Jim Tedisco's campaign is employing an unconventional way of getting out the vote on the final day of the election.
Dozens of the volunteers working to canvass and make phone calls for the Republican Assemblyman this afternoon in his Clifton Park headquarters didn't know anything about him or his campaign - and only one volunteer (out of the dozen or so I interviewed) could name his Democratic opponent, Scott Murphy.
The volunteers were predominantly Hispanic and African-Americans in their 20s from the Bronx and Queens. Tedisco campaign spokesman Josh Fitzpatrick said he believed they were bused into the district by the New York Republican state party committee to help get out the vote.
He said that none of the volunteers were paid to work for the campaign - they were just helping out with much-needed tasks.
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I interviewed about a dozen of the volunteers, many of whom knew each other from back home. Many of them spoke little English. None of them knew much about the campaign - certainly not enough to persuade a voter to go out to the poll for Tedisco. No one offered any specific reason for supporting Tedisco.
"He seems like a very big candidate and from all the calls I've been making, he has many supporters," said Gayle Saunders from Rockaway Beach. "From what I understand, he's a good candidate."
Asked how she ended up several hundred miles from the city working on a Republican Congressional campaign, she said a "fixer" helped set her up with the opportunity.
Half an hour...
