Walked precincts Saturday as a volunteer for Manuel Perez's reelection campaign, dropping door hangers for 370 voters in Coachella. Actually sometimes we jogged, it was a lot of households. Perez's doorhanger is excellent: polling place sticker, Democratic slate sticker, you can read VOTE PEREZ from across the street. Lots of Perez signs in the neighborhood, because this district saw a strong ground game in '08, too. Up and down the ticket, this campaign has coattails.
Speaker John Perez, Assembly Members Steve Bradford, Jerry Hill, Mike Feuer, Bob Blumenfield and Isadore Hall dropped in to phonebank and rally with Manuel on their way across California on their GOTV tour. At the rally yesterday, Manuel spoke up for Brown, Boxer, Pougnet, and the Democratic priorities of education, jobs, healthcare:
(*Updated to correctly ID the Assembly Democrats in the Speaker's GOTV tour.)
Manuel gave thanks to his fellow legislators, the many volunteers, and to his union brothers and sisters. United Farm Workers (UFW) members were there, the core of Manuel's base, as his parents met working the fields and UFW is in the family. As is CSEA, by the way. (Full Disclosure: I work for CSEA, CSEA endorsed Perez, and in '08 I was on the Perez campaign.) Arturo Rodriguez was at Perez campaign HQ today.
Today I walked Yucaipa as a volunteer for Democrat Carl Wood in the 65th AD. Carl Wood, like Manuel Perez, is an unapologetic labor progressive who earns Republican respect for his honesty and work ethic. Monday and Tuesday are GOTV in Perris, and Tuesday night will be a party with Democrats from Perris to Palm Springs (Vote for Pougnet in the 45th) to Coachella (Vote for Eddie Garcia for Mayor and Steve Hernandez for Coachella City Council!).
GOTV on Monday and Tuesday. Just go down to your local campaign and get useful. These are the best people to spend the day with. But act now, by Wednesday, it will be too late, we get what we get.