31

On Saturday morning, there are 31 days remaining until Election Day.

9:01 Ruth and I pull up in front of the Ibson Law Center in the Urbandale area of Des Moines. Sited between Beaverdale Books and the Duds ‘n Suds laundry, Ibson is our weekend base of operations for canvassing and phone calls.

This morning, we’re here an hour earlier than usual to meet a volunteer who wanted to get an early start on the day’s work. It’s freezing cold and we are both a little irritable and sleep-deprived after working until midnight the previous day.

Ruth paws through the contents of her purse. She can’t find the key to the Ibson office. Now she calls a colleague to check her desk at the main office. She’s sure she had it on Wednesday night. “I’m stretched way too thin,” she says, despairing.

I misplaced the key five days ago and I’m just glad that this time it’s somebody else’s fault.

9:13 Ruth calls the volunteer who wanted to start at 9 but isn’t here yet. Is the woman on her way, Ruth would like to know.

The volunteer has forgotten about her shift completely. “That’s fine, we can reschedule,” Ruth tells her. I lean back in the driver’s seat and exhale slowly. Still no sign of the key. Still freezing.

9:50 Karl Brooks arrives at Ibson. Karl, a self-declared “lover of campaign work,” walked into the office on Friday looking for a volunteer task, “no matter how menial,” after making the 3.5 hour drive from Lawrence, Kansas.

The 56-year-old is a faculty member at the University of Kansas and served three terms in the Idaho State Senate earlier in his career. He intends to spend the weekend in Des Moines doing “grunt work” and then make the drive back to Kansas on Sunday evening. The long drive isn’t a problem. Using tapes during the ride, the father of three says, “I’m teaching myself Spanish as I go.”

Karl is given a “walk pack” – a list of addresses believed to be Democratic households – and instructed to do a “VBM push,” campaign jargon for getting voters to fill out a form that allows them to vote early through the mail. As I’ve mentioned before, the primary aim of canvassing is to collect VBMs, allowing the Deocratic side to accumulate a large stockpile of early votes.  Canvassers also try to register new voters and solicit volunteers.

What’s more, an Ibson attorney has fortuitously to catch up on some weekend work. We can access the office now.

10:00 A field director from a neighboring territory arrives to canvass. Our Beaverdale team is sending a crack detachment of volunteers out on Sunday to work his turf, and he wants to reciprocate personally by knocking on a few Beaverdale doors himself this Saturday morning. It’s the equivalent of a CEO descending from the corner office to work the assembly line with the commoners, though the staffer does look to be about 20 years old. The help is gratefully accepted.

10:24I leave the Ibson office to pick up Bob Meddaugh. A 65-year-old retired computer consultant, Bob no longer drives and has trouble walking for long stretches. Still, he has a great manner on the phone and loads of experience campaigning. He usually runs the office and makes telephone calls for the team on canvass days.

The campaign calls people like Bob “core vols” – volunteers who work several shifts a week, never fail to appear when scheduled, and are experienced enough to work without a staffer to help them along.

This morning, Bob has a gift for Ruth and me – warm winter coats to fight today’s dreary conditions. “I have enough cold weather gear to outfit a whole platoon,” he tells me.

Ruth and I in our borrowed coats, courtesy of Bob Meddaugh and Kathy Stangl

10:48 Julie Finch is upset with Obama’s performance in the last debate. “It was a terrible night,” the single mother says, both for the president and for her personally handling her two teenage children. She starts to get choked up describing her angst and asks Ruth for a hug. “I knew I’d feel better if I worked today” she says, brushing aside her tears and taking a walk pack.

She’ll be taking either the Monday or the Tuesday of Election Day off of her job at the library to help out, she tells Ruth. Maybe both days.

11:00 The field director returns from canvassing with an incredible haul. He couldn’t finish his walk pack, but he had five conversations and collected five VBMs, 100% conversion! Even 40% is considered an excellent rate.  No wonder he’s a field director.

11:50 “We’re at the Ibson Law Center and we have your ballot,” Ruth says into the phone. A volunteer accidentally left her mail-in ballot with the campaign last week. Ruth has been trying to meet the volunteer and give her back the ballot since then – without that ballot, the woman won’t be able to cast a vote. “I’ll find you Monday or sometime this week,” the woman tells Ruth.

