This past tuesday, I packed my clothes and my dog in my car and drove down to San Diego from Palo Alto (Northern California to all those non-Californians out there). I used to live in San Diego, and I still own a house smack dab in the 50th district. I drove down because I wasn't going to be sitting 500 miles away during another election, and wish I could have done something more significant than watching election results and cursing their outcome.
I've worked two days on the campaign. Yesterday, me and a guy named Steve drove up to Escondido (red area) and distributed Busby leaflets to a trailer park complex (very very red area). You know it's going to be weird when Busby's campaign team tells us "if there's anyone in or near the house, go to the next house". I'm a stubborn shit, so I went to those houses anyways. There is an undeniable satisfaction to leaving leaflets in areas where the cars have bumper stickers that say things like "Offroaders eat more bush". I'm telling you, you just can't make this stuff up. 2 hours later, Steve and I returned to campaign hq safe and sound. No shots were fired, no one got hurt.
We spent the rest of the day calling Independent voters, trying to ferret out the friendly ones. There weren't a ton of friendly ones. Steve spent 8 minutes on the line with a guy who just ranted about lax immigration reform, which was funny actually because Steve is Hispanic and his parents came over from Mexico. Note to self: always think about who your audience is. Steve wasn't amused.
Today we spent 6+ hours attaching labels to flyers that we're going to distribute in a huge GOTV effort saturday, sunday, monday, and tuesday. I know I'm not going to be able to do it, but I want to knock on every mofo door in the 50th district and drag our voters out by the hair. And that's just for starters. I'm frustrated really...frustrated that my country has been hijacked slowly but surely by a bunch of people that used to be called bullies. Now we call them Mr. President and Mr. Vice President. But all of that is distracting. I just want to Busby to win. I want to beat the crap out of Bilbray in a district that he should win hands down. I want Busby to go to Congress, and show'em all what integrity looks like.
I kind of bounce back and forth between thinking she's going to win and thinking she's going to lose. I thought for sure Kerry was going to win in '04, and that was a pretty deflating experience. But at some level, I just want a chance to do what I can do, to participate in something that's good for someone that's good, and to feel like I along with all the other volunteers and staff are doing something to take our country back. Wish us luck...we're gonna need it.