Witches, beautiful dancing women, Halloween horrors at a Catholic church, and military veterans calling for backup from Kerry HQ -- this weekend's GOTV effort was unlike anything to ever happen before in West Virginia.
Here's the report from DCDemocrat and Carnacki. Project Next has canvassed the Eastern Panhandle for months. This weekend, the group also decided to go into central West Virginia to GOTV.
Here's some of what happened this weekend in Martinsburg:
- Some group (one guess who)is calling newlyl registered Democratic voters in the Eastern Panhandle to tell them they are not registered and could not vote. After hearing of this, the Berkeley County Democrats quickly responded to call all the newly registered voters to tell them of the effort and to let them know they can vote. The effort backfired on the other group because it gave the Dems a great excuse to call them and remind them to vote.
- Republicans plastered cars at church parking lots with literature and had literature in some church bulletins today. However, a grass-roots people of faith organization of local donors had a full-page ad in the local newspaper that should counter it.
- The largest Catholic church had outside its parking lot two Bushies with signs: a beautiful baby with Bush = life and an aborted fetus Kerry = death. DCDemocrat quickly formed a counter-demonstration and formed a much larger Catholics for Kerry group to stand next to them.
- All across the county, 30 to 40 Kerry supporters gathered at large intersections with their rally signs. Volunteers came from DC and Maryland to join the West Virginians. There were probably more than 150 people in high visibility intersection rallies.
- The Bushies did counter with their own demonstrations. They had a big rally at the municipal park: 10 of them sat on picnic tables. Our observer reported they looked pretty dejected. Camp Kerry, our large grass-roots veterans group set up outside the VA Hospital entrance, called for backup after it appeared a Bush demonstration was forming. DCDemocrat quickly organized 20 plus Kerry supporters to go do sign wavings there. When they arrived, they discovered only one Bush supporter with her four children showed up for the Bush demonstration there. That's it. We're not kidding. DCDemocrat saved the woman's children from the highway traffic.
- NEXT's Shenna organized candy and Polaroid picture taking for the Martinsburg's children trick-or-treat. That appeared quite a hit. The Republicans did not pass out any treats, but they did have scary pictures on their office windows -- Sorry. Ms. Carnacki just informed me those were pictures of Dick Cheney and George Bush ("Mommy, make the scary men go away.")
Central West Virginia
- Project NEXT hoped to have 30 volunteers for work in central West Virginia. Sixty arrived from other parts of West Virginia, Maryland and DC.
- NEXT volunteers canvassed door-to-door in Morgantown, Fairmont, outlying villages, and Clarksburg. These are high Democratic precincts, in some cases outnumbering Republicans 5 to 1, but with histories of spotty voting. We told them of early voting (it was the last day) and passed out flyers with their precinct and took lists of those who needed rides. We reminded them how important it was.
- Two bearded men just back from deer hunting in their camos and trucker caps, looking through a Guns and Ammo magazine as approached by Carnacki. If you guessed they were voting for Bush because of the NRA, you'd be wrong.
- A NEXT woman told the story of going up to a West Virginian also just back from hunting, with a big chaw of tobacco in his mouth. He resembled Grizzly Adams. She gave her speech, feeling apprehensive because he just stood there looking her straight in the eyes with no expression. Then he spit tobacco juice out and deadpanned, "I always vote a straight Democratic ticket."
- Carnacki climbed the streets of a small town built on the side of a steep hill. He found lots of people home because of the WVU vs. Rutgers game. Out of more than 90 people spoke to, nearly all are either voting for Kerry or already voted for Kerry. Six were for Bush. Five declined to say. One woman leaning Bush told him she'd consider voting for Kerry. Two undecideds probably would vote for Kerry. There was one Nader supporter. Carnacki's canvassing partner found three Bushies.
- As NEXT volunteers turned in their clipboards, they ate pizza, drank beer and headed out for high visibility sign wavings. Lots of pickup truck drivers for Kerry.
- Spent the night in Fairmont hotel. Two truck drivers from Georgia asked for Kerry bumperstickers. Lots of beer and more pizza. Carnacki went to bed early. He's too old.
- NEXT volunteers attended the Harrison County Democratic Club's annual feed in Clarksburg at Robert C. Byrd High School. A country rock band played. NEXT's very pretty women (take that Ann Coulter) began dancing in the aisle and many others joined in. Very high energy. Long conga line with enthusiastic volunteers brought tons of energy to the rally. The staid Harrison County Democrats joined in dancing and waving Kerry signs. They also fed of lots of good food and homemade baked goods.
- Sen. Rockefeller, Rep. Mollohan, gubernatorial candidate Joe Manchin talked about their travels across the state. They're campaigning bigtime for Kerry and also Erik Wells for Congress against Shelley Moore Corruptico. Byrd and Sen. Kennedy did not attend because they were elsewhere.
- About 30 of the NEXT volunteers are staying in Fairmont through election day. This is fantastic news because they bring a highlevel of energy to the campaign. The volunteers in Morgantown, Clarksburg and Fairmont headquarters were extremely appreciative and so nice it was touching. The United Mine Workers are behind Kerry in a big way as are the other unions. Saw lots of Kerry support from the mineworkers, who also were canvassing and phonebanking, as well as the IAFF (firefighters) and CWA (telecom workers). Other unions also very involved. United Mineworkers rally in southern West Virginia drew more than 2,000.
Carnacki is writing, but he's hit a wall. He's tired. Please recommend if you liked this report.