(Citrus) Park Life

This morning I made my way to ‘Jimmie’ (this has become our shorthand for Jimmie B. Keel Public Library) to join the rest of the campaign team. The number of McCain people had increased a little, and their volume had increased significantly. I really don’t think their presence is adding much value to their campaign as it mostly consists of talking loudly at voters as they arrive.

I did get talking to one Republican who was polite and friendly. His name was Kirk and while we disagreed about some fundamental things, we were able to hold a conversation without sliding into recrimination. One thing we did agree on is that the guy who’s there campaigning for a yes vote on amendment 2 (we’ll call him the yes-on-2er) is acting in quite a distasteful manner. Kirk says he refused to stand next to the yes-on-2er unless he removed the homophobic t-shirt he was wearing (‘God Hates Fags’ or suchlike); the t-shirt was removed.

On Sunday, Jimmy Buffett – who I’d never heard of but apparently is a popular singer in these parts – is playing a ‘Last Chance for Change’ show at the Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa. Tickets are available for free from Obama offices and volunteers at the early voting locations.

Once reinforcements arrived at the polling station, Harry and I went over to the office on Bearss Avenue. They sent us out canvassing on one of the less well-off estates in the area. The sheets they gave us were divided into evens and odds. This makes sense if you’re working as a pair, doing one side of the street each and sticking together the whole time. But we found that the area was so spread out, we were better off splitting the whole area in two – Harry doing one bit and me doing the other.

I have forgotten to mention previously that when canvassing, if someone wasn’t home, we had ‘door hangers’ – essentially a two-sided sheet of card, with a hole so we can hang it on the door handle, that urges people to take advantage of the chance to cast their vote early and gives details of the nearest early voting location. Tomorrow Chris Rock will be performing at a Get Out The Vote rally in Citrus Park. He’ll do a comedy set for the crowd and the idea is that everyone is led to the nearest early voting location immediately afterwards, so that they can vote early. As Citrus Park is just down the road from the estate we were canvassing tonight, flyers promoting the event tomorrow had been stapled to our ‘door hangers’.

As usual, the reaction we got was overwhelmingly positive. I met one elderly gentleman who I’m sure had only one or two teeth – he said he’d voted for McCain, because Obama 'won't do the things he's promising'. A legitimate follow-up question would have been 'But if he did, would that be a good thing?' I hope Obama gets the chance to improve the healthcare system for people like that man early in life so that they have access to dentistry before it’s too late. Responses such as this could be disheartening but it’s important to remember – this is why we’re here. Now we know he’s voted, no-one else from the campaign needs to spend time knocking on his door or telephoning him.

As time passed, it was a case of diminishing returns. Half way through the round, it struck me that this would be the case – it’s Halloween, so loads of people won’t answer their doors. Having knocked the majority of doors, we decided our work for the day was done.

Tomorrow I’m planning to head over to Brandon again, to canvass with Kevin. Not sure how I’m going to get there without a car, though, so this may change.

It's a shame about (the) Ray(s)

Probably the biggest difference between America and the UK is size. Almost everything here is bigger than in the UK. This difference of scale inevitably affects how Americans experience the world around them. That’s why they talk about ‘the London Times’, ‘Paris, France’ etc. The size of America doesn’t prevent people from identifying with their country – quite the reverse – but people do seem to feel very strongly about their home town and state too.

One of the things that’s been going on while we’ve been here is the World Series Baseball. Tampa Rays have been playing the Phillies. I’ve lost count of the number of people who’ve mentioned it. It’s all over the local radio, and there are people in Rays T-shirts, Rays flags flying outside hours, Rays bumper stickers on cars. Sadly, though, the Rays lost out to the Phillies last night. Better luck next year.

This evening it was Harry’s birthday so we decided to celebrate: Rav and I met up with Harry, Susan and her husband, Norwood, in a Greek restaurant called Akropolis, in Ybor City. The food was good and the musicianship of the young bouzouki player was impressive, if a little overbearing. We were also joined by Alison, the Chair of the Democratic Party in nearby Pasco County, who had many interesting stories to tell (apparently a sign that says ‘I don’t call 911’ translates as ‘if you trespass on my property, I may shoot you and I won’t call 911’ – good to know after spending a week walking up people’s drives and knocking on doors in the most blasé manner imaginable!).

