| First of all, I am now aware of the fund-raising deadlines for Congressional candidates, so I made modest contributions this morning to Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, NY-20, and Eric Massa, the exceptionally worthy challenger in NY-29, who lost by a whisker last time and is working 24/7 to retire a truly pathetic Bushite nonentity.
I also made a few comments on the Times Union's Capital Confidential blog, dissing Gillibrand's likely challenger and defending MoveOn.org.
And this afternoon I hit the doors for two-plus hours for Ken Zalewski, a progressive candidate for Troy City Council who I met when he spoke before the local DFA group and again at the DFA Training Academy last weekend.
Ken is the official Democratic nominee, and already had way more than enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, but the local Republican machine has put up a newly minted Democrat to challenge Ken in a primary.
So our mission was not just to get signatures, but to inform Democrats that Ken was the real Democrat, and he needed their support not only in the general, but also in the September primary.
Lulu and I got six signatures on Ken's and other Democrats' nominating petitions -- most people on the walk list weren't home, which was understandable, given the perfect summer weather.
We made sure to tell everyone we talked to that Ken needed their vote twice, in September and November.
Our experience was relatively normal, but when we got back to Ken's house (campaign HQ, so far), we heard an incredible story that underscored what a great candidate/person Ken is.
Ken and the woman he walked with met an 11-year-old girl who was carrying several plastic bags of her stuff and wanted to know where the police station was.
The girl had recently been restored to the custody of her mother, but was running away from that home because she had been physically abused there.
Taking precious time off the campaign trail, Ken took the girl to the police station, and stayed there to make sure that the girl was not simply returned to the abusive situation she had fled.
I was interested in working for Ken before I heard about this; now I'm committed to working for him.
And, finally, I wrote up a diary.
Voting is the minimum; blogging, diarying and commenting are, for many of us, the next step; but doing the basic political work at the doors to encourage voters to support progressive candidates, at whatever level, is most important.
And most rewarding. |
