to help a Democrat keep that seat. Even if he's not MY ideal candidate, he's been that district's ideal candidate. And that's what it takes in the South.
So we knocked on doors for about 2 and a half hours in some absolutely beautiful weather. Not even kidding; perfect day to start canvassing. I got to pair up with my buddy Luke as we hit up several different neighborhoods and covered multiple walk-lists. And yeah, like I mentioned before, it was a little intimidating. A lot of the people we were visiting were pretty damn conservative. Extremely nice people (rural, country raising will do that, trust me) but conservative nonetheless. A lot of people were marked as a '5' on our checklist (aka strong opposition supporter). Though there were a few diamonds out there in those dark Republican mines. There were many people we engaged who were hardline conservatives but still planned to vote for Rep. McIntyre because of his stances on the issues. And that was really comforting to see: McIntyre doesn't align perfectly with my political ideals, but he knows exactly what his constituents want and need, and he isn't afraid to make a few hard votes to make it happen.
So yeah, freaking awesome day to start off our door-knocking. Getting some rest and staying in on this Saturday night: we're back at it tomorrow! Visiting Patty Philipps next door in Alamance County. Can't wait to work on a NC House race; that's where we need to elect Democrats first and foremost.
We (6 of us from Young Dems) headed down to Clayton which is about a 45 minute drive southeast of campus. Straight up Republican stronghold. It was a little intimidating. We were canvassing for Representative Mike McIntyre's campaign, a Blue Dog, socially conservative Democrat who's had to cross party lines quite often the past few years to maintain a favorable view in his district. Never in my life would I have imagined canvassing for a candidate who was pro-life, anti-bailout, and in the midst of a major push to distance himself from the president. But hey, his opponent is horrible. And I'll do anything to help a Democrat keep that seat. Even if he's not MY ideal candidate, he's been that district's ideal candidate. And that's what it takes in the South.
So we knocked on doors for about 2 and a half hours in some absolutely beautiful weather. Not even kidding; perfect day to start canvassing. I got to pair up with my buddy Luke as we hit up several different neighborhoods and covered multiple walk-lists. And yeah, like I mentioned before, it was a little intimidating. A lot of the people we were visiting were pretty damn conservative. Extremely nice people (rural, country raising will do that, trust me) but conservative nonetheless. A lot of people were marked as a '5' on our checklist (aka strong opposition supporter). Though there were a few diamonds out there in those dark Republican mines. There were many people we engaged who were hardline conservatives but still planned to vote for Rep. McIntyre because of his stances on the issues. And that was really comforting to see: McIntyre doesn't align perfectly with my political ideals, but he knows exactly what his constituents want and need, and he isn't afraid to make a few hard votes to make it happen.
So yeah, freaking awesome day to start off our door-knocking. Getting some rest and staying in on this Saturday night: we're back at it tomorrow! Visiting Patty Philipps next door in Alamance County. Can't wait to work on a NC House race; that's where we need to elect Democrats first and foremost.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Day One: A Post About Something
Here it goes, first post of the election season, though it feels like it's been forever since all this actually started...
Work work work. That's it. That's been it since May. I thought I'd have a relaxing summer: chillin' in Chapel Hill, giving some tours on campus, bartending occasionally. Nope. Not after Mr. Obama got a hold of me. So it's been planning. And more planning. And schedules and meetings and interviews and calls and canvasses and phonebanks and so much more.
This fall, the UNC Young Democrats, in conjunction with OFANC, the NC Farm Team, and the OCDP, are sponsoring a Campus Organizing Internship meant to organize students in order to elect Democratic candidates at all levels of office. Sounds intense, doesn't it? Now just imagine planning it all. That's where I've been all summer.
The first thing to plan was simple: office hours and voter registration. That's everyday, 10am to 2pm. No questions, no gimmicks, come pick up a clipboard and get to work. Love it. The phonebanks were next. We needed an on-campus location, so having one in the YD office every Wednesday sounded like a plan. But that's not anywhere near enough. So I decided to coordinate with OFA to offer additional phonebanks every Tuesday and Thursday night. There; the middle of the week is taken care of: activities every night, plenty of time for making some phone calls.
The canvasses were a bit tougher. Contacting each campaign individually over the summer, some of whom didn't even have their websites up by the time I tried to make contact. That happened in June. Over the next two months, the replies started rolling in: Deb McManus in Chatham County needs some help, so does Patty Philipps over in Alamance County, as well as Mike McIntyre down in Clayton. A couple months and many many email conversations later, I finalized it. Finally. Visiting 8 different campaigns over the course of 8 weeks to join their structure for a weekend day and knock on doors? Not a problem, let's do it.
The other logistics came through during July and August. Who was to report to whom? How were we to file and keep track of all this data? Can this be approved for other internship credits? Is everyone in on the loop? These questions were ll answered over the next few weeks, so that by the time move-in rolled around this internship was completely ready and waiting.
