(cross-posted at Deny My Freedom and Daily Kos)
Back at school in Philadelphia, I’ve decided to volunteer my time for PA-08 Democratic congressional candidate Patrick Murphy, an Iraq war veteran with impeccable credentials. He’s young, he’s good-looking (or so the women of the blogosphere tell me), and his biography is one that all of us could envy. Democratic efforts to take over the House of Representatives will be won in the swing districts. There are other states that have several such districts, most notably Connecticut, that have districts that will be tossups as well, but if we don’t win in Pennsylvania, we won’t take back the House. With the weather cooperating today, I hopped a SEPTA Regional Rail train to the campaign’s main headquarters in Levittown, and after getting briefly acquainted with a canvassing script, it was time to head out and canvass part of Middletown Township (where part of Levittown is located).
My canvassing partner today was a guy named Lou. He’s not too much older than myself (he’s in his mid-20s), but perhaps the more important thing to note is that he’s a registered Republican. Lou let me know that the area of Philadelphia that he grew up in has more of a GOP presence than the rest of the city, and that he’s never particularly considered himself a Republican since Bush was (s)elected as president. He’s one of the small grassroots donors, like much of the netroots, and he has been volunteering his time to the campaign on weekends since February – an admirable feat considering that he works full-time. In addition, he follows a couple of the prominent liberal blogs, Daily Kos and MyDD, so perhaps he’ll add some details that I left out or messed up. The campaign staff, Lou told me, is indeed filled by those in the under-30 crowd, which is impressive. In addition, there are volunteers from many of the regional colleges coming out to help. I later found out that some colleges in New Jersey might be organizing a fleet of vans to transport students down to help out. It’s great to be a part of not just a people-powered campaign, but a youth-powered campaign. Our canvassing instructions were pretty simple: the main goal was to get Patrick’s name out there, but it was imperative that we mentioned he was a Democrat. I’m so damn glad that this campaign and the one I previously volunteered for (Ned Lamont) aren’t afraid of calling themselves a Democrat.
As the photograph above shows, the area Lou and I canvassed was probably what I’d call a solidly middle-class neighborhood. Most of the people on our lists seemed to be middle-aged, which explained why there were many young kids out playing today. The neighborhood was extremely spread out; at one point, I’d say we walked a good mile or more on just one road – just to cover 15 houses. As usual, most people weren’t home during a weekend canvass – in addition, I’m sure that after a couple days of miserable rain in the Philadelphia area, many families took the opportunity to get out of the house. Nevertheless, we were still able to get in contact with a reasonable number of people. In this election – which has become conventional wisdome that the Democrats will pick up seats – it’s important to target those voters that vote Democratic in years of presidential elections but aren’t as inclined to vote in the midterms.
That’s not to say that everyone was enthusiastic about voting, though. I spoke to 2 people who told me they’re most likely not going to vote; Lou also spoke to someone who was not going to vote. Although I was able to give these folks a flyer detailing Patrick’s accomplishments and his priorities should he be elected (on a national and local scale), it was disappointing to encounter folks who are either too apathetic or too disillusioned to participate in the political process. There were also two particular instances that shocked me a little. Lou encountered one woman who told him that she’d vote ‘for whoever her husband told her to’. Even more disconcerting was an encounter I had. I introduced myself to a woman who lit a cigarette when I spoke. After I finished, she declared she didn’t pay attention to politics and that she’d vote for ‘whoever you tell me to vote for. What do I know? I’m a woman; I know how to do my hair.’ I nearly dropped my papers after hearing that…I’ve never heard a woman speak with such disregard for herself. Nevertheless, I carried on and spoke a little about Patrick’s background; she took my flyer and hung it on her doorknob to remind herself who to vote for. I’m sure that may be a household that other Democratic campaigns may want to target, but it’s certainly not an attitude that I’d endorse.
Most of the people I ended up speaking to didn’t know who Patrick was. Because our goal wasn’t to get into policy debates, there wasn’t an opportunity to have much back-and-forth on the issues. I asked everyone what their biggest issue was, but no one gave me a concrete answer, so it’s hard to tell what will play well in the district. One person I encountered – a young man my own age who is a registered Green – asked me what Patrick’s stance on stem cell research was, but only after I began mentioning a few issues. Those that knew Patrick overwhelmingly supported him – which is no surprise, considering that his internal poll showed as much. Combined, Lou and I probably encountered somewhere between 5-10 households that said they voted straight-ticket, along with a few union households that supported Patrick. One of the undecided votes was a woman who said that she went to the same deli Patrick did when he was growing up. How could you not vote for someone you’ve known since he was a little kid? Regardless, it was good to know there was a decent amount of support in the neighborhood. Most people won’t be paying close attention until October, I feel – many said they hadn’t started to think about it yet.
We only saw 2 signs for the incumbent, GOP Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick. Lou told me that he was someone who tried to tone down the right-wing red meat in the district, as it’s a more socially liberal area. The interesting things about the Fitzpatrick signs is that nowhere on them does he mention that he’s a Republican. Under his name, it says, “Independent. Proven leader. Trusted neighbor”. All three of those statements are diametrically opposite of what today’s Republican Party has become, and Fitzpatrick is running as fast as he can away from his party and the White House. There were a couple more on Bristol Pike, one of the main roads that runs through Bucks County, but there doesn’t appear to be any overwhelming support for the Republican.
Once Lou and I finished canvassing, we headed back to the office to tally our numbers. In the end, I had 7 strong Patrick supporters, 4 leaners, and 15 undecided. There was one person I encountered who, after querying what party Patrick belonged to, declared his allegiance (somewhat proudly, ironically enough) to be to the GOP. However, he wasn’t the person on my list for the given address. After we added up our totals, we wrote out handwritten postcards to each of the leaners and undecideds thanking them for their time. While I wrote fairly standard fare to most people, I tried to mix it up for people I had made mental notes of. For people who said they wouldn’t vote, I wrote that ‘every vote matters’, and that we needed it for change to occur. For those I had noticed had young kids, I inserted a reference to the future. Although it killed my writing hand, it’s a pretty smart idea, and a good follow-up that shows that we care about them and their vote.
It’s great that Patrick has so much support already, but we can use all the manpower we can get. Although I can’t participate on weekdays due to a strenuous courseload, the campaign does go canvassing on weekdays, from the late afternoon to the early evening. I was informed that many more people are around during that time period, making the canvassing much more effective. And if you’re too far away to help out the campaign physically, send them some cash – a 30-second ad buy for 1,000 points (meaning that the average person will see an advertisement 10 times) in the Philadelphia area costs $650,000 to run – and that’s just for one week.