12:00 Bob’s phone blares out “Still the One” by Orleans. It’s his wife Kathy calling for Ruth to discuss the hat Kathy wants to knit. They settle on chocolate brown as a color.

12:41 Ruth and I finally leave the Ibson office, walk pack in hand. We stop in at our host house, grabbing a box of Cheerios out of the Campaign Dodge’s trunk. We realize it’s the first time either of us has eaten a meal at home since we moved to our host mom’s house two weeks ago.

1:07 Ruth and I begin our walk pack, with my phone showing 43 degrees. I take the odd side of the street and she takes the evens.

1:19 The first six houses I try all have no one home. Where are the Iowans this morning? I pass a woman walking a black dog. “Who are you out here soliciting for?” she asks. “Barack Obama,” I say. “Who do you support?” She is an Obama voter, too.

1:35 I knock on the door of Donna Fleming, a 77-year-old woman, with a white minivan in her driveway. No one comes to the door. As I walk back down her driveway, a second white minivan pulls in, driven by Donna herself, an Obama supporter. Her husband and she would ordinarily clash over politics, she tells me, but “he fell and broke his leg” a few weeks ago and will be recovering in a nursing home for three months. A window of opportunity opens: For once, she’ll be able to put up a yard sign for Obama while he’s recovering. “He doesn’t like it when I stick [Iowa Republican Governor Terry] Brandstad’s picture on the refrigerator with a slash through it.”

2:19 Ruth and I reconvene back at the Campaign Dodge. I had an almost entirely fruitless run, without getting a single VBM or registration. “I did get a vol, though,” I tell Ruth. We swing by Donna’s house and I plant a sign in her front yard.

Donna Fleming’s lawn sign

3:03 Ruth and I drop off Bob at the campaign’s main office so he can attend a “Get Out The Vote” training to prepare for the campaign’s final weekend. It’s heartening to see the office packed to capacity with “core vols” like Bob. For the first time today, I feel great about our election chances.

3:40 Ruth and I, having eaten nothing but cereal and Cheetos today, order a late lunch of burgers and beers.

4:11 I start on my second walk pack of the day, this time alone. I can’t find my first house anywhere. Finally I realize I am on the wrong street. I knock on the first three houses but nobody is home. I realize I have to use the bathroom and I have over 50 more doors on my list. I really shouldn’t have had that second beer with lunch.

4:30 An Obama supporter fills out a VBM. Even better, he lets me use his bathroom.

4:48 I’ve canvassed this neighborhood before and recognize some of the individual houses, including the one I’m at now. Last time, I offered to request a mail-in ballot for the man who lives here. The resident, an African-American, told me he would definitely be voting for Obama on Election Day. When I objected that he could be sick, or his car could break down, he brought me into his living room and showed me around. Above his mantle was a picture of the First Family depicted in messianic relief.  “Oh, I’ll be voting on Election Day,” he thundered triumphantly.

I don’t bother to knock this time. I mark him as an Obama supporter who’d prefer not to vote early by mail.

6:17 I talk to an undecided voter, a surprisingly rare occurrence on the trail, and I’m determined to make the most of it. The voter is leaning towards not voting at all out of frustration with both candidates. We speak for close to 20 minutes.

7:20 I finish my walk pack in the dark. It’s nearly impossible to make out the house numbers for the last couple houses but I manage.

8:15 I meet Karl for dinner at Zombie Burger. The plan is to eat a quick dinner (a second burger, sigh) then hit a downtown gay bar, Blazing Saddle, to collect a few more registrations and VBMs. Worried over the message two men entering a gay bar together might be sending, we each need a preliminary drink before heading inside.

The Blazing Saddle ends up not very intimidating for two straight guys. It’s a neighborhood bar with lots of straight men and women inside. There are a few men dressed in gay leather, and one man who’s too intoxicated to speak scribbles his phone number down for me.

 9:40 Karl and I finish up at Blazing Saddle. We did get a single VBM, but almost everybody there had already voted or vowed to vote for Obama in person by Election Day.

At the day’s end, the Beaverdale team knocks on exactly 600 doors, collecting 23 VBMs, 8 voter registrations, and a handful of future volunteers. On Saturday night, there are 30 days remaining until Election Day.