Election day countdown: Once more into the breach!

Kitzhaber HQ, Saturday before Election Day

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;

--Henry V, Act III, Scene I

Perhaps a tad much.  But the trials and disasters that lesser men face, though shadowed in obscurity, are of no less import to us than were the walls of Harfleur to the Bard's darling Hassy.  Yes?  No?  Aw, whatever.

Saturday before Election Day found me walking the 12 or so blocks from my pad on 36th to Governor Kitzhaber's campaign headquarters.  If national polls and prognosticators are correct, the GOP in all its rancid, depraved glory, is set to score big gains nationally.  Well, not here in Oregon.  Not if I can help it.

My good friend and coworker, James Minor, drove all the way up from Tualatin to join me in the effort.  We were assigned a canvassing turf way out in the vicinity of Portland International Airport south of Sandy Boulevard.  I find it interesting that our assigned turf was so far out of city center.  In my previous three canvassing shifts, the campaign sent us to neighborhoods that were closer in, with higher concentrations of registered Democrats.  This time, although there were a goodly number of Democrats in the neighborhood, they were spaced farther apart than in the city.  I interpreted this to mean that the Kitzhaber campaign feels it has sufficiently canvassed the dense inner-city neighborhoods and is now making forays out into the suburbs.  That seems like a hopeful sign.

Good Mister Minor

James and I arrived at our turf and set out.  A light rain fell steadily and we were soon lost in a maze of apartment complexes, winding residential streets and cul-de-sacs.  We had difficulty locating many of the addresses on our canvassing sheets due to the haphazard layout of the suburban thoroughfares. 

This was the least successful of my canvassing experiences, but between the two of us, we still managed to knock on roughly 50 doors.  According to the formula that I learned last week, that should convert to 4 more Kitzhaber votes.  And since polls indicate that the race is very tight --well, four votes is four votes.

Mio Sushi is our reward

Another hopeful sign:  while we were at campaign headquarters, I asked one of the staff if he thought the Dudley campaign could match our get-out-the-vote effort.  His reply:  "They got nothin'."  Apparently one of the Kitzhaber staff had called Dudley headquarters, posing as a volunteer, and asked how she could help.  The folks at the Dudley campaign seemed taken aback, stammered for a moment, and then suggested she hand out fliers in her own neighborhood.  Haphazard and half-baked.

But it is also a revealing detail about how the Dudley campaign hopes to win this race:  inundate the television and radio airwaves with negative ads and rely on voter willingness to believe anything that comes from the Idiot Box.  No surprise, I guess, that the Dudley campaign holds voters in such low regard.  The campaign is being run by highly-paid national Republican strategists.   

We'll see if it works for them, but as an Oregonian, I find it insulting.

Being the son of a football coach, I've been inculcated with a good dose of the competitive spirit.  (Some might say too much.)  I hate to lose.  But, if we do lose, I can rest easy knowing that I've done my part.  It's one thing for the fake patriots to win in some sh*thole Confederate backwater.  But I'll be damned if I'll let them win here in my home.

And I am hopeful.  I think we'll win.