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Canvassing Rhode Island for Barack Obama - Primary Day

Here is Part One in case you missed it.

Primary Day, March 4, 2008

8:35 am - A quick breakfast at the hotel.  Coffee, orange juice and one of those do-it-yourself waffles from a Dixie cup.  After splitting up into new teams, we head to the Obama headquarters in Warwick.  I see many familiar faces along with several new faces. "New" as in I just met them, but many have been here since Saturday.

11:03 am -We're on the road to canvass in Warwick.  Our driver today is Liz, a native Rhode Islander with a great sense of direction.  Bless her!  Today, I'm out with Lauren, Mary, Darren and  Asher (pictured above).   The plan is to have Liz drop us off in our respective turfs and pick us up when we are done.

11:32 am - My "turf" is a middle class neighborhood with lots of huge dogs barking in the yard and several "For Sale" signs on the lawn.  Again, hardly anyone is home since they are mostly likely to be at work at this time.   Thankfully this is a pretty quiet, nice neighborhood and it sort of reminds me of the neighborhood where I grew up in South Jersey. 

12:19 pm - I talk to a voter who turns out to be a Republican - but he likes Obama quite a bit.  He tells me that he was wavering between Hillary and Barack initially (no mention of McCain), but he eventually leaned towards Barack because he likes what he called the "consistency" in his record and what he perceived to be the senator's ability to unify people from all walks of life.  He also told me that all of the houses up for sale are largely related to the sub-prime mortgage crisis that has gripped our nation. Unfortunately, Republicans are not allowed to vote in the Democratic primary in Rhode Island, but he had very interesting perspectives.

12:41 pm - As I am finishing my turf, I hear a loud crack of thunder. Time to call Liz the Driver!

12:53 pm - We all share our canvassing experiences and find we've had the same luck for the most part - a lot of people were not home.  Darren did say that he spoke to about a dozen people and they were largely Barack supporters.  Several people stated that they had already voted and one or two actually said they didn't plan to vote at all, which is incredible to me considering the importance of this particular election. Also, we all seemed to run into a few homes where someone was home - they just wouldn't answer the door.  You can't really blame them since it is rare to get door to door visitors in their neighborhoods.

1:15 pm - We're back at the Warwick headquarters for lunch and to await our next assignments.  I have some barbecue chicken pizza and meet more volunteers that I hadn't met before.  It's pouring, so the canvassing is put on hold for a while even though some intrepid Hopemongers like Darren and Chantel don rain ponchos and go for it.

5:14 pm - Back in Cranston, it is still raining pretty good as my great-grandmother used to say.  Some people are staying for the party once the polls close, but many of us are returning to New York tonight. 

6:03 pm - Despite the still-heavy rain, a few Hopemongers brave the elements to actually stand on the side of the road to hold up "Honk for Obama!" signs. 

Bless their hearts, but I just can't do the cold, driving rain thing.  I'd rather Blog for Obama - indoors!

7:02 pm- On the way to get food for the ride back to NY we get word that Obama wins Vermont!

A few of us are getting sporadic updates during the ride back home and I check for updates on my Blackberry. It's close throughout the night but, as we all know by now, it was a very different story in Rhode Island and Ohio, although the great state of Texas came through in the end thanks to the caucus results.  Another bonus was the eight delegate swing Senator Obama ended up getting out of California after the results were finalized.  There wasn't much noise in the MSM about it, but the Obama campaign quietly lit up Texas on their "State of the Race" map which highlights all of Obama's wins (29 of 43 so far to Senator Clinton's 14).

He won Wyoming yesterday and is likely to win Mississippi on Tuesday but many of us are still planning to hit the road again in April to nail this nomination down for Senator Obama once and for all.  He is ahead in the popular vote, the delegate count and he has won the most states, but we all know that it ain't over 'till it's over.

See you in Pennsylvania!

Canvassing in Rhode Island for Barack Obama

For the first time in my life, I volunteered for a political campaign.  Along with dozens of other Hopemongers from New York and New Jersey, I canvassed in Rhode Island for Barack Obama. 

I could hardly believe I was doing it, but it is a testament to how much I believe in Barack Obama's vision and his ability to carry it out.

I had a great time and I met a lot of interesting people.  There was so much to share about my Rhode Island experience, that I am writing it in two posts.  Here is part one. 

March 3, 2008 - One Day Before the Primary

5:50 am - Coffee and Crackberry reading at Au Bon Pain in Port Authority. I'm a little early. The Obama volunteer who called me to confirm said to arrive at 6am.

6:18 am - Arrive at meet up location and no one is there!  Or so I think until a guard inside the building sees me and let's me in. I am the second person to arrive and turns out the volunteer gave me the wrong time (the bus leaves at 7).  Not a good thing for a non-morning person like myself.  I walk to Starbucks for another cup of coffee. I'm operating on three hours of sleep. I hope my fellow Hopemongers don't mind snoring.

6:40 am - Chatting with a few more volunteers as they arrive and we discover that, for the most part, we are all first-timers to campaign volunteering.  There are seven of us now and we decide to walk outside and check on the bus.  It's nearly full!

7:19 am - Eli, an Obama volunteer (I forget his exact function) tells us we will talk to up to 1300 people today, passing out flyers, making calls, etc.

7:22 am - We're off!  I've never been to Rhode Island before so I'm excited - and I can hardly believe I am doing this.  Barack, I'm telling you, you are the man!

7:28 am - Our bus driver, offers to play one of the movies one of the volunteers brought with him. It's The Matrix.



