The doorbell rang.
“Hello! I am campaigning on behalf of Barry Buchanan. May I give you a flyer explaining his concerns? And, here is a suggested voter list on behalf of Whatcom Wins.”
Dan Robbins stood in the door and smiled.
“Oh, hello, Sarah*, is that you?”, Kathy Robbins piped up from sofa where she was resting.
Dan eyed the new neighbor with interest.
“Sarah, tell me, what do you know about these candidates? Do you think you’ll vote for them?”
“Most likely, Dan. Whatcom Wins thinks they are all right.”
“What can you tell me about Renata Kowalczyk, Sarah? Why would you vote for Renata?”
“Well, Dan, I don’t know too much about him, but he comes highly recommended.”
“Sarah, do you know what I would do if I was port commissioner? …
[Several minutes later]
“Wow, Dan, you know quite a bit about the port, and you have great ideas. You should run for port commissioner.”
“Sarah, did you see the yard signs you walked past? Dan Robbins for Port Commissioner?”
“No, Dan, I did not. I was looking at my list of addresses to doorbell. My husband was waiting in the car, and – and I…”
This conversation actually happened a few days ago. The GOTV worker’s name* was changed for privacy’s sake. What is the point? Do we have a month of grinding it out while a dump of mega bucks from outside the county works its way through the GOTV mills of Whatcom Wins and Terra Strategies? If patriotic and willing campaign workers are so woefully uninformed, what about the average voter?
Lots of outside money. Sock puppet campaign workers. Not a recipe for a healthy government.
I think lots of people get involved in a political campaign because they are passionate about one candidate or one issue. Expecting every volunteer to be fully versed on all the candidates and issues on one particular side is unrealistic - people get interested in what they are interested in. Considering that "Whatcom Wins" only deals with the County Council races, it is not a surprise that the volunteer is not up to speed on the Port races.
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