Bored Blue State Democrats. Tanked Down Ballot.

Ok, many of you are not going to like this from a recent transplant from Texas no less.  But I’m going to give you my truth as I saw it with my own eyes.

No, the results in Texas were deplorable.  Certainly no model to mimic.  And I feel really badly for my many friends down there who were Democratic volunteers, staffers, leaders, office holders and candidates.  But they went down in flames at least with passion.  Fervor.  Many explanations for failure down there to be post mortemed in another venue.

Let’s talk my experience in Delaware, with good up-ballot results, at least in terms of wins/loses.  Not so much down ballot, especially for Barney/Mayrack.   And a Senator or two, resulting in the loss of our super majority.  This was by no means my first rodeo, with 45 years of various organizing projects with Democrats, committee and campaign leadership positions,  campaign communications et al.  So I can critique with some credibility.

What I’m going to describe certainly is not a full explanation for the losses here, including the lousy turnout.  But it may describe a symptom of overconfidence and general malaise against a Republican Party that appears to barely exist.

My first volunteer assignment was at a pretty large public event, tabling for the State Party with others.  My job……engage passersby with conversation urging the participation in the then upcoming primary.  There was a pretty good supply of various pieces of candidate literature.  My first, surprise, nothing, not even a zerox sheet with a Party pitch……reasons to support, participate, maybe volunteer for the primary GOTV effort.  Nothing written on the primary date or site to look up voting places.  No Party messaging.  Just me, my aging voice and energy.

Next disappointment-approximately 5 or 6 other volunteers which may have included a staffer.  What did they do during my 4 hour shift?  Sat in a circle under the tent and talked to one another.  They only interrupted their very closed exchange with mostly backs to the table and passersby on rare occasion when someone walked up with a question or to greet someone they knew on the team.    No one, besides me, got out in the pathway and greeted and bantered…for four hours.

No direct causation, I know, but result.  Lousy primary turnout.

Besides my occasional work for one of the campaigns with mailings, sign assembly and the like, I volunteered in the General election on three days at a coordinated campaign office for phone banking.

What did I experience there?  Except for election day itself for a brief period when I walked in for my shift, where all 8 calling stations were full for about 15 minutes, I was often the only caller.  Seldom were there more than 3 or 4 callers at once.  Nice environment.  Food, snacks, bathroom.  Good instructions and written information.  Great resourcing when I needed to have a lookup for polling places.

One day a volunteer ambled in, looked over the info sheets, went over to the food table and loaded up on an immense quantity of donuts and hoagies.  Ate for about an hour and then left, having made no calls.

Others would occasionally wander in, sit down, chat it up with staffers for maybe an hour and then wander out, with no calls.

Staffers, of whom I counted three,  were engrossed in their laptops or tablets, ear phones in, but hardly ever made any calls during the three days I worked my shift.  The calling stations during my shift were staffed maybe 25 to 30% of the time.  Maybe my location was an exception, but I wonder?

On the final day, election day, at around 1 p.m. I asked a staffer what the turnout reports were saying around the state.  They said…”looks like right at 50% overall”; they and I were elated with this misinformation.

On this same day, another “volunteer” wandered in, sat down at a calling station, looked over the sheets and promptly fell sound asleep.  This snooze lasted about an hour, only occasionally awakening to look at their personal mobile.

So, newcomer that I am, I will risk observing that the supervision of these staffers appeared minimal to non-existent.   Certainly they appeared under no pressure for results.

Yes, these are cursory observations and maybe misguided.  But my impression is that Delaware’s Blueness is attributed to alot of luck; I saw campaigners and their staffers working their butts off, day and nite.  But I do wonder about the Party behind their efforts.