At the rally yesterday, the Florida Senator Bill Nelson mentioned that there are over 5000 attorneys in the state of Florida alone, to make sure that things are done right this time. Those attorneys all sport blue baseball caps bearing the words ‘Florida Voting Rights Attorney’. At dinner this evening, we met Janet, who is one of the attorneys. On the right you can see a picture of Janet talking Rav through a sample ballot (I’ll try and scan a copy of the sample ballot, and append it to this post at a later date).

After dinner, we explored a couple of the local bars. They all seem to have very loud bands, consisting of one or two acoustic guitars, playing ‘classic covers’. There had obviously been some night-before-Halloween parties in Ybor, as almost everyone we passed was in costume.

One last political note for tonight: lots of people have taken advantage of early voting (they’re saying over 2 million) but the Orlando Sentinel are reporting a low turnout among young voters – if that’s correct, it’s disappointing and I hope they’re just keeping their powder dry for polling day itself.

And a final point for today – this has been Rav’s last day here. Tomorrow he has to get up stupidly early so that John the taxi driver can take him over to the airport. I will get up a bit later, bid farewell to Fred and the other staff at the Hampton Inn and make my way across town to carry on fighting the good fight.

Presidents of the USA

Today’s been a very long day – we’re tired but buzzing.

This morning we went to the Obama campaign office on East Brandon Avenue, and were set to work telephone canvassing. The lists we were given consisted of people who had registered to vote by mail, whose absentee ballot had not (at the time of printing) been cast. (Tomorrow is really the last day absentee ballots can be posted – after that, voters can still drop them off at early voting locations or turn up on the day to get the absentee ballot cancelled and cast their vote in the normal way.)

Being a working day, most people were out but we left messages on their machines, urging them to cast their ballot and expressing the hope that they would support Senator Obama. Many numbers we called had been discontinued – a sign of the number of mortgage foreclosures resulting in people losing their homes. In the news we hear about the ‘economic crisis’ but this is the human face of it.

Then we drove over to the Obama campaign office on Bearss Avenue, where Harry was also working. We bundled into his car and set off for Orlando, where Obama and Bill Clinton were due to speak at a rally. Rav was very tired and took the opportunity to sleep – leaving me and the Sat Nav to share navigation duties. On the way there, we came close to Disney World, Universal Studios and Cape Canaveral. There were hundreds of roadside restaurants, mostly empty, as it’s off-season.

Obama and Clinton weren’t due on till 23:00 but we wanted to get a good spot so we’d allowed loads of time. Arriving in Kissimmee at around 16:00, we located the Osceola County Stadium and joined the queue that would be our home for the next four and a half hours. We must have been among the first few hundred to arrive. Ahead of us were some real die hards, including a guy with a guitar whose repertoire seemed to consist of one song – the verse rehearsed a list of failures of the Bush Presidency and the singalong chorus was: ‘Who we gonna vote for? O-BA-MA!’ As you can imagine, the hours sailed by.

One thing that helped pass the time was speculating about the 30 minute infomercial that was to be broadcast tonight, simultaneously on almost all the major television networks here in the US. No-one’s done anything remotely like this since eccentric billionaire Ross Perot in 1992. Is it overkill? Or a unique chance to communicate a message to the American people? We hoped there’d be a screen we could see it on.

The merchandising efforts here were amazing. You could get pretty much anything Obama you’d like - badges (‘pins’ as they call them here), t-shirts, hats – and some of the designs were quite imaginative. Perversely I didn’t buy any, a decision I now regret as I’m not sure if/when I’ll get another chance as I suspect we’re going to be working flat out until after the election’s over. One thing we had wondered about was who gets the money from all this, as the stalls all seem to be run by small independent traders. Rav heard one of the party staffers talking to a trader, setting out the rates for running a stall – so now we know, stallholders pay a small amount for a pitch and then keep any profits they make. This is very different to the UK, where merchandising is primarily done by the parties themselves (though they tend to outsource).

