OT: My experience at A2 Dems

[Noisy Democrat]

I want to share this because I drew some lessons for it that I think may be relevant for JK supporters and Obama supporters, even though JK and Obama are far from involved in the story.

Yesterday I attended, for the first time ever, a meeting of the Ann Arbor Democratic Party. I was there to speak in support of the idea of a Michigan primary re-vote and to hear what arguments might be raised against it (there were a few -- the idea had about 50-65% support in the room, it seemed). Before that, though, there was a presentation on racial politics in Ann Arbor by two prominent local African-American Democrats. One of the speakers, whose wife Wendy Woods had been ousted as a city council member last year, spoke about how "white mediocrity often beats black excellence" and specifically implied that his wife's loss to a less-qualified newcomer, Mike Anglin, was an example of "the advantage of whiteness" in action. (I'm giving the names to make this post clear, but he didn't actually name names, and it took me a few minutes to piece it together to see that they were talking about my ward, Ward 5.)

In Q&A afterwards, one white guy stood up and said that the issue in the Ward 5 primary had been openness in government -- whether deals are going to be made behind closed doors with developers or whether we're going to have transparency, roll call city council votes, and dealings with developers done out in the open.

I put my hand up and though they had time for only one more comment, the facilitator called on me "because I want to hear from the one person who I've never seen here before." I said that I was going to run the risk of coming across as an utterly naive, uninformed person, but that I thought it might be useful to everyone to get a report about the Ward 5 election from someone who had been an uninformed, outside-the-loop voter. I had a feeling they'd never heard from anyone like that. I said to Wendy Woods, "I had never voted in a City Council primary before, but I voted for your opponent in this one. I didn't know you were black. I've never seen you before in my life."

She said in disbelief, "Don't you watch City Council meetings?!"

I said, "No, never. I really don't know much of anything about the City Council. But here's what happened -- a guy came to my door, and I told him I'd give him 5 minutes to convince me to vote for his guy. If one of your guys came to my door, I wasn't home that day. Anyway, this guy explained it to me exactly the way that gentleman did," pointing to the 'open government' speaker. "I asked him if he had any specific examples, and he gave me one or two, though I don't remember what. When he got done, I said, 'OK, you have clear reasons, you have examples, you took the time to explain it to me clearly -- you talked me into it. I'll vote in the primary for your guy.' And that was it. Race had nothing to do with it."

She said, "Well, race can still play a role, because you know if an African-American comes to the door, sometimes they get the door closed in their face." I'm sure that's true -- I hope no one misinterprets this post as saying that white people don't get advantages due to skin color. But they didn't present any evidence that that was what was decisive in *this* election, as opposed to just "the other guy ran a better ground game."

She finally said huffily, "Well, I represented you for seven years." It wasn't the most gracious comment or tone of voice in the world, but I could sympathize with her being upset, because it upsets me when clueless, low-information voters say something against JK with few facts in support. And yet, at the same time, I felt/feel justified in deciding the way I did. I did take a few minutes, back then, to look at the websites for the two candidates, but I didn't see anything to change my mind. The man who talked to me was obviously sincere and informed, and I liked the interaction with him, and I was persuaded by his belief that it was important to do this. I'd never bothered to vote in a City Council primary before, because I never paid attention to local politics. I actually felt very good about the fact that this guy had persuaded me to get off my butt. I almost sent an e-mail to the Anglin campaign after the election to say, "Thank your ground crew -- they were persuasive."

In the end, about 2300 people voted in that primary, and Mike Anglin won by about 300 votes. I wonder how many were people like me, persuaded by someone coming to the door. I gather that Anglin and his friends pounded the pavement day after day.

I learned a big lesson from this -- I don't know if the other people at this meeting learned any. :) But here are a few observations:

These people in the Ann Arbor Democratic Party meeting seemed like people who all go around and around in their little circle of informed people, similar to people who hang out on DailyKos, so that Ms. Woods could say something like "Don't you watch City Council meetings?!" and think she was making sense. Luftmensch pointed out, when I talked to her later, that this is like the way we sometimes feel disbelief and want to say, "How can you say JK and Harry Reid are exactly the same? Don't you watch CSPAN?!"

Looking at Michigan blogs from that period, I find lots of snark against Mike Anglin. It's very instructive:

They make fun of Mike Anglin for passing out amateurish flyers that look like they came off his home printer. But I had no expectations that someone running for City Council should have slick flyers.

They make fun of Mike Anglin for lacking experience. But I had no idea that it *takes* much experience to be an effective City Council member (if it does).

They talk about some incident at the City Council that Wendy Woods handled well, and snarkily ask if Mike Anglin could've handled it. But I don't watch City Council meetings.

All I knew was that a friendly guy came to my door and told me a coherent narrative about openness in local government, backed up with specific examples. And I voted. It *is* frustrating that there are lots of voters in the world who don't know much about politics, but what it shows is that personal contact -- friendly supporters who know what they want to say about the candidate -- is a very powerful force. I hope to be living either part-time or full-time in Boston starting within the next couple of months, and I realize for myself that when I'm out there wearing my John Kerry for Senate pin and getting into conversations, simply spluttering, "Don't you know what John Kerry has been doing for this state and this country since 2004? Don't you watch CSPAN?" ain't going to cut it. And snarking on Kos isn't going to help much either. I'm going to think a lot about what I got out of this, and what I want to say to people.

[Democrafty]

1. Great story! Thanks for sharing.

One thing that stands out to me is that, whether the candidate was "mediocre" or not, his supporter was excellent, and that made a big difference.

[ray of light]

2. excellent post noisydem.

