Going door to door for the first time

On Saturday I along with two other students from my high school, went to upstate New York to canvass for Kirsten Gillibrand in NY-20. She is facing John Sweeny a four term incumbent. I would say it was one of the better experiences I have had during this election cycle.

A brief intro to the district: This is, as one staffer put it, a gerrymandered district. It was designed not to include any of the major population centers around it. It is mostly a rural district, but fortunately for us it only has a PVI of R+3. From my experience this district is not a particularly politically active one, as about 80% of the people I talked to did not know their congressman. The district is about a two and a half hour drive from New York City, so there are few commuters from the district to the city.

Now to my experience

The entire thing came to be after I spoke with my advisor about my interest in politics. She contacted the history chair who happens to be active in democratic politics. As it happened he was planning a trip up to the 20th district. I got on board and as it happened so did two fellow students. The trip was to take place Saturday October 7th.

After leaving Manhattan at eight in the morning we got to her Dutchess County office in Rhinebeck at 10:30. We were greeted by three staffers who gave us the overview of the district. As mentioned above they said it was gerrymandered to not include the more liberal population centers such as Albany. We were told that the lists we were given had likely democratic voters, unaffiliated voters and republican women voters. They had specifically targeted voters that would likely vote democratic or were on the fence. It wasn't a convince-the-swing-voters project, or GOTV project, it was a hybrid of both.

We spent our time in a little town called Pleasant Valley, population 9066. This being a rural district I got my exercise for the day. The organization of what doors to knock and how we should get there was less then stellar, as one street that we were told should walk was 2 miles long, with only 20 houses to knock. This street though was the most interesting.

Of the people of this street (I forget the name of this perticular street) 7 were democrats, 10 were republicans and 7 were unaffiliated. One of the people, a registered Republican, opened the door and without us saying a word that she was voting for Gillibrand. The next person closed the door in our face when we said we were campaigning for a democrat. The last person on our list was the most interesting. He was an unaffiliated voter in his mid 40s who  was a life long republican but, after Katrina changed his party affiliation. His reason was "I can't support a party that doesn't support its citizens." He didn't know if he was going to vote in the upcoming elections as he was strongly pro-life, a position that Gillibrand nor Sweeny have, but said that he would most likely vote Gillibrand should he chose to vote.

While I think this person was an exeptional case it does show something about the GOP today. They are loosing long time supporters, but can we gain on them?

I would strongly recommend going door to door if you live in or near a close district that is close. It is a fulfilling experience that shows your true commitment to change in this country.

Visit Gillibrand on the web at http://www.gillibrand2006.com/...