Beautiful day in Berkeley County, West Virginia for canvassing. A warm day – not too warm – bright and sunny. A hint of fall in the morning.
All across the state beautiful things have been going on for the Democratic candidates.
I arrived at Martinsburg HQ of the Campaign for Change this morning to canvass for Barack Obama and our WV-02 candidate, the lovely in every way Anne Barth.
I felt a bit of disappointment at first because last week we had 40 people and at first there were just 4 of us. Then I remembered we had some volunteers going to the air show to do visibility and register voters and we have the state Jefferson Jackson Dinner tonight in Charleston and some of our folks are making the six hour trip there.
As we waited, more people came in, we formed pairs and headed out to canvass. Our field director wanted us to hit the same precinct we hit last weekend to catch those we missed, but I talked him into hitting one of our precincts that I had canvassed in the primary that was very strong Obama so that we could also trawl for more volunteers for phonebanking at HQ on weeknights. Then I talked him into being my canvassing partner and he agreed. While I was on a roll, I should have talked him into taking me out for lunch later, but didn’t think of it in time.
We were doing Democrats and independents today. It was a precinct I had visited several times in 2004 and in 2006 and I had hit a different turf of the precinct before the primary this year. Irish Hill. Mixed demographics, middle to lower income depending on the street. Good walking precinct with sidewalks and small yards and a moderate hill.
First woman we stopped was in the middle of a late breakfast. She didn’t want to talk, but said they were for Barack Obama and Anne Barth. There was another building where we didn’t find anyone home, but they had an Anne Barth sign in front. Another apartment where a newly registered resident who just moved in from Michigan said she was voting Obama and I told her about Anne Barth and she said she’d vote for her too.
We came to one house that I thought I recognized from 2004 where a woman who was worried about the economy and the war and I thought was clearly in our camp until I asked her who she was voting for and she said “George Bush.” I asked why when she was worried about the economy and the war, etc., would she vote for Bush and she said because John Kerry would let gays marry and that would be a threat to her marriage. We arrived there and a teenage boy answered and said his mom didn’t live there any more and his dad was at work. He didn’t know how his dad was voting.
The next was an African American man who was undecided. He said he liked Hillary Clinton and voted for her in the primary. I asked him what issues were important to him and we talked to him for a while about the economy and healthcare and the war. He’s a Vietnam War era veteran from the Marines. The field director had to take a call so stepped away and I had more time to do some persuading which really means listening. After he talked for a while, I mentioned why I was for Obama and how I would get a bigger tax cut under Obama’s plan – about $1,000 compared to $100 under McCain’s and other issues that I thought would resonate with him. When I finished, he said, put us both down as for Obama. I said, what about Anne Barth, and told her how she’d be great for us and was Senator Byrd’s right hand for a long time as his state director. “Senator Byrd’s been great for us,” he said. “Put me down for her too.”
The next house no one was home and then there was a middle-aged white man on his front porch. A freight train rumbled by. He had an Obama bumper sticker with a peace sign. We talked briefly – and so it went.
Not home, vacant, Obama. On down the street. If they were home, they were for Obama. I don’t think I had anyone for McCain today. I came upon an African American woman outside one house. Her sister who was on our list was inside, she said, but asleep because she works nights. She said her sister was for Obama. I asked her if she was and she said yes, but she hadn’t registered to vote yet.
I had registration forms with me and she filled it out. The field director had to join a conference call so I finished the area alone. I had one household where the man refused. He might have been for McCain, he was listed as nonaffiliated, aka independent, but it’s really hard to tell. Some people just don’t like to say.
The next house, though, was my highlight. A 77 year old African American man. He was for Barack Obama and Anne Barth. “John McCain scares me,” he said. He didn’t like Sarah Palin either. The man had served in combat in the Korean War in tanks. He was a broad-shouldered big man, and at 77 he still looked like he could take on an enemy attack. Yet the thought of McCain in command he found “scary.”
“This has nothing to do with race,” the man said. “McCain just doesn’t have the right temperament.”
He said he never thought he’d see the day when a black man could be elected president. He thought it would come sometime in the future, but not in his life time.
I told him Barack Obama was leading in the polls nationally and down by just 4 points in West Virginia.
His eyes lit up. He hadn’t heard that about West Virginia.
If you’ve never canvassed or phonebanked because you’re too nervous about coldcalling on strangers – and I can understand why that’d be intimidating to folks – you miss out on moments like that that makes it worth it. My memory is not the best (too many concussions over the years I suspect) but I WILL remember the expression on his face. Do I think we’ll win here? I don’t know. But I know when it’s over, I’m going to be able to say many of us did everything we could and we gave it our best shot. And I know no poll ever showed us any where near this close in 2004 and we still gave it all of our effort.
The last house on my list, the woman wasn’t home. The man who answered said she was for Obama. I asked him if he was for Obama and he said yes. I said he wasn’t on my list of Democrats or independents. He said he was a Republican. Then he asked me how he could change his party affiliation. He said he wanted to change it to Democrat.
Some days you feel like you struck out. And some days it feels like you knocked the ball out of the park.
When I got back to the office, the amazing thing to me was the amount of foot traffic in and out. Elderly white women wanting yard signs (we were out). Middle-aged black men registering to vote for the first time. Kossack rosecar was working the front reception desk and was busier than I was, registering voters and answering questions.
I have no idea how busy the Republicans were across the street today. To be honest, on a day like this, I didn’t care.
If you want to help, we’re short on just about everything but heart.
Anyone wishing to contribute to the Obama Campaign and the Campaign for
Change in West Virginia, and ensure their contribution is used on the
ground here in the State can make a check out to Campaign for Change and
mail it to:Charleston (state headquarters)
Campaign for Change
247 Capitol Street
Charleston, WV 25301Martinsburg
Campaign for Change
124 S. Queen St.
Martinsburg, WV 25401
Cross posted at BOS.
