I live in Buncombe County, North Carolina, just outside the liberal enclave of Asheville. In 2008, Buncombe County went for Obama by 14,000 votes, which was almost exactly his statewide margin (he won Buncombe by 16,000 in 2012, so we didn't roll over).
The 2010 elections put a pretty rabid bunch in charge in Raleigh, and in addition to passing culture wars bills, they gerrymandered the whole state pretty hard. Locally, the impact meant that the four at large seats for county commissioner became six district seats. This meant the two outlying districts could control the seven member commission. So I chose that race to work on. More after the fleur de Kos...
Control of the County Commission would give the Republicans lots of leeway to do mischief. And frankly, it looked like a given. Worse, we didn't just want four Democrats on the Commission, we wanted four progressive Democrats. In my district was an older conservadem incumbent, and a younger progressive, Ellen Frost, with no elected experience.
The Chairman was a safe seat for a good progressive. The two Asheville seats were safely held by good progressives. One of them, an old friend told me that Ellen Frost was our best best. So I went to work for her.
I gave money. I phonebanked. I hate phonebanking, it's really a chore for me, but once I warm up, I'm at least OK at it. Go through the page, leave a lot of messages, talk to a few folks. Make voting sound cool. Explain your candidate. Thank them for helping the team.
I worked an early voting location. There's hasn't been a general in several years where I wasn't handing out slate cards, presenting a happy smiling face holding my candidate's sign. I love working the polls. A happy smiling face can add 3 to 4 percentage points to a candidate's votes, a fact which amazes me, but is apparently true. My polling place was at a busy library with limited parking, so I became a parking coordinator as well, because being friendly and helpful helps your candidate.
I worked my moderately red precinct on election day. It was raining with a bit of snow mixed in, truly foul weather, but both us and the reds had lots of folks on the ground. I smiled, passed out slate cards, and chatted up folks as I could. The geometry of that polling place made it a bit difficult to converse, but I was there with my sign, smiling and waving.
On election night, Ellen Frost lost by 87 votes. It felt awful to lose. All I could think was, "I should have done more." 87 votes is a lot for one person, but surely I could have found a way to get SOME of them.
I'm pretty sure I got several votes. I registered at least two people for the Dems by explaining one-stop early voting. I talked a confused kid into voting Dem by taking time out to explain why I supported Obama and the librul agenda. That plus my vote makes four. I got four or five voters to tell me, "OK, you've talked me into it" after my phonebanking candidate spiel. Numerous folks came out after voting, and smiled, and told me they'd voted my candidate.
The nasty gerrymandering the Repubs inflicted on us split Warren Wilson college, a librul enclave, and some votes were cast to the wrong district. The relevant ballots were sequestered as provisional, and these were counted Friday.
After the provisionals were counted, MY PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATE IS UP 13 VOTES!!! Oh frabjous day, calloo, callay, he chortled in his joy! I made the difference. Of course, so did everyone else who worked on this campaign. We banded together, and beat a nasty gerrymander. Of course, there will be a recount, and probably a court challenge. But right now, we're winning.
I've worked as many losing campaigns as winning one, but let me tell you folks, this one is sweet. Figure out where you can make a difference, and go do it. We're going to need to crank the turnout machine in 2014, so find a good race, and go help it.