7:44 am - The Matrix is playing - loudly. I prefer my iPod and a little snoozing and, judging by the body language of my fellow Hopemongers, they would like a little peace and quiet too but the movie still drowns everything out.  I decide to eat and do a little reading instead.

7:50 am - Someone finally asks to turn down the volume on the movie. Bless them.

9:03 am - Rest stop in Connecticut (I think Norwalk). Thank goodness! I have to use the little girl's room...

11:26 am - We've been chatting for a while, mostly about Obama of course, and finally the movie comes off since no one is watching.  And I finally get a few names - Sandy, Jon, Scott, Ayana, Shafqat, Darren, Asher, Wayne, Tatiana and Barbara.

12:01 pm - We arrive in Cranston, Rhode Island and are greeted by Beth, Ian and other Obama campaign volunteers. We get coffee, donuts, several bottles of water and instructions from Beth on how to canvass.   Most of us are first time volunteers determined to actively help Barack Obama in any way we can.  Some of us are freelancers or students.  Others have taken time off from work as accountants, graphic artists and entrepreneurs in various fields to volunteer.

12:48 pm - We're on the road! Six to a car paired by two.  I'm with Yemi, Karima, Jon, Scott and Wayne (my partner and our driver).  Wayne, like the other drivers volunteered on the spot to drive.  You had to have a valid license and a cell phone to qualify.

1:15 pm - We get a little turned around, but we drop off Yemi and Karima first, and then Jon and Scott.  Yemi and Karima had about 50 houses, Jon and Scott had 80, Wayne and I only had 19 and we would soon learn why!

1:45 pm - Wayne and I are SO lost.  I mean really lost.  We were warned that our first street would not have a street sign. Fine.  However, we were in a very rural area and the map was not as helpful as we had hoped (and no, we had no GPS!)

2:01 pm - We finally find the street we need and figure out the reason we have just 19 houses.  Our area is very rural and the homes are generally widespread which means we have to drive house to house instead of parking and splitting up. 

2:15pm - Since it is in the middle of the afternoon on a Monday, many people are not home. I'm a little nervous about knocking on strangers doors because I am the type that would not answer in all likelihood, so I give people who do answer a lot of credit.  The homes in this area are very nice and we notice a few new homes going up.

We've hit about seven or eight houses at this point and no one is home.  We leave flyers with polling place information on their doors. 

2:27 pm - Llamas!

3:07 pm - We meet a human being!  A few houses are close enough for us to park and a go it alone.  Many houses do not have numbers, so that's a bit of a challenge. I walk up to one house and startle the owner.  They don't get many visitors walking down the road here.  I asked for Mr. ______ and the man told me that he lived next door, but he wasn't home.  I thanked him and mentioned I was a Barack Obama volunteer and he just lit up. Oh, I love him!

He introduced himself and basically went on and on about how he loved Barack Obama and how Tuesday was Barack Obama Day for him - but he wasn't so sure that Barack could win Rhode Island.  By this time, Wayne had returned and he offered us some water and told us that health insurance costs and property tax rates were the most pressing issues for him.  He also loved that we came up from New York because Rhode Island rarely received attention in the primaries. 

Here he is with Wayne.  Very nice man.

3:12 pm -  We move on to our next set of houses on another long stretch of road.  These homes are nearly a half mile apart each and I suggest that Wayne keep driving and I hop out and go up to each house.  Most have long driveways and, since most Rhode Islanders don't seem to use their front porch, many of the porches are covered with ice from the storm a few days prior.

3:30 pm - We get lost again.  Big time.  I shot a very brief video from my digital camera to give you an idea.  I was raised in South Jersey in a suburban/rural area and Wayne is a city guy.  I had to tell him that in the suburbs and in rural areas, if someone tells you something is "just down the road" they mean a mile not a block! Sometimes two miles! 

4:00 pm - We're back on track with Wayne driving and me hopping out because everything is so far apart.  No one is home and we aren't too surprised.  It is the middle of the afternoon and most people are at work.  I continue to leave the doorhangers and even though I am nervous, I'm a little disappointed that we haven't had a chance to talk to many people.

4:45 pm - Wayne starts getting calls from our other team members.  They are finished and we go and pick them up (and we only got slightly lost this time!).

5:17 pm - Back at the Cranston headquarters, there is pizza waiting for the returning canvassers.

6:04 pm - We pile into the the mini-vans again and head to Providence for more volunteer work.

6:23 pm - The Providence headquarters, not far from Brown University, is buzzing with activity. Isn't the painted sign on the window cool? 

6:48 pm - We tuck our luggage away and get instructions from Nicole, the Out-of-State Volunteer Coordinator on our next canvassing assignment in Providence.  This time, I am teamed with Darren and Ayana.

7:50 pm - It is freezing!  The temperature must have dropped twenty degrees instantly as I can hardly feel my hands.  Darren offers me one of his gloves and we keep it moving.  It is dark now and a lot of houses do not have numbers, so it takes a little time finding some places.  We are only scheduled to be out until about 8:30, so we split up and go to as many homes as we can.  We encounter several undecided voters and some who declined to state who they we're leaning towards, one McCain supporter and a few gung-ho Obama supporters (yeah!)  Our main goal was to remind them that the polls closed at 9pm on Primary Day and to let them know where to find their polling location.

9:30 pm -  We are driven to our hotel in Warwick, Rhode Island and settle in for the night.  Tomorrow is Primary Day!