Every little bit helps

In our Obama campaign office in downtown Ann Arbor, we have the fairly typical crew of folks. There’s me, the Canvass Captain, and my Deputy Canvass Captain Jennifer who does as much or more than I do.

We have Kate who somehow manages to keep all of our canvass packets and canvassers organized so that she can report the numbers and so we can make sure everyone gets back safely.

There’s Randy, our Phonebank Captain, who is assisted by Kathy and keeps our steady flow of phonebankers trained and busy, and who manages to stay sane and calm when the predictive dialers are fussy. Thankfully, he’s also an expert in laser printer surgery.

We have Jeanette who is our gatekeeper at the front desk, making sure nobody gets by without being welcomed and then asked if they are volunteering for canvassing or phonebanking.

There’s Etta, our intrepid Comfort Captain, who keeps the coffee fresh and all of our volunteer staff fed along with our volunteers.

And then, of course, we have Alaina, our Staging Location Director. Alaina is doing the work of a staff person and gets paid only in smiles, headaches and the deep satisfaction that she has made a huge contribution to something she believes in strongly. She keeps us all focused and calm and determined and she does it with a big smile. All the time.

This is the normal contingent of volunteers that you’ll see at pretty much any Obama Get Out The Vote (GOTV) Staging Location across the country today. But our office has one more person that not every location is blessed to have.

We have Bette.

And I would have gotten away with if it weren’t for that pesky Superstorm! In 2000, Karl Rove predicted George W. Bush would win 320 electoral votes. Bush won 271–if you count Florida. In 2006, he said he had “THE math” that showed the GOP would keep the House of Representatives. They lost 30 seats and the House. In 2008, […]

Wait. You’re still waiting? Maybe you’ve been putting off getting involved in the 2012 election and the Get Out the Vote (GOTV) effort until “later”. “I’ll wait until after Labor Day.” “I’ll wait until it’s a little closer to Election Day.” “I’ll wait until later.” Well, the time for waiting is over. This is it, folks. There is no “later”. […]

GOTV in your jammies!

I’m going to say right off the bat that I am, in general, against phonebanking from home. People that phonebank with others are more productive. It creates a sense of accountability AND a sense of camaraderie that you simply can’t get doing it alone.

That said, not everyone can get out of the house to phone bank or knock doors even though they want to help. Well, thanks to Democracy for America, you CAN help, even if you can’t leave the house. They are making calls around the country to support the various progressive Democratic candidates that they have endorsed and need help getting out the vote for these fine candidates.

Details about how you can get involved after the jump.

The election will be tweeted (and Facebooked…)

I was sent this graphic by the folks at Open-Site.org. It delves into the rising impact of social media — mainly Twitter and Facebook — on our elections. The changes since 2008 are astonishing. Here’s what they write about it:

“Anyone with a Facebook or Twitter account has probably noticed an increase in the number of political postings over the past few years. This is due, in part, to the explosive rise in social media outlets and users. But voters are not the only people who use social media; among politicians, 9 out of 10 Senators and Representatives have Twitter accounts. However, many are starting to wonder if social media is becoming less a reporter of political races and more of a predictor of the results. In Senate races, the candidate with more Facebook friends than his or her opponent has won 81% of the time. And one email sent to 60 million Facebook users prompted an additional 340,000 people to vote in the 2010 election. This infographic illustrates just how politics and social media are affecting each other.”

After the jump is the graphic they put together that shows just how much things have changed and the incredible impact of social media on elections in the USA.

The choice is clear

Back in August, I published a piece about Fake Democrats running in Michigan. One of those Fake Democrats is the appropriately-named Jim Fink who not only admits to being a Republican but whose biggest campaign donor is, in fact, the Republican Party. If you go to Republican Party headquarters/offices in Washtenaw County, there you will find Jim Fink signs. He has made many donations to Republican candidates, is anti-Choice and against marriage equality and civil rights for the LGBT community.

Despite this, Jim Fink has vigorously sought the endorsement of the Washtenaw County Democratic Party (full disclosure: I am on the Executive Board of the WCDP as co-Vice Chair for Precinct Organizing.) He attended our conventions and meetings. He parked his car, covered with his campaign magnets, at the entrance to the parking lot at our events to make it look as if we supported him. He asked us to put his literature and yard signs at our campaign office in Ypsilanti. In short, this confirmed, right wing Republican did everything he could do to get the Democratic Party to use their resources to support him.

We did not.

What we DID do is endorse his opponent, Carol Kuhnke. In contrast to Fink’s dishonesty and questionable character, Kuhnke is a fantastic candidate. Smart, fair-minded and a true Democrat, Carol Kuhnke is the ideal choice for the 22nd District Court in Washtenaw County.

My interview with Carol Kuhnke after the jump.

The desperation is palpable

An out-of-state group known as the “Judicial Crisis Network” is spending $1 million in Michigan to attack Supreme Court front-runner Bridget McCormack. After you read my interview with her HERE, you’ll quickly realize that she’s a candidate perfectly suited for the Supreme Court. The now-viral West Wing ad released by her campaign gave her name recognition not usually seen with candidates for the bench. As I said in my interview, she’s the real deal, running a real campaign and she’s going to win.

However, that’s only true if we get out the vote for her, along with Connie Marie Kelley (interview HERE) and Shelia Johnson (interview HERE.) The most recent Detroit Free Press poll shows that an astonishing 75% or more of Michigan voters are undecided in the Supreme Court races (one partial term where Johnson is the candidate and two full-term seats where Kelley and McCormack are on the ballot.)

We simply must spread the word on these three incredible women. We must tell our friends, our coworkers, our family — anyone who will listen — that these three women represent the best choice for Michigan’s future.

More after the jump.

REMINDER: Our last two Republican businessman presidents were Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush Imagine being so full of bullshit that you turn everyone around you into a fact checker—it’s almost like a fable or a Greek myth. But it’s also become our presidential election. You know the man I’m talking about. The world’s record holder for Politifact Pants-on-Fire awards, […]

On so many levels…

Back in 2010, I documented the obscene campaign run against Democrat Christine Green in Michigan’s 52nd State House District. While Michigan Republicans ran no less than five hideous robocalls against her, sent out mailings with her home phone number on them and generally ran a smear campaign against one of the most upstanding citizens in the Ann Arbor area, Mark Ouimet sat back and allowed it to happen. And, all the while, said he was going to bring peace and civility to the House and work across the aisle with Democrats in our state legislature.

This turned out to be completely false and was just one more in a long list of deceptions from Ouimet over the past two years.

My take on why Mark Ouimet does not deserve to represent the 52nd District after the jump.

Happy Halloween!

This was VERY popular the last couple of years so I’m reposting for your Halloween viewing pleasure.

Enjoy.

I love Halloween but I’m not much of a punkin carver. However, I love looking at them. Here’s a bunch of the coolest punkins I could find on the web.

Well, except this one. It was taken by my wife:

Many, many more (including punkin computer wallpaper) after the jump.

Shameless and crass

Mitt Romney claimed to be suspending his campaign during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy which devastated the East Coast last night and continues to impose its wrath. However, that’s pretty much NOT what he did. Instead, an Ohio campaign event was hurriedly renamed a “relief charity event”. As the event began, the standard Romney bio video was shown on a huge screen. The press was invited, too. As John Aravosis at AMERICAblog points out, why invite the press if this is for charity???

More details with pictures and tweets after the jump.