So sign-ups began. We got a lot. So much interest its unbelievable. But with this interest came some problems. We have three groups on campus: Young Democrats, Tar Heels for Obama, and Organizing For America. All of us are working together this fall; hell, we're all pretty good friends. But this raised the issue of delegation, responsibilities, and boundaries. The solution was to draw up a structure where the three groups were all on equal footing, reported to the same individual, and drew from the same base of volunteers.
After we cleared up the confusion as to who would answer to whom, there was still one question left: how do we un-confuse the volunteers? You see, while we (the supreme overlords) knew the ins and outs of this internship, our interns didn't. There was much confusion as to wihch group was sponsoring which event, who to email to RSVP, which office one needed to meet at. So, of course, your brilliant leader, Vice President McIntyre, came up with an incredible solution.
Right now we have three separate listservs. One for OFA, one for YD, and one for THFO. My plan is to pick out the purely political aspects of these individual listservs and put them into one, extremely condensed email. Therefore, no matter who you wish to work for (YD, OFA, THFO, or any combination) you will be aware of each event occurring and who is in charge of it. I'm hoping to start sending this email out on Sunday evenings, beginning this week. If this works, it will be the most incredible method of communication on a college campus in North Carolina. We'll be efficient, we'll be unconfused, we'll be ready.
I'm going over these details tonight when I meet with the other campus leaders. Hopefully, we'll come to an agreement on this and be able to implement everything we wish to accomplish via one listserv. This will work wonders; I just have to prove it.
Work work work. That's it. That's been it since May. I thought I'd have a relaxing summer: chillin' in Chapel Hill, giving some tours on campus, bartending occasionally. Nope. Not after Mr. Obama got a hold of me. So it's been planning. And more planning. And schedules and meetings and interviews and calls and canvasses and phonebanks and so much more.
This fall, the UNC Young Democrats, in conjunction with OFANC, the NC Farm Team, and the OCDP, are sponsoring a Campus Organizing Internship meant to organize students in order to elect Democratic candidates at all levels of office. Sounds intense, doesn't it? Now just imagine planning it all. That's where I've been all summer.
The first thing to plan was simple: office hours and voter registration. That's everyday, 10am to 2pm. No questions, no gimmicks, come pick up a clipboard and get to work. Love it. The phonebanks were next. We needed an on-campus location, so having one in the YD office every Wednesday sounded like a plan. But that's not anywhere near enough. So I decided to coordinate with OFA to offer additional phonebanks every Tuesday and Thursday night. There; the middle of the week is taken care of: activities every night, plenty of time for making some phone calls.
The canvasses were a bit tougher. Contacting each campaign individually over the summer, some of whom didn't even have their websites up by the time I tried to make contact. That happened in June. Over the next two months, the replies started rolling in: Deb McManus in Chatham County needs some help, so does Patty Philipps over in Alamance County, as well as Mike McIntyre down in Clayton. A couple months and many many email conversations later, I finalized it. Finally. Visiting 8 different campaigns over the course of 8 weeks to join their structure for a weekend day and knock on doors? Not a problem, let's do it.
The other logistics came through during July and August. Who was to report to whom? How were we to file and keep track of all this data? Can this be approved for other internship credits? Is everyone in on the loop? These questions were ll answered over the next few weeks, so that by the time move-in rolled around this internship was completely ready and waiting.
So sign-ups began. We got a lot. So much interest its unbelievable. But with this interest came some problems. We have three groups on campus: Young Democrats, Tar Heels for Obama, and Organizing For America. All of us are working together this fall; hell, we're all pretty good friends. But this raised the issue of delegation, responsibilities, and boundaries. The solution was to draw up a structure where the three groups were all on equal footing, reported to the same individual, and drew from the same base of volunteers.
After we cleared up the confusion as to who would answer to whom, there was still one question left: how do we un-confuse the volunteers? You see, while we (the supreme overlords) knew the ins and outs of this internship, our interns didn't. There was much confusion as to wihch group was sponsoring which event, who to email to RSVP, which office one needed to meet at. So, of course, your brilliant leader, Vice President McIntyre, came up with an incredible solution.
Right now we have three separate listservs. One for OFA, one for YD, and one for THFO. My plan is to pick out the purely political aspects of these individual listservs and put them into one, extremely condensed email. Therefore, no matter who you wish to work for (YD, OFA, THFO, or any combination) you will be aware of each event occurring and who is in charge of it. I'm hoping to start sending this email out on Sunday evenings, beginning this week. If this works, it will be the most incredible method of communication on a college campus in North Carolina. We'll be efficient, we'll be unconfused, we'll be ready.
I'm going over these details tonight when I meet with the other campus leaders. Hopefully, we'll come to an agreement on this and be able to implement everything we wish to accomplish via one listserv. This will work wonders; I just have to prove it.
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