Initially, standing and sitting in the sun, it was hot. Then, as the sun receded, we became increasingly cold. Just as Harry went and bought us each a hot chocolate, the queue started to move! At first it looked like we wouldn’t be allowed to take our drinks in so I gulped mine – then it transpired we could take them in after all. Having cleared security (airline style, with barriers, body searches, thorough examinations of anything like a camera), we rushed forward and made it into what at a gig would be called the ‘golden circle’, which probably held about 500 to 1000 people. We were about twenty or thirty feet away from the stage, where a former President and the next President would be speaking!

Standing as part of a tight crowd in the ‘golden circle’ for several hours, I began to regret gulping all my hot chocolate. (Rav and Harry had wisely discarded theirs when they realised there was going to be no way of getting in and out, and we were going to be there for the duration.) The venue was huge, and there were thousands of people stood behind us (I’ve heard there were around 35,000 there). There were big screens mounted in the stadium but we were IN FRONT of them. This meant we could not see the infomercial – though we could hear it, and liked what we heard.

The evening began with the National Anthem and the Oath of Allegiance. Jimmy Spitz (pictured right) - who played Matthew Santos in The West Wing, a character now confirmed to have been based on Barack Obama - came on and gave a brief speech, in English and Spanish. And then Bill Nelson, the State Senator, came on and introduced Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

They’re both great speakers. Clinton drew a contrast between his eight years in power, and the last eight years. And he set out five key reasons why we believes Obama should be the next President. Obama spoke about the challenges he will face if he wins. Two things were striking about his speech. First was his emphasis that the election is not yet won; and second, the content. He talked boldly of ambitious infrastructure projects – new roads and bridges, nationwide broadband cabling, and billions invested in renewable energy. Inspiring stuff.

I’ve already indicated above that security was high. The gates of the car park remained closed until the motorcade had got well away from the stadium. Finally, we were able to get on our way. This was an evening we’ll remember for the rest of our lives.

(I have other pictures of both Clinton and Obama and will probably put them up with another post in the next few days.)

Country Feedback

In an earlier posting, I alluded to the complication of the voting system here. In the UK, national elections tend to be held on different days from local elections and if they are to be held on the same day, there will be a separate ballot paper for each race. In the US, there are lots of votes all taking place on the same day. As well as the Presidential race, there are elections to all manner of local government positions, and also yes-no votes on proposed amendments to the State Constitution. This means that the ballot comes in book form! No wonder there are long waits at the polls, when people have so many marks to make on their ballot. One of the achievements of Barack Obama’s campaign has been the voter registration drives, which has seen large numbers of first time voters. Above all it’s essential that they come out to vote in the Presidential race but it’s also important that they vote down the ticket. Presented with a ballot that’s several pages long, many could just vote for Obama and leave. We need to communicate to them the importance of voting in the local races.

And so it was that Rav and I found ourselves stood at Jimmie B. Keel Public Library, one of the larger early voting locations. Our role was to offer voters arriving at the polls a copy of the Democratic ‘slate’ (list of candidate and amendment recommendations).

At any one time there were generally between 4 and 10 Obama supporters running a table with Obama campaign leaflets, stickers etc. By contrast, McCain supporters were comparatively thin on the ground. Their main representative was a woman who stood right on the perimeter of the 100 foot exclusion zone with a sign consisting of the McCain-Palin logo with some handwritten additions of extra pieces of card, all loosely taped together and flapping in the breeze. These invoked what she described as Obama’s ‘dangerous connections’ and ‘terrorist ties’, and implied he is a ‘Marxist’ (because apparently Obama’s plans to restore tax rates to pre-Bush levels are indicative of a commitment to Communist ideology). Her incessant refrain was: ‘John McCain – the true American hero. The only hero on the ticket!’ (She meant ballot, I think, unless she wished to emphasise Gov. Palin’s own lack of military experience.)

Being a polite individual and being stationed next to her to distribute our slates, I decided to be friendly and start a conversation. She asked where my accent was from and I told her. She then accused me of showing ‘disrespect’ to John McCain, just by being here. I assured her that I had great respect for Senator McCain’s past achievements and especially his sacrifices during his military career but that I disagreed with him about important issues about the future of America and the world. She then said she would never ‘interfere in your country’s election’. Later in this exchange, it transpired that she’s done missionary work abroad. So it’s OK to ‘interfere’ in another country’s religious affairs, it’s just politics that’s off-limits.

