Canvassing Works

Boston Globe: "For Democrats, door-to-door did the trick"

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.

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More on the "Art of Canvassing"

The East Bay Express devoted a large part of its November 3 issue to political canvassing. Sadly, the main article was almost entirely focused on one person's negative experience as a canvass director in 2006. While the negative article got most of the play, the sidebar, "The Art of Canvassing," is a nice profile on the ups and downs of working in grassroots outreach.

The article is mostly a lighthearted take on what it's like to be a street canvasser, but the canvasser and director of the organization profiled, Peace Action West, make some great points about the importance of canvassing, and why we do it:

Despite the seemingly Sisyphean task of getting strangers on the street to hand over cash, it's apparently effective enough that a lot of organizations continue to rely on it for an ample percentage of their fund-raising engines

...

The canvassing operation of White's employer, Peace Action West, used to be door-to-door, but recently transitioned exclusively to the streets as a more efficient way for its small staff of roughly six to reach the greatest number of people. Almost all its $2.2 million budget comes from individual contributions, and 12 percent of that revenue is generated on the sidewalk, according to PAW's Communications Director Reva Patwardhan. "The rest comes from our existing membership, and my educated guess is that about 95 percent of those renewing members who give through our phone, Internet, and mail programs originally became members through some form of canvassing," she said.

The article's main subject, PAW canvasser William White, drives home what it's all about for most of us current and former political canvassers:

"...The cool thing about street canvassing is that there really are people walking around trying to figure out how to get involved. It's the catalyst. What we do on the street is give people opportunity to engage in those issues. We politicize people on a day to day basis."

Well said, Mr. White, keep at it!

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