my election day letters

Here's what I sent out yesterday morning at midnight, followed by my message today.  I'll post more creative and less dramatic work later, but right now I'm wiped.

In three hours my alarm will go off and I will begin getting ready for my election work in the St. Louis County Executive Democratic Primary.  Can't sleep- my old boss stopped by the office when I came back from my shift, and that got me excited and ready to go.  The next 24 hours are going to pass in a haze of caffeine, accelerated heartrate, maniacal laughter, serious worry, nailbiting, and exhilaration. 

It's worth it.

Charlie Dooley has shown that local government can do a lot to help people, even in conservative areas.  Our county is now sponsoring everything from mammograms to birth control, helping 80,000 women and 50,000 kids get at least some basic treatment, and a particular success story comes from the county's Black community, which has seen a 30% drop in breast cancer mortality.  The county passed a civil rights bill for Gays and transgendered folks last year, our severely limited public transit system is expanding (slightly and only the bus line, no train) and our single stream recycling program is pretty cool.  There's also talk of a city-county merger, and a new county standard to give some quota of contracts to Minority and Women Owned Businesses.  

(Some problems with that- the Supreme Court pretty much ruled that it's unconstitutional to give public contracts to nonwhites, and most of the local minority-and-women owned businesses are also non-union, but it's encouraging that it's being considered)

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that none of this would have happened had someone like Stenger (Dooley's opponent) been in office.  He's anti-choice, pro-austerity, has accused underage sex slaves of "choosing that lifestyle" and pretty much relied on a whisper campaign of unspecified corruption charges, aided by a local media that is tired of a Black man leading our county.  We've already got a slimy conservative democrat leading a major local government- Mayor Slay of St. Louis city leaves me unimpressed, and Stenger is just him with an anti-choice agenda added in.  I worked for Charlie last time, and the county held true in a bad year, and I bet we will again.

Our once insurmountable 60point lead has vanished- the last information I got from my boss had us neck and neck, while her boss said we had a 5 point lead.  I'm double checking my figures, and yes, 0-5<60, so we've lost ground.  Add in a partial bradley effect- white voters being more likely to say they're voting for the Black candidate than to actually vote for him an the fact that this is a summer primary in an off year with no bigger election to compensate for low turnout, and I would be fucking petrified that all these wonderful things are about to be undone for no good reason.  Would be.

I've got cause for optimism though- both those estimates came BEFORE Stenger's remarks against the trafficking victims had been properly publicized, and we've been hitting him hard with that over the airwaves and in a few flyers.  Charlie killed on the radio forum, but I'm not sure how many voters were listening.  Also, we outgunned Stenger 4-3 on money these last two weeks.  Most important is turnout- powerful forces are at work here to try to beat the disadvantage we have- namely, that the summer electorate is primarily old white pensioners.  All of Charlie's appointed staffers have been running signs around all night under the theory that each one may remind SOME absent minded citizen that the election is today.  We'll have some fifty canvassers (many of them admittedly inexperienced) in the field tomorrow, and that's just for starters.  We'll have 30 Union men out there canvassing too, and that's just from two of the 6 or so major locals that have endorsed us.

And Charlie has me- young, very pretty, and fired up to win him term number 4.  I assure you all, I will be singing "Bandiera Rossa" at the top of my lungs as soon as the sun comes up.  That sun will continue shining on Charlie Dooley's St. Louis.

If you wish to feel solidarity with us today, I recommend the following video, glorifying another city that heroically defended its Leftist bent much longer than it was expected to.  Also notice the heroic German commies who wrote the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJD0eI61ifs

Well then.  Wow.  Beaten more than 2-1.  Even the hostile polls only showed a 15 point gap

In hindsight, I should have foreseen the problem once I thought of Admiral Hansen's speech to Riker explaining the Federation-Klingon preparations to meet the Borg at Wolf 359 when I described all the steps we'd taken and factors in our favor.  If any of you don't know the scene in question, it's from Star Trek the Next Generation Best of Both Worlds Part II, and the prelude to the Battle of Wolf 359, which ended in a similar disaster.  Of course, if you watched the video I sent, it's now even more relevant.

I want you each to know that I have no regrets- this summer I held down a political job (albeit one for which I am overqualified) for a public servant I deeply respect without either being involved in a major catastrophe or having to compromise any principles.  I think I contributed, and things may have been different.  I almost feel like I won already once I got my first paycheck for doing something I love for a cause I believe in.  Almost- I could say a lot here, some of it graceful, some of it thoughtful, and some of it clever, witty and thought provoking, but I'm just going to say that Stenger is a prick and leave it at that.  I'll say more after consulting with EVERYone I know in the business to figure out what went wrong.

Something that was interesting is how high turnout was.  We were expecting 10%, much lower than the 30ish that is often achieved in national elections with a lot of money behind them, but we got something more like 16.  Charlie got the number of votes projected to put him over the finish (we thought we needed 35,000, got 38,000 and change) but Stenger blew us away with 70,000.  I'll know more after talking to everyone who already knows more.  Just wanted to pass this along

Charlie still accomplished a lot, much of which will endure if Stenger wants to keep any of his new friends.  We can be proud of that, and I'd going to work my heart out to get him back in office if he wants it, or to elect Jake Zimmerman next time if he doesn't.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen

Saying more- Well, turnout actually didn't go up.  What happened was the Republicans.  they had no hotly contested races, and therefore no reason not to cross over and vote in our primary.  I've got to laugh though- apparently it is NOT actually a good idea to remind the entire county that your opponent is an anti-choice, misogynistic conservative when all the other anti-choice, misogynistic conservatives have nothing else to keep themselves busy.  In a primary where we expected 70,000 voters there were well over 100,000, and the difference came entirely from Republican areas.  There were other factors working against us- not least of which was a hostile media- but nothing we did would really have stopped this.  I have nothing but respect and gratitude for my superiors, Donna Davis and Chris Corbett, who made a superhuman effort to lead a very green field operation, and everyone I encountered of their level and above was professional, talented, and kind.

My best to you all- now off I'm going to try to sleep for a few hours

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video Ernst Busch - Halt´ stand, rotes Madrid