Under the Constitutional amendments, there’s one that both sides are campaigning hard on. Amendment 2, if passed, will define marriage as being between a man and a woman. This was put on the ballot by religious fundamentalists, and is primarily a way of ensuring the Republican base come out to vote (gay marriage is already illegal in this state). The implications of this are that unmarried couples will lose access to shared benefits such as health insurance and pensions.

When we were finished at the polling station, Rav and I headed over to a meeting of the North West Hillsborough Democratic Party, where Susan had invited us both to speak. There were 5 new members, who Susan had recruited earlier in the day at the polling station. Everyone was really pumped up and excited, but also rather tired as it’s been a long campaign.

Rav and I had decided that we’d have a go at emulating the American style of public speaking, which I’ve referred to in an earlier posting. Rav spoke first, about the shared values of the Labour and Democratic Parties, and especially about healthcare. I then talked about the historic connections between Britain and America, and why we’d come to support Barack Obama’s campaign for change. We’ll try and post video and transcripts of the speeches a bit later.

Following our speeches, the members asked questions and we had a long conversation about the socio-political differences and similarities between Britain and America. It was clear that they’d found the evening very interesting, and we gained a lot from it too. It was a great experience and we went back to our hotel tired but happy.

Then we had a few technical problems that meant we were unable to post but we continued to write entries to post later...................

The times, they are a changin'

Campaigning for the Democrats in Florida has been both a privilege and an eye-opener. It feels as if history is about to be made, and the most common comment we hear is it's time to take our country back!

It has though been tough - early starts and late nights - and Chris is right, his navigation is dismal. As many of you will know, I have been working in Europe a lot recently, and what I have realised that whatever country you are in, everyone has more in common than the differences that people often concentrate on.

As Joe Biden said today, the winner of this election needs to bring America together both on a national and international stage. Canvassing here is actually much like the UK (including its organisation!) but what I do respect is people's interest in politics, which we can learn a lesson from in the UK.

I would like to say thank you to all the Americans that have thanked us for coming to help the Democrats in the election. But as the song goes, 'The times, they are a-changing'.

New Generation

This morning we went to the Obama campaign centre off East Brandon Avenue: Rav stayed in the office entering canvass data on to an online database, and I headed out with an English lady named Claudette who's been in the US for about twenty years. We knocked on lots of doors but most people seemed to be at work.


Around lunchtime, Claudette and I went back to the office. I hooked up with Rav and we headed over to another Obama campaign office out west to meet Harry, who had been telephone canvassing. We then headed over to New Port Richey, where Joe Biden was speaking at a rally.

We arrived several hours early, which meant we had time to stake out the venue - Sims Park - and find a nice Cuban-American bar to eat in. Outside the park there were some ladies (left) selling Obama merchandise (yes, I'm modelling the baseball cap; no, you can't laugh).

Once the gates opened, we headed into the park to try and get a good spot. The photo on the right was taken while we were working out where was best to stand. You can see the stage set in the background.

Randomly, we bumped into a Scottish Member of the European Parliament named Catherine Stihler, who also knows some close friends of ours, and who helped with the campaign in Rav's constituency at the last General Election! Small world.

The rally opened at around 7.30pm, and a number of locals gave speeches. The style here is far more like that of a preacher than a politician - or at least, any poltician we're used to in the UK. There's also a big audience participation thing going on - 'Are we going to let the Republicans win, Florida?' 'NO - SIR!' 'And can we win here in Florida?' 'YES - WE - CAN!' That sort of thing.

I have to pause to mention that Halloween is coming up. This tradition is far bigger here than it is in the UK. This is evidenced by the festive display pictured right. (In case you can't read it, it's a pumpkin carved with the words 'Yes we can'.)

