Last night, I spent 2 1/2 hours making phone calls for Tom Corbett for Governor, Pat Toomey for Senate, and Dee Adcock for Congress. Â I assumed, when asked to help out, that we would be calling hardcore Republicans to recruit volunteers and get a general sense of how much they know about the specific candidates now that the primaries are over – not formal polling by any means, just a general view of the picture.
Except, I found out when I arrived that the call list was of “soft” Republicans. Â They don’t vote in primaries very often, if at all. Â They are registered with the party, but not active by any measure. Â A few undecideds here and there, a few who didn’t really know about the candidates (especially at the Congressional level, which isn’t a surprise given the district and the lack of a specific media market for that area), and a surprising number of people willing to volunteer for the candidates.
Really, the Democrats really could be in big, big trouble if this is a sign of the times. Â Of the 4 other people in the room with me, 2 had never volunteered for phone banks before. Â One was moving over into general Republican issues after having mostly volunteering for pro-life groups before. Â Keep in mind that it is June. Â It’s freakin’ June and nearly half the people in the room are new to volunteering, and I recruited several more from the soft Republican call sheet. Â (There were many more callers in the rest of the building, I just eavesdropped on those in my room so I could make more calls instead of chatting it up.) Â This can’t be good news for Democrats.
On Saturday, we’ll be doing a walk for the same candidates. Â I don’t know if that list is for hard or soft Republicans. Â I do know that Obama’s camp is already canvassing soft Democrats, particularly those who just registered last year and/or those who don’t vote in midterms. Â So we definitely need to be doing the same on our side.
If you’re in SE Pennsylvania and want an excuse to get a little exercise & help a good cause on Saturday, I’ve got locations for several events in Montgomery, Bucks, and Delaware counties.
I would also suggest to bloggers that helping a campaign out for a couple of hours a month is a great way to get a read on the pulse of your local voters. Â It’s absolutely fascinating at times. Â Great blog fodder, too. :)
Much of my interaction with people at Tea Party meetings is with previously inactive people. The Democrat agenda inspires a great deal of anger and concern. I think they think their “time has come” because a Marxist was elected POTUS, so the others could quit making nice or hiding their identities and sail in harm’s way.
I think they have made a mistake, and hope this is in our favor.
The brand of tea party is a little hard to read in the tea leaves. We’ve had too many tea party candidates behave badly here, and they won’t get over the fact that they lost some elections. When the official candidates act like children and decide that they are just going to huff off & leave politics instead of still trying for some kind of change to improve the status quo, it poses a big problem to forecasting races – that’s why we have to get out to knock on doors and make phone calls. I’ve talked to several tea party folks here who decided that once their pet candidates didn’t win the primary, they were just going to sit out of the race so the Democrats can win again. They are the ones screaming that the country can’t afford another 2 years of this, and yet that’s exactly what they are endorsing. It’s nuts.
I’ll definitely give an update on our experience on Saturday. Talking to people face-to-face should be very interesting.