There's an awful lot of talk on my teevee about the ginormous enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats this election cycle. Sure, it makes perfect sense that Republicans are motivated to take back control of Congress and put a halt once and for all to the Obama agenda.
But if volunteer turnout and excitement is any indication of how Democrats will do in the midterms -- and one could argue that it is -- Republicans could be very disappointed on November 2nd.
In 2007 and 2008 there was a lot of "Obama is doomed" talk; polls and pundits counted him out so many times I lost count. I might have believed all the talk except for one thing: the volunteers I was working with on the ground were a serious force and were not giving up.
I see a similar thing happening in the buildup to November; the media narrative is all about how badly the Democrats will get trounced. But what I'm seeing on the ground gives me hope. Volunteer turnout in New York in support of the President and a Democratic majority in Congress has been incredible.
We hold several phonebanks in NYC each week, and even in the middle of summer vacation season and with elections months away, each event is well attended and results in a large number of calls.
This week we started our on-the-ground work, with a canvassing training followed by our first canvassing trip of the year. Below is a photo diary of the week's activities.
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A couple dozen people showed up on Tuesday night for the two-hour workshop. We gave a "Canvassing 101" overview then offered inspiring and instructive canvassing stories based our own experiences in 2007 and 2008.
We had volunteers break up into groups of two for role-playing. This gave them a chance to practice possible responses to voters' questions and concerns.
Participants left better informed and energized and we, the organizers, left better informed and energized, too :)
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Yesterday was our canvassing trip to Long Island. We didn't really know what to expect from our first time out. We had hoped to get a respectable turnout, but knew we might end up with only a handful of dedicated volunteers.
Could we really expect people to give up a Saturday in the summer and pay their own train fare to work on a midterm election that is months away? We were pleasantly surprised that nearly 20 volunteers from NYC joined about 20 more on Long Island for our day of canvassing.
My group began gathering at Penn Station at 8:30 am. Another group was convening at the same time in Brooklyn. We met up en route and rode out together.
Sue, OFANY's Long Island Regional Field Director gave us additional background about the district and the surge voters we would be canvassing.
NYC volunteers teamed up with Long Island residents (with cars) and we all headed off to knock on doors.
Here are Nadine and Lisa, a couple of canvassers who were part of my team. We covered two turfs, breaking for a quick lunch in between.
We worked with John (shown here with Sue), a really great guy who drove us around and still managed to knock on more doors than the rest of us. He also had astonishingly good luck finding people home.
At the end of the afternoon, we met up at Sue's house where we tallied our results and shared stories.
It was a very rewarding day. We knocked on hundreds of doors and got a very high contact-to-commit rate. Almost everyone we talked to planned to vote Democratic in November.
But even more exciting for me is that yesterday, on a Saturday in the middle of summer, three months before a midterm election that Democrats are supposedly unenthusiastic about, we had over three dozen volunteers come out to knock on doors.
I see this at our phonebanks and at our meetings. I see it in the emails volunteers send me. They are motivated. They are dedicated. They are determined. They are, as we like to say, FIRED UP!
I can't recommend strongly enough that everyone find a way to get involved. You can find events near you through my.barackobama.com, or, if you'd prefer, contact a campaign office and work directly with them.
Not only will you be making a real difference, but you will find yourself thinking a lot less about enthusiasm gaps and a lot more about how all our efforts can add up.
UPDATE: I see that my friend Dante Atkins has posted an excellent piece, No time to quit, while I was writing this. Definitely check it out.