When Senator Biden came on, he spoke slowly and sincerely about the state of the USA and its people. He set out the things that an Obama-Biden administration would do: act to bring about a temporary end to mortgage foreclosures; end America's dependence on foreign oil; make the reward for national service - not just in the military but in hospitals and schools - a college education; restore America's reputation in the world; end the war in Iraq by issuing a responsible timetable for the withdrawal of US troops; and bring together red and blue America because the heart of America is purple, and 'we're all Americans'. It was stirring stuff, delivered with passion.

On the left is a picture of (hopefully, I feel obliged to add) America's next Vice President, working the crowd before boarding the bus to the next campaign stop. It must have been a long few months for him. We are beginning to know how he must feel.

Barn in the USA

Last night we attended the 'Get Out The Vote Rally' in a barn in Riverview. This was a really special occasion, with local candidates in attendance. There are lots of local elections being run in parallel with the Presidential election, and all the races are on the same ballot paper (more on this in a future blog entry). Each stood up and spoke in turn, delivering passionate speeches about why they're running for office. There was loads of food and drink for free, and campaign merchandise (t-shirts, yard signs, etc) on sale. It was a real community affair, and everyone was very friendly. We ought to hold more events like this in Britain.

The picture above shows Rav and myself with Susan Smith, our host, who's been a great help in organising every aspect of our trip from recommending hotels, airlines and car hire companies, to giving us information on the where we need to go and what we need to do. Behind us (and much taller than us!) is fellow British Labour party member, Harry, who's also out here to help with the campaign.

Today we went out canvassing again. Leaving aside the issue of whether I'm a bad map reader or the American road system is difficult to understand (I think the answer's both), we had another good day. It wasn't so hot but there were still loads of lizards around, and they scuttle across the paths as you walk along. Enough travelogue, back to politics: there are lots of Obama-Biden signs out, and quite a few McCain-Palin signs too. We've met some people who are voting for McCain, but not many. Generally, those that are breaking for McCain are very polite. One said to me today (in response to the question, 'Will you be supporting Senator Obama?'): 'I'm the diametric opposite of Senator Obama, but I appreciate what you're doing, and thank you.' At the other end of the scale was a couple I spoke to, who quoted some wild attacks on Obama they'd pick up from who-knows-where - according to them, he's a secret Muslim (as if - besides the fact that Obama is a practising Christian - being a Muslim would mean he couldn't be a good President), and he's also the fulfilment of a Nostradamus prophecy. We bid them good day and continued on our way.

On the same estate where the gentleman I mentioned above was so polite, we saw the car pictured above, plastered with McCain-Palin stickers and innovatively featuring the Republicans' attack lines on the rear windscreen. (I have pixellated the vehicle's license plate to protect the owner's identity.) As we were coming to the end of our work on the estate, one resident of the estate stopped his vehicle to ask what we were doing. When we told him, he said there was a 'no soliciting' sign at the gate, and we shouldn't be there. He then aggressively told us to leave and threatened to call the police. (Those weren't the exact words he used - they aren't suitable for publication on this blog!) We acted in accordance with his wishes and left the estate, as we still had work to do elsewhere. Subsequently, though, we've found that 'soliciting' means random calls - like door-to-door sales - and does not cover targeted approaches to registered supporters, which is what we were undertaking. So like the Terminator - we'll be back.

So, that's today in summary. We'll be out early tomorrow - not sure what we're doing yet, but we're due at Doug and Roz's for 9am. Later in the day there's a rally in New Port Richey (north of here) to promote early voting. Senator Joe Biden, Barack Obama's running-mate and hopefully the next Vice President of the United States, will be speaking, as will local community organisers. We're planning to go along - for both of us, it'll be our first time at a large scale political rally in the US, so we're rather excited. We'll post our observations tomorrow when we get back from the rally.

The heat is on

This morning we set out bright and early to the house of regional campaign organisers Don & Roz, to receive our instructions. After a quick pep talk from Bill, our 'boss' for the day, we set off in the car with a list of voters in hand. These were all people who had been spoken to before and who had been recorded as saying they intended to vote Democratic.

