(cross-posted at Deny My Freedom and Daily Kos)
When all else fails, break the law
It’s a mere 2 days until the primary in Connecticut. Once again, I trekked up to the Norwalk offce to do volunteer work for Ned Lamont’s Senate campaign. There was plenty to do today – we were getting ready to canvass in the surrounding area in Norwalk, as well as other nearby areas in Connecticut. In addition, there was a bonus today – Representative Maxine Waters was going to be stopping by the local fair to help get out the word about Ned. All in all, it was another crowded day in the office, with even more volunteers showing up to help get out the word about the people’s candidate in this race. However, as the above image shows, the Lieberman campaign is now skirting a very fine line when it comes to their efforts. Follow me under the fold for the rest of my very interesting day…
Even though I got to the office late again – this time due to an automobile accident on I-95 that forced me to take a detour through the residential areas between Stamford and Norwalk – it was still bustling with activity despite sending out multiple teams on canvassing trips. People were phonebanking, getting trained for canvassing, and putting together canvassing packets. Pitin, the Virginian Kossack who made the trip up for the weekend, was helping out around the office, which he documents here. We had to take extra precautions with letting people into the office; Maura told me that last night, a couple of LieberYouth attempted to infiltrate the office by posing as Lamont supporters. Very low, and it’s not like they would have particularly gained much useful information aside from where we were going to canvass. Then again, considering that my canvassing partner today (who I’ll talk about next) was heckled during his outing yesterday, it’d probably be best to keep that knowledge closed to the other side.
Before heading out, I did a little phonebanking. Although I only did 2 pages of names or so, the results were still positive – I got a few supporters for Lamont, and none for Lieberman. After that, I headed out to canvass in Glenbrook, which seems like a suburban adjunct to Stamford. I chatted some with my canvassing partner of the day, Aquinas. As someone who is the same ethnicity as my stepfather – they are both from Sri Lanka – it was interesting to chat with someone else who knew about the country. Although he now lives in Brooklyn, he has been around the world. He is also a Vietnam veteran, someone who spent time fighting in that other erroneous war. I got the sense that it was the main reason he was up here canvassing for Lamont; he is opposed to any sort of conflict, and Lieberman, as we know, is an enabler of the current situation in Iraq. He’s an artist now; I hope that I can sometime acquire the address of his studio and make a visit to see some of his works. But for the next two days, he’ll be up here in Connecticut making the effort for Lamont.
The exit where we got off of I-95 in Glenbrook was telling. Don’t believe for a second that Lieberman’s campaign has scrapped any sort of effort to turn out the vote for their side:
I was shocked when I got off the exit; there was nothing like this here the previous day – maybe one generic lawn sign for Lieberman, but nothing like this. There were literally lawn sign after lawn sign that said “Vote Joe, August 8” – nothing else. Perhaps this is Sean Smith’s idea of turning out low-information voters. But what’s even worse were the lawn signs being taped to the telephone poles, as shown in the first picture of this entry. I didn’t take a picture of it, as I don’t want to humiliate the paid Lieberman workers who have no idea what they were doing. It was clear that the two teenage guys taping and stapling these signs were being paid; they were not dressed in Lieberman clothing, and they had nothing else on them except the “Vote Joe” posters and a staple gun (or something like it). Seeing this, I immediately called back to the Norwalk office and the main campaign headquarters to let them know that Lieberman was smothering the area with lawn signs and posters. They said they’d get on it; I also found out that similar things were occurring in Hartford as well. This is where Lieberman’s support is arguably the strongest – in the big cities. It is no surprise that their campaign is looking towards the urbanized areas of the state to somehow bail him out.
After that little adventure, we finally got around to canvassing in Glenbrook. There were two areas we canvassed; the one pictured above is what I’d probably call a middle-upper class neighborhood. However, a lot of people were not around, which makes sense – it was a gorgeous day outside and not too hot. Nevertheless, the day got off to a good start; the first contact I spoke to said that he and his wife would be voting for Lamont. Another person I spoke to said he’d be voting for Lamont as well. It’s heartening to see that people seem to be set on voting for Ned. The bad feelings that Lieberman has accumulated over the years in Connecticut are coming home to roost.
