Ohio Phone-banking: Weekend Update

by Jim Stack in Events Gone By, Participate, Reports, Santa Clara County, Swing.

This past Saturday, on a warm, sunny afternoon – when most East Bayers were probably out hiking, shopping, or watching a ballgame – over 40 eager volunteers chose to spend a few hours of their weekend calling and writing to complete strangers on the other side of the country.

In one of our most prolific phone-banking efforts of the campaign, we placed over 1500 phone calls to unsuspecting Cincinnatians on Saturday, delivering our brief survey to over 250 people. Out of that group – and in right-leaning Cincinnati, mind you – we found over 140 people who were decidedly pro-Kerry or leaning towards Kerry, about 30 undecideds, and only about 50 who were in Bush’s corner. That’s 140-some potential new Kerry volunteers in Ohio! (In fact, 11 of the people we spoke to indicated that they wanted to volunteer right on the spot!)

So many people showed up to this phone-bank in Berkeley that we were spilling out onto the sidewalks in front of the house and there weren’t enough phone lists to go around. (Those without phone lists hand-wrote dozens of letters to unsuspecting Cleveland-area seniors concerning the Kerry-Edwards health care plan instead.)

Our friends over on the Peninsula weren’t about to let us get all the glory, so about 20 of them got together in Palo Alto to do some phone-banking of their own. Giving it all they had, this hearty group of speed-dialers came up slightly shy of the East Bay’s prodigious call figures, placing just over 1300 phone calls and reaching about 240 people with their survey questions.

All told, it was a terrific weekend for the Kerry-Edwards campaign both in California and in Ohio. Those who turned out this weekend were really energized by the experience and are looking forward to the next phone-bank opportunity, which happens to be tomorrow night –

When: Wednesday, August 11th from 4-6pm

Where: Belle’s house (75 El Camino Real, Berkeley)

RSVP: by email to bellehuang@sbcglobal.net or on the JohnKerry.com site.

Keep up the good work, everyone!

Go Kerry-Edwards!!