A spare moment

Things are hectic here in Pueblo! I spent the day today setting up a "staging location" out in a(n even more) rural (and also very conservative) area about 40 miles west of here, which we will use to coordinate our get out the vote effort in the next week. We are renting a space that used to be a malt shop, complete with white and black checked floors, a soda fountain and diner-style counters, and I think it's really starting to come together over there. We only had one man come in and call us socialists. So I think that counts as a good day.

For the rest of the evening I'm back at our Pueblo headquarters helping our out of state volunteer coordinator find housing for all of the volunteers that are coming in in the next week. Someone has promised us dozens! It will be a lot to handle, but it will also help a lot during the massive mobilization we are planning for this weekend. Democrats outnumber republicans 2 to 1 here in Pueblo, but unfortunately they don't turn out in the numbers they need to, so our efforts will really be concentrated on pushing, prodding, nagging, and generally harassing them into voting on or before the 4th. They might hate it when we call 4 times a day, but we'll keep doing it until they vote.

We are actually relying quite a bit on our out of state volunteers, since they don't have anything better to do than work for 12-16 hours a day. On the other hand, this campaign is very much about grassroots community organzing, at least on the level I'm at, so a big part of what we are doing is trying to encourage the locals to form their own networks. The idea is to provide them with the tools necessary to organize themselves so that they can have a voice as a community even after we leave. This leads to an interesting dichotomy and, honestly, as we get down to the wire our emphasis is definitely shifting (and quickly!) away from those more grassroots aspects to more of a straight numbers game in the last few days of the election. It's a nice idea though.

As for me, I've been busy from morning til... well, morning again. Last night we didn't get out of the office until after 3 a.m. and I had to be back up this morning at 7:30 to drive out to the boonies. (Speaking of driving, I never knew they sold 85 octane gas before. But apparently they do here. I have really no idea what that means though.) I'm not sure what it is I do, but the time somehow goes by. When I was on my way here I was a little wary of direct voter involvement, which is really the central part of the campaign, but that has definitely gotten easier. Although I still wouldn't say I'm very into persuading strangers to think/believe/vote a particular way, Ive been spending my days making at least 100 phone calls or "knocks" a day.

It's kind of strange when your biggest expense is coffee. And as far as I’m concerned the major food groups are caffeine and cookies. But I’m having a fantastic time. This is truly a special experience and I am SO incredibly grateful to have had this opportunity. I can’t wait to tell you more about it when I have time.