Carpet-bombing the Neighborhood

Yesterday, I finally finished the three-day process of walking our precinct to drop off campaign literature: what the political pros call a "lit drop" and I call "carpet-bombing."

I have been walking our precinct in one way or another for nearly twenty years, since an unsuccessful run for City Council. The Sixth Ward then had three precincts, and one of them voted at the High School. In those days, I could walk each precinct in a day, and it took three days to walk the whole ward; now, it takes me three days just to walk the precinct!

A few observations for any of you curious enough to check this weblog:

• The neighborhood looks pretty good. I had a chance to talk with several residents working hard to maintain their property. And the Halloween decorations always enliven the experience of walking the neighborhood.
• It seems that we still have a large number of empty homes. I've been dropping off literature only at places that have had recent Democrat or Undeclared voters, so I'm hoping I didn't hit too many unoccupied homes.
• The packets that we received from the Democratic Party were pretty compact, relatively heavy, and held together with rubber bands. In most cases, I left campaign pieces in front of doors, and it seemed unlikely that they would be blown around and become a nuisance. (I had to forgo some good lit-drop days earlier in the week because I thought it was too windy.)
• In order to introduce myself, I prepared a label that appears on the packets, providing contact information and offering some services. This year, I'm on jury duty for Election Day, so any transportation services will have to be after we're released for the day; please leave a message at my home office, 440-439-5757, if you need a ride to the polls.

Some people are predicting a Democratic bloodbath this year; I've never been that interested in predicting the future. All we can do is to do our part and hope that the electorate is wise enough not to be misled by misleading campaigning.

But there's no disputing that this election is exceptionally important. State elections will not only fill their various offices: they'll determine who sets the boundaries for legislative districts that we'll have to live with for the next ten years. We need to get out all of our voters and hope for the best. With your help and support, we can have some successes this year!