<< I've been on a short-term contract in Atlanta for a year and a half now and am staying in McKinney's district. Not once did anyone ever knock on our door ... >>
It would take one hell of a well-financed and/or massively-staffed campaign to have the resources to cold-visit a new district voter. Or it would take one impressively well-organized and deep-rooted local party organization that a candidate can call on for such things--do those exist anymore? Most campaigns will (for very good reasons) put most resources toward folks with a record of voting in previous elections in the district. US congressinal districts are huge--too huge, it's one of the many, many structural problems of this alleged democracy. Did you move from a place where you're used to someone from the congressperson's office knocking at your door? If so, where is that?
And you *are* registered to vote in the district in question, right? Because if you aren't and you get visited, it's a sign of a *bad* campaign. Voter registration drives have to take place long before a contested election. The returns are too low for the costs involved, and in a close election everything is focused on getting most votes for the buck.
The lack of yard signs seems a bad signal, though. And if you ever made contact with her campaign--say, to volunteer, or even to get info--and no one got back, then, yeah, it's a good sign she deserved to lose.
---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: John Adams <jadams01 at sprynet.com> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 20:46:19 -0500
>On Wednesday, November 12, 2003, at 06:29 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: John Adams <jadams01 at sprynet.com> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 20:46:19 -0500
>On Wednesday, November 12, 2003, at 06:29 PM, Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>> Shane Taylor wrote:
>>
>>> And there was the Green run against Wellstone, and the loss of ballot
>>> access in varoius states. At this time, how many states does the
>>> Green
>>> party retain a position on the ballot?
>
>I've long wondered how many Green elected officials ran without
>identifying as a Green.
>
>I don't know about the rest of the country, but I know that neither of
>the "Green" elected officials from Fayetteville, Arkansas actually ran
>as Greens. The first one, Stephan Miller, ran during a weirdo
>far-right/far-left alliance against the middle which ended up with the
>middle-to-far right in power and himself as the only non-right member
>of the city council. I remember asking a local activist about Stephan's
>campaign and the Green Party, and she replied, "Well, the printing on
>his brochures was green." The second one, Randy Zurcher. was clearly
>running as a progressive, but never to my knowledge identified in the
>campaign as a Green, except when Green victories were tallied up
>nationally.
>
>> I have to say that many of the Greens quoted in Micah Sifry's Nation
>> piece <http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031124&s=sifry> sound
>> pretty thoughtful and mature. The opposite of those Greens who want to
>> run Cynthia McKinney.
>
>I've been on a short-term contract in Atlanta for a year and a half now
>and am staying in McKinney's district. Not once did anyone ever knock
>on our door--in fact, I saw no signs of a McKinney campaign at all,
>other than one yard sign. The extent to which she beat herself is, I
>think, underestimated.
>
>All the best,
>
> John A
>
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>