cutting turf, mobilizing volunteers, and trying to win an election (or several dozen)

every election season SEIU gives us a chance to go out in the field in the 7-10 days leading up to the big day. it requires sleeping infrequently, working very long days, and keeping you energy up somehow (i prefer old-fashioned donuts and caffeine).
given the choice between calm 8-9 hour days doing things i have a chunk of experience with and working 15 hours days doing things i haven't done much before, what did i choose? well, i am sucker for justice and stuff, so clearly i chose the latter.
i got to the SE PA center of operations for our GOTV effort. It is a crazy place. It's a church nestled in a residential community a few blocks from the schuylkill river and kelly drive in East Falls (Philadelphia). I walked into the church and the sacntuary has been turned into a democracy war room. There is red/white/blue crepe paper strewn accross the pillars. If there were ever pews they have been moved aside. Now the room is full of folding tables, phones, power strips, computers, white erase boards, chalk boards, chatter, cell phone chargers, crackberries, union activists, and junk food. All the ingredients we need to win an election, i suppose.

from early in the morning until quite late at night folks are working the phones frenetically. Is Mrs. Rampierri home? I need 200 copies of that precinct report. stat. etc. Everyone is moving almost all the time. New folks come in and immediately get swept up into the campaign. If the level of intensity in the operation is an indicator, we are in good shape. There were a couple dozen folks working today covering the progressive rainbow, muslims, jews, whites, african-americans, latinos, unions dudes, enviros, and everyone else untied chiefly by an opposition to the disgusting agenda foisted on a country that deserves better.

Today i spent most of the day calling union members and trying to get our election day volunteer canvassing team fully staffed. Lots of busy signals, some connections, a few successes. Now i am waiting to get a file so i can help develop the precinct plans. I'll help design the routes for election day gotv teams to follow. I love maps, logistics, and data, so it should be fun (err, interesting for a short while). Anyways, i gotta get back to cutting turf, as we call it, so think about taking tuesday off to work on an election near you. If we win big, you'll want to say you had a part in it. if we don't win big...well, nevermind that, with your help we're going to win big.