Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Return to Davenport
For the first time since caucus night last January, this weekend I returned to Davenport, IA to help the Kerry campaign. A proud member of Whouley's 500, I had helped coordinate putting Chicago volunteers on the ground in Iowa during the lead up to the caucus. Despite Kerry having been pronounced "toast" in December, our little band of Chicago warriors hunkered down.
One of my proudest days to date was Caucus day. Jim Spenser the field director in Scott County had assigned me a non-viable precinct with no precinct captain. My precinct was also in the strong Gephardt leaning Steelworkers union hall; a task I later found out was given to me due to my size in hopes of mitigating the "home court" advantage.
On caucus morning after an hour of visibility in the freezing cold, Jim gave me a list of 400 possible caucusers in the precinct and told me to cold call, find a precinct captain, and told me we need to escape with at least 1/6th of the delegates. To make a long story short (but great over beers), I cold called everyone on my list, found a captain, and left with 3/6 of the delegates. (Did I mention former blogger Dan Conley was the Edwards captain?)
But last Saturday, the return was thrilling as I was able to lead one of the Illinois for Kerry buses on the long trek to Davenport, IA. Talk about returning with forty-five of your best friends. Our canvass gave Scott County a first, better numbers than Des Moines for weekly contacts made. To read more about it, see my entry on the ChicagolandforKerry blog.
One more thing, the Davenport office put us in an Independent swing area that they considered a “tougher” area for Kerry. We were closing Kerry supporters three to one over Bush supporters. The main answer, “I watch the debates, and Kerry was...” It really feels like “Deja Vu,” when in the final weeks leading up to the Caucus we could feel the momentum coming toward Kerry despite the media’s best efforts to count him down and out.
I4K Storms Iowa (Yup, we ride in style)
One of my proudest days to date was Caucus day. Jim Spenser the field director in Scott County had assigned me a non-viable precinct with no precinct captain. My precinct was also in the strong Gephardt leaning Steelworkers union hall; a task I later found out was given to me due to my size in hopes of mitigating the "home court" advantage.
On caucus morning after an hour of visibility in the freezing cold, Jim gave me a list of 400 possible caucusers in the precinct and told me to cold call, find a precinct captain, and told me we need to escape with at least 1/6th of the delegates. To make a long story short (but great over beers), I cold called everyone on my list, found a captain, and left with 3/6 of the delegates. (Did I mention former blogger Dan Conley was the Edwards captain?)
But last Saturday, the return was thrilling as I was able to lead one of the Illinois for Kerry buses on the long trek to Davenport, IA. Talk about returning with forty-five of your best friends. Our canvass gave Scott County a first, better numbers than Des Moines for weekly contacts made. To read more about it, see my entry on the ChicagolandforKerry blog.
One more thing, the Davenport office put us in an Independent swing area that they considered a “tougher” area for Kerry. We were closing Kerry supporters three to one over Bush supporters. The main answer, “I watch the debates, and Kerry was...” It really feels like “Deja Vu,” when in the final weeks leading up to the Caucus we could feel the momentum coming toward Kerry despite the media’s best efforts to count him down and out.
I4K Storms Iowa (Yup, we ride in style)
# posted by AB @ 6:10 PM 
