Stark County, Ohio is an election bellweather. Hit hard by outsourcing and the demise of the manufacturing economy, Stark County also is the home of Jeff Seemann, a Democratic candidate for Congress against an entrenched Republican, Ralph Regula.
My husband and I arrived last night. This morning, after checking in with Jeff Seemann, we went to Stark County Democratic Party headquarters to join a slew of other volunteers.
The Democratic Party put us to work immediately. A brief round of introductions to our fellow workers and my husband and I started manning the phone banks. We were amazed that so many people were home and how many of them are voting for Senator Kerry and the whole Democratic Party ticket. After a couple of hours of phone banking, I switched to assembling canvassing packets.
The table doing campaign doorhanger packets was a mixed group of out-of-state volunteers from Illinois, California, and Washington, D. C., and Stark County regulars. I enjoyed swapping stories with Starky, a very young looking 70-something, and another gentleman from Canton. Everyone was united in supporting Senator Kerry.
Jeff Seemann dropped in for while. One of the other volunteers talked with Jeff about helping her with a presentation to their church to solicit food for Thanksgiving. Jeff's communications director stopped by to stuff packets and plan last minute TV ad purchases. Jeff's commercials are hitting the air thanks to many of you here at Daily Kos.
Late in the afternoon, we attended a voter protection training session. The details of Ohio's fast-breaking legal situation were spelled out and polling station volunteers received last minute instructions. We want everyone to vote!
Tomorrow, there is a big high school football game, Massilon v. McKinley, to be attended by 20,000 people including Martin Sheen. Jeff Seemann will be in attendance, too, to meet and greet the fans.