Here's a cool article that ran in Boston Globe in the days following 2010 mid-terms. It wasn't a pretty election, but some races demonstrated what we all know: good people knocking on doors can still win elections.
The Boston Globe
For Democrats, door-to-door did the trick
By Lisa Wangsness / Globe Staff / November 4, 2010
Michael Kineavy was helping run an extraordinarily intensive get-out-the-vote efforts for Governor Deval Patrick and the Democratic ticket. Turnout in Boston precincts had to approach 45 percent by day’s end, he knew. By 3 p.m., just 23 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots.
Kineavy asked the Patrick campaign if he could do a robocall to drive more people to the polls. No, the answer came back: This was a people’s campaign, and it would be won with personal conversations, mostly through knocking on doors. Kineavy returned to the herculean task of marshaling some 2,700 volunteers to attempt to either call or visit 100,000 households twice on Election Day. Three hours later, turnout was at 36 percent and rising fast.
“It reinforced that the door-to-door, face-to-face is the single best way to do it,’’ Kineavy said in an interview yesterday. “I give a nod to the campaign to have the courage to try all this stuff. . . . They stuck with it to the end.’’
Of all the things that went right for Patrick Tuesday, one big one was Menino’s legendary machine. By the end of the day, more Bostonians had voted than in 2006, supplying Patrick with vital support in the state’s most important Democratic stronghold. Help from labor unions, particularly the Service Employees International Union and the building trades, provided critical muscle on the ground. Neighborhood organizers with decades of political experience lent their expertise and personal networks.
But Menino’s operation did not make the difference alone. A new generation of political activists worked side-by-side with Menino volunteers, particularly in heavily minority neighborhoods, using everything from text messages to fliers on windshields to lengthy discussions to get out the vote.
Together, these groups carried out one of the most ambitious ground efforts ever undertaken in the state.