Our job was to introduce ourselves as calling on behalf of the Florida Democrats and verify whether they intended to vote for Obama. If the answer was yes, then we would ask if they knew about early voting. This is something that is very different from the UK, where we have postal and proxy voting but no other options. Here in Florida the polls have been open since Monday (20 October) and they're open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm! As we've been pointing out, this is a great way to avoid the long 'lines' (queue times can be hours) on polling day itself, and avoid the problems that happened in 2000 and 2004, making sure that you get to vote and that your vote is counted.

We quickly realised that door-knocking is a far more arduous task here in Florida than it usually is in the UK. For a start, there's the distance: houses are larger and further apart, and we had to drive from street to street, to find the little pockets of voters we needed to speak to. Then there's the temperature. By the time we broke for lunch it had reached 82 Fahrenheit, and I'd covered myself liberally with Factor 25. It was hard work but very rewarding. However, it only got tougher as the day went on and by the time we got back to our hotel at around 6.30pm, we were both exhausted.

We found that speaking to American voters is much the same as speaking to British voters. Once they got over the shock of a random English guy knocking on their door on a Saturday afternoon, we generally met with a polite reception, in some cases positively rapturous - especially at one house, where they gleefully accepted four Obama-Biden bumper stickers from us. In fact, the first door we knocked on, we were invited in!

We didn't quite manage to knock on every door on the three lists Bill gave us, but we'll be back out there tomorrow to finish the job and start afresh with a whole new set of streets and voters.

After a hard day's work, we headed to Riverview for a 'Get Out The Vote Rally'. We had a really good time, and will put up a post about it tomorrow. But now, bed and hopefully a decent night's sleep are calling! Watch this space...............................

Leaving New York

And so the adventure begins. For a long time this felt like a pipe dream but now we're sat here, in the lobby of the Hampton Inn in Tampa, and it’s definitely real. I had a day and a half in New York before hooking up with Rav and heading down to Florida.

I’ve been to America once before but just for a one-week city break in New York. This time I’m going to get to see a different side to the country. The first thing that strikes you is the change in temperature - from coat weather in New York to t-shirt weather in Tampa.

The state of Florida is very diverse, with a huge population of urban and rural communities, including Jewish Americans, Hispanics (famously including Cuban Americans in Miami), African Americans and of course retired military men and women. Can’t really say what I expect to see at this stage as it depends what I end up doing, and where – but I’m really looking forward to being involved in a little piece of history.

In the last two Presidential elections Florida has been one of the key battleground states, where things are decided. The polls are looking good but we can take nothing for granted, and there’s a lot of important work to do between now and polling day. Senator Obama has inspired thousands of people who’ve not voted before to register to vote, and the Party’s excellent field organisation has made that a reality (though there are concerning reports about legitimate voters – especially non-white people and less well-off Americans, the majority of whom might be expected to break for Obama - being struck off the rolls in a number of swing states). So our task now comes down to GOTV – Get Out The Vote. And there's a local rally to help do that tomorrow, which we'll be attending.

I’m going to come across as pretentious by saying this but the feeling of anticipation and energy here reminds me of those famous lines from Wordsworth's Prelude recalling the excitement of the French revolution: ‘Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive / And to be young was very heaven’.

Blog goes live

Two local prospective Parliamentary candidates are heading to the USA this week to help Democratic Party candidate Barack Obama's campaign in the US Presidential elections and will be blogging as they go.

Chris Clark, 28, Labour's Parliamentary Spokesman for Ashford, and Dr Rav Seeruthun, 35, Labour's Parliamentary Spokesman for Maidstone, will be spending time in the crucial swing state of Florida. They will initially work in the Tampa region and have been asked to address the local Democratic Party whilst there.

Chris said: 'This is an important election because it will set the direction of world policy on major issues like the economy and climate change. Barack Obama has promised change for America, and for the world. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to go and be a part of that.'

Rav added: 'This is already a historic election with the selection of the first black Presidential candidate. I think after Bush, America needs to change, and Obama is the man to do this and that's why I'm going to help. As a GP I also am keen on Obama's plan for universal healthcare'

Chris and Rav will be writing about their experiences on the campaign trail in an online weblog – it's online now at chrisandravinamerica.blogspot.com (and you're looking at it).

Local Labour hopefuls head to America to help Obama