There has been a lot written in recent weeks about the "ground game" in this election campaign and its potential importance in key November races.
I have been canvassing for Darcy Burner in the East side suburbs of Seattle for the past two weeks. Today was primary day in Washington state. With our new "top two" primary system, the candidates (Democrat and Republican) were running directly against each other even in the primary. If there were two strong Democrats running in one district, it would be possible to have them push the Republican off the November ballot.
In Darcy Burner's case, we had a different point to make today. Two years ago, Darcy ran a strong challenge against the Republican incumbent. Dave Reichert, who was the prosecutor in the Green River killer case, is a two term Congressman in a district which has never elected a Democrat, although it is getting bluer every year.
Our objective today was to outpoll Dave Reichert in the primary. In addition to providing a great lift to the campaign staff and all the volunteers, a primary victory should convince any Democratic voters sitting on the fence that Darcy is a perfectly viable candidate.
I rang a lot of doorbells today. The remarkable thing was the voter turnout among the people I talked to (admittedly a small sample). Only one of the 21 targeted voters I talked to this afternoon was not voting, and all but one of them volunteered their enthusiasm for Darcy.
I have done canvassing before, and I remember that even on election day in November quite a few people just don't get to the polls. It's easy to have something come up that prevents you from voting, even if you had good intentions. For 20 out of 21 people to have either voted already, or be "headed to the polls in five minutes" strikes me as a very good sign.
Let's see if it holds up across the congressional district to produce a solid victory for Darcy tonight.