Let me start with a disclaimer: I used to be a Republican, but that's a long tortured story that can wait until for a future post. What motivated me to post is what I'm seeing on the ground in my hometown. Republicans have a lot to fear in 2008. Traverse City is a decent little town near Lake Michigan. Although Northwestern Lower Michigan as a region is Republican, TC itself has been trending blue for some time now. That said, not a whole lot happens here Politically. The City (population 15,000)is blue, the surroundings are anywhere from suburban Red, to country club Red, to Scary Red. We don't see a lot of attention from the National Parties.
I've worked on many campaigns for both parties at different levels. What I've seen in the past month has truly astounded me. A national campaign that is making up for lost time (i.e. the Michigan Primary fiasco).
Aside from being the Hometown of the State's last Moderate Republican, Bill Milliken, TC has a fairly quite political scene. Back in 1992, a little known woman named Hillary Clinton visited my alma mater: Cherry Knoll Elementary and spoke about education with the teachers. In 2004, W came to the Civic Center for a "Republicans Only" Rally.
This winter it was impossible for me not to log in and watch the returns come in. From Iowa through Montana my political junkiehood was in full swing. But this is summer, it's hard to focus on politics when this is only 30 minutes away.
A friend emailed me and invited me to meet her at a house party a couple weeks back. I had been friends with her long before I came out (as a Republican) but shortly after I'd come out gay. I wasn't overly enthusiastic about spending my weekend at a house party... Summers are short enough as it is up north, but I went anyways.
Frankly, the people at the house party were not the type of people I normally rub elbows with. Mostly older, boomer women and Latte drinkin, Prius driving types. (Damn I wished I owned a Prius... grin). They asked people to give them their names, email, numbers etc.
It was a nice thing and all, but I didn't put a lot of thought into it. I've worked on campaigns before, and while it was impressive to see someone from a national campaign working at the grass roots level, I didn't understand what they were doing completely.
I got a phone call 2 weeks later from one of the "fellows" from the campaign asking to sit for a one-on-one. She explained that one of the 5 sent from the campaign had to leave early, and that she was contacting the people who were to have been contacted as a follow-up. WOW I thought. This is professional and not something I'd EVER had expected.
Needless to say, we met and I've got the papers I need for voter's registration to help the ground game in TC. If the level of involvement, follow through, and organizing is going on through out the nation as little TC, I will have to resubscribe my cable up for November's election.