Saturday, I (along with my girlfriend) did something neither of us had ever done before: we volunteered for a political campaign. Before 2006, I'd donated some money to the Kerry campaign, but that was about the extent of my political involvement until this year, when joining Daily Kos inspired me to dig deep for candidates across the country. But I knew I needed to do more...
Here in Seattle, Democrat Jim McDermott has a pretty safe seat in the Washington's 7th congressional district. But across the lake, Darcy Burner is challenging the local Rubber-Stamp Republican, Dave Reichert.
"When the leadership comes to me and says, 'Dave, we need you to take a vote over here'... I do it."
--Dave Reichert (R-WA)
So on a rainy Saturday, three days before Election Day, my girlfriend and I hit the streets for Darcy.
Darcy Burner's campaign headquarters is locatead in Bellevue, which is just east of Seattle, across Lake Washington. Just further northeast is Redmond, home of Microsoft (Darcy's former employer), and the location of the precinct we were assigned to canvass. The portion of the canvassing operation focusing on trying to convince wavering voters to vote Democratic had ended the previous week, and we were headed into GOTV territory - we had a list of likely Democrats, and we wanted to make sure as many of them as possible were going to vote.
Being the Seattle area, it may not be terribly surprising that it was raining on Saturday. But I've lived here for a year and a half, through two "rainy seasons" (i.e. everything except summer, around here), and I have never in my time here seen it rain as hard as it did on Saturday.
And so, when we showed up at the door of potential Democratic voters, soaked to the bone, waterlogged clipboard in hand (and literature as dry as possible inside my coat), introducing ourselves with "Hi, we're with the Darcy Burner campaign, and we wanted to remind you to vote on Tuesday", they knew we meant business.
They knew we were serious about electing Darcy Burner. They knew we were committed to change in Washington.
Admittedly, we were targeting Democrats that day. Preaching to the choir, as it were. But the responses were hugely positive. Nearly everyone we spoke to was enthusiastic about voting. Several asked how the campaign was going - whether we were optimistic, what the mood at HQ was, what we thought Darcy's chances were.
And several people thanked us for braving the wind and rain to get out the vote. One kind woman even offered us her umbrella, but we were nearly done at that point.
I must admit, our resolve was not limitless. The rain did what we didn't consider positive and picked up even further, a blinding, furious torrent of wind and water, and so after four hours we packed it in, and arrived back at HQ, soaking wet but ultimately satisfied.
The end result, for us? Several voters now know that there are two more people like them, who want to see change in Congress. Some voters who might have forgotten to vote have been reminded. And my girlfriend and I know that, whatever happens on Tuesday, we got out and did our part for Darcy.
My coat's still not dry yet, but I think it's worth getting soaked for.