I believe a friendly face, just talking to you, can make a difference. I know in 06, I was in a smaller town near me, helping get the vote out for the local House race. (I refused to support (GOTV) our Federal Democratic Senator because as far as I'm concerned her votes are pro-corporate.) But I was at a house and the lady wasn't even going to vote. Her big issue was social services and education. So we had a short 5-10 minute conversation, but as I walked away, she mentioned that she probably would vote after all.

Of course, I don't know if she followed through. But she went from a "heck no" to a "I'll probably vote." I think it makes a difference.

[karynnj]

3. As one who has wondered how going door to door or calling people could really work

but not being able to think of any better thing to do, this is wonderful to read. If, in the middle of many people who are too busy or disinterested to listen, there are a few like you were here, that are reached and sold because of the case that can be made, this process does work. Senator Kerry will be very lucky having you in Boston.

[Noisy Democrat]

4. I read a study once that showed

door-to-door is far more effective than phone calling; when I get a minute (like *that*'s going to happen anytime soon -- I'm up to my butt in moving boxes) I'll try to find the numbers, but IIRC, it was quite striking. The study said that phone calling is worthwhile, but knocking on doors is truly powerful in increasing voter turnout. It motivates not only the person whom the volunteer had contact with, but even other members of that person's family who weren't home when the volunteer came -- presumably because the one who *was* home talks about the conversation later.

In this case, I strongly suspect that Woods's people took it for granted that Anglin was "obviously" less qualified, and didn't even try to match his ground game. Reminds me of what I read today about how the Clinton campaign had no one setting up anything in Washington State until just before the primary, because they believed -- and literally told people in WA -- that the WA primary would be irrelevant, the nomination having already been locked up by Super Tuesday.

[beachmom]

6. I believe that. Phone calls are quite frankly annoying and disturbing.

Robo calls are indefensible (yes, even if it's a recorded message from JK), and should be banned -- they're too easy and really amount to an unfair invasion of someone's home via computer.

Door to door -- well, that's different. Heck, if a Republican came to my door, I'd let them in. It's somehow neighborly in a way a phone call isn't. To someone's face, they are a person first. I would welcome a Hillary, McCain or Obama supporter at my door, and certainly listen to their pitch. But a phone call? Caller ID is my friend against the politicos.

[Noisy Democrat]

7. I'm very similar -- and also

I hate making phone calls to strangers, but I only feel somewhat nervous knocking on their doors. Somehow I feel more confident that my smiling face will help ease the sense of intrusion, whereas when I cold-call people, I have very little confidence that I'll be anything other than annoying. Maybe it's because I have a similar reaction to cold calls versus a knock on the door. So I prefer to do the door-to-door canvassing rather than the phonebanking.

[MH1]

5. Great story!

I've been out canvassing the last couple weekends, because here in PA it's time for getting ballot petition signatures. I find that talking to people really makes a difference. Of course, in my area I still here a lot of "hey, this is the first time a Democrat has ever knocked on my door!" (even from people in my own precinct whose doors I * have * knocked on and who answered the door and talked to me the last time I canvassed, sigh).

I've also found that I have to step back and try to put myself in the knowledge context of the person I'm talking to. Which when it comes to local stuff, is pretty easy, because I don't watch Council meetings either. :)

[ladym55]

8. Politicians need to listen to people like you ...

Because you are a fairly typical voter. You pay attention, BUT you aren't totally wound up following every detail.

I agree that meeting face-to-face with potential voters is very important. My friend and I did that for JK and met the nicest people in neighborhoods we never would have visited otherwise.

In 2006, the Democratic challenger in a state race got no help from the state Democratic Party and was supposed to be cannon fodder against an extremely ruthless and well-funded Republican incumbent. As the vicious commercials played on TV, this challenger went door-to-door all across the district. She didn't win, but the presumed landslide for the Republican ended up a squeaker. The challenger had very little money, but she talked with the voters and got to know them. And many liked her.

Many good points in your post and things for everyone to think about in 2008.

[beachmom]

9. You are right. There was a Republican in my House of Delegate district in VA

and he also went door to door. He even stood outside the polling when there was a primary in the spring, so I met him, too. He was going to win anyway, because it's a conservative district, but I know of at least one Democrat who voted for him after talking to him. He won with over 70% of the vote. I voted for the Dem just because I knew he was going to win anyway, but I have to say: he's a good public official, despite being a Regent U. grad.

To add: the Democrat went negative on him in the last weeks in the election, sending all these fliers with a bad picture of him. Because I had met him, it made me definitely less likely to take attacks on him seriously (they were lame attacks anyway), and kind of annoyed by the attack.

Going door to door matters.

[Luftmensch067]

10. I wanted to comment to thank you for this earlier

But I couldn't remember the thoughts I wanted to express when I first read your post. I think I've finally got them back now. :-)

I really agree with you about the lessons to be learned about ground game and not taking votes/people for granted. When you told me about the incredulous "Don't you watch City Council meetings??!" question, I had to laugh, but not so much at the questioner as at myself, because I am much too prone to condemn others for not being as involved and obsessive as I've become about the workings of government. I make fun of myself for being a C-SPAN geek, but in actuality I feel privileged to have been awakened by JK's 2004 campaign and to hang out with people in this and other forums who *do* care enough to stay informed.

But that's my point. The primary season we're in now is changing all that. We're seeing people volunteering and doing work on the ground in EVERY STATE, and for love. It's not just about keeping the devil at bay this time, it's about working FOR something. For hope. People are finally feeling that they matter, in every state, their votes matter. And, lo and behold, they're responding in droves. They're watching the rallies and GOING to the rallies and volunteering and voting. And I think that's part of the reason why. Because we finally feel, all across the country, that we're being talked to, in person, and maybe even listened to. Attention is being paid and America is proving that that matters.