Hello from Madison, the beating blue heart of Wisconsin! Sharing my personal experiences of our ground game this weekend. Everyone was in high spirits, enjoying the gorgeous fall weather. At least until the gates of hell opened up on the Capitol steps... (more on that later).
Wisconsin State Capitol & the Dane County Farmers’ Market
We have been making buckets full of buttons to give away to canvassers, supporters, and random folks we pass on the street. Friday night we were up late, clanking and cranking the machine until we had about 400 buttons on hand.
First stop Saturday morning was a canvassing point in South Madison. The event was scheduled to start at 9:00 am. I arrived at 9:00 am. Some folks had already picked up their walks lists and were heading back to their cars. (In Wisconsin, if you arrive at 8:55 am for an event that starts at 9 am You. Are. Late.) Ten or so volunteers were being briefed in the driveway, three volunteers behind tables were doing the organizational part. They were happy to get buttons and I helped myself to a nice piece of walnut coffee cake.
The Gourd Guy! He’s been vending at the market for decades.
Next stop was the iconic Dane County Farmer’s Market on the Capitol Square. It’s America's largest producers-only farmers' market — 130 vendors and over 20,000 shoppers on a good Saturday! With the great weather and bountiful fall harvest the market was packed.
The previous Saturday I passed off my buttons to the WisDems because they had run out of stickers at their table (but not yard signs!) The arrival of the free buttons caused a small scrum at the table so I went off in search of cheese curds and apple pastry.
This weekend the scene was even crazier at the WisDems table — they were thrilled to get a big button delivery. There were too many volunteers to count, yard signs, stickers, face painting, photos with Kamala (cardboard cut out) and an appearance by Senator Tammy Baldwin and AG Josh Kaul. Enthusiasm was running extremely high!
Senator Tammy Baldwin & WI Attorney General Josh Kaul (photo from AG Kaul’s X)
And then the Gates of Hell appeared…
for an interview with a Spokesdemon from Old Scratch himself! Turns out his plan for creating hell on earth through climate change is in danger of being derailed by people joining together, supporting each other, generating hope, and taking real action. And voting for candidates who are already fighting climate change… that has to stop! So yeah, if you can’t bring yourself to vote for the orange demon, don’t vote. Or vote for a third party. It’s the only way to keep climate change on track.
Just before the gates opened and the demons burst forth...
And then the Gates of Hell opened…
‘Humanity has opened the gates to hell’
And out came a whole troupe of dancing demons celebrating our impeding doooooom — another fun and effective flash mob action from 350 Wisconsin.
Bloom Bake Shop, Madison WI 10/10 no notes.
After another round of button making, on Sunday morning I headed to a much smaller, neighborhood farmers’ market to give buttons out to folks directly. Our sign features neutral “vote” buttons but once people realized we also had Harris-Walz buttons that’s what they took. (No political tables allowed at this market.)
I headed to the Bloom Bake Shop stall where I handed out a few more buttons to folks who liked them and received a Twice-Baked Maple Pecan Croissant fresh from the oven in return. A peak pastry experience made even sweeter by our common cause of defending democracy!
Sunday’s big button drop was at the Madtown Os one of Madison’s powerhouse canvassing teams. Turns out Tammy and Josh had visited the Os on Saturday before the farmers’ market. (Fun fact: the ‘O’ originally stood for Obama.)
The joint was jumping when I got there just before noon. There were about 30 people there, checking folks in, working at computers, meeting, training, being trained, talking, catching up with each other and catching the vibe:
FINISH STRONG!
A steady stream of people came and went, heading out the door with clipboards. A friend who had been canvassing on Saturday said it’s full-on GOTV at this point. Over 180 volunteers went out on Saturday, just from this one field office.
After I’d refilled all the button buckets in the office I cornered one of the lead organizers to ask, in a low voice, how we are doing. Great! At least here in the bluest of the blue territories in Wisconsin, we are running up the numbers and getting out every single vote that there is to be gotten.
The Madtown Os field office is in a former coffee shop.