One other area of Glenbrook that I canvassed yielded the rest of my results for the day. One younger-aged man said he’d be supporting Lieberman because “he’s a name I know.” Even though the canvassing instructions state that we should simply move on, I figured I’d give it a try and convince him otherwise, but he seemed to be adamant on voting for Lieberman. I should’ve said something along the lines of, “What good is the name you know if it’s getting our troops over in Iraq killed?” Unfortunately, I was not quick enough on my feet. However, I was able to flip a voter who was going to vote for Lieberman to Lamont. The lady’s initial reaction was to say she’d be voting for Lieberman and Malloy, and she pointed to her neighbor’s lawn, which had signs for both candidates. I didn’t speak about the gubernatorial race, but it was clear that she was one of those people who was going to vote for them simply because she knew them. So I took some time out to speak to her about Lamont – the need to bring our troops home from Iraq and spend that money on issues that mattered to her. In particular, I focused on health care and public education – I saw that she had a few young children in the house, so I thought it would be important to gear relevant issues towards her. After I finished, I gave her one of the Lamont flyers I had and, and she said she’d vote for Lamont. There’s nothing better than walking away knowing you were able to take a vote away from the other side. You can put up all the signs you want and mass-mail all the literature you want, but nothing beats face-to-face time with the people who count – the voters.
I canvassed another section of Glenbrook, but I completely struck out – no one was at home, and I ran into a similar problem I had faced yesterday – more multifamily homes. Although some neighbors were out, which allowed me to figure out which door to knock on, many people weren’t home. This was a more middle-class area than before, but it was still fairly disheartening to sweat a lot for naught. I left a Lamont flyer at every door, but it’s hard to say how much of an effect that will have on people’s votes. Aquinas had similar problems, and everyone he spoke to was undecided. He sensed a lot of anti-government sentiment from the people he spoke to. While they were aware of the race, they didn’t care about it – after all, nothing had happened in a long time, so why should they start to give a damn now? Of course, that’s the whole point of this race; it’s to bring change to Washington and to throw out a senator who is the epitome of the establishment status quo. However, people just didn’t want to hear about it, which was a shame.
Driving back to the office, I noticed that the area I had passed by before was now being represented a little more equally. While Lieberman’s posters were still stapled to the telephone poles, there were now Lamont signs, put on public ground, interspersed between the advertisements for the senator. It was good to see that action had been taken to inject a little balance. When I got back to the office, I found out that the Stamford police had been notified about the posters being stapled and taped to the poles. Apparently, that’s not legal…so we might yet see the temperature within the Lieberman campaign rise a little more if they’re forced to tear down their paid work. To me, this was the ultimate sign of desperation on the other side’s part. They are sinking, they know it, and they’re throwing all their money at the problem in any way possible.
Once I got back to the office, I stoppde at the Quizno’s below the campaign office and had a chance to greet Representative Waters before she started eating her lunch with some of her aides and the field director at our office. I thanked her for coming to Connecticut and told her that I’d seen some of her interviews with Connecticut Bob on the Internet. I asked if there was any sort of blowback from her colleagues in Washington. She said that she had gotten some calls, but she didn’t really care. “If we win, Ned will be the king of the Hill”, Waters said. It was good to see her so confident that Lamont was going to be triumphant, but remember – the only thing that matters now is getting out the vote. Heading upstairs, I spoke to a staffer about Waters’ appearance at the fair, which I missed due to being out canvassing. It went well, but as is the norm these days at any Lamont campaign event, there were many Lieberman supporters/workers. Perhaps the more interesting thing to note is that signatures for Lieberman’s independent run were being collected. So it’s likely that these paid workers who earn $10 an hour were a part of the senator’s effort to collect 7,500 signatures to abandon the Democratic Party. These kids don’t even know what they’re getting into; the staffer noted that he had seen flyers in Bridgeport that simply ask people if they’re interested in earning $60 a day. A New Jersey number is listed, and there is absolutely no mention of the campaign. So much for only having 25 people collecting signatures.
Unfortunately, I cannot head up to Connecticut on Monday or Tuesday to help out, as I have to work in New York City. However, wherever you are around the country – please help make history in Connecticut. I spoke to a volunteer today who had been there yesterday as well. He drove all the way up from Georgia in his van to help with the final push. I asked him if he was taking time off from a job or some other obligations. “What good is a job if you don’t have your freedom?” he answered back. It’s a good question to ponder.
I’m eternally grateful to Ryan McLeod, the field director, and the rest of the staff and volunteers who made the experience one to remember for the ages. Someday in the future, I hope I can look back and tell my family and my friends that in the blazing summer of 2006, I was a part of the campaign that captivated a nation, stunned the establishment, and symbolized the dawn of a better America for all of us.