Checking the Polls

So many of you Peeps have emailed me, called me, or stopped me on the street to ask me what went wrong.... Why did the Democrats carry the day so completely in Massachusetts????
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What the hell do you think I am?.... some sort of poltitcal pundit prophet???  I don't have any freaking  definititive answers.   I do have a theory though.
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In Massachusetts, the Democrats had a huge wake up call with the victory of Scott Brown over Martha Coakley for "Ted Kennedy's" Senate Seat.   The lesson learned was... nothing is given, and you have to work for things.
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The Dems in this state may seem stupid and naive at times... but they are not lazy.  And when it comes to elections, they know that, regardless of the issues, a political organization that is organized at the precinct level can guarantee election if the effort is sustained.
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This involves the initiation and organization of precinct captains, poll checkers, telephone callers and drivers to the polls to a minute detail.
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In the City of Lynn for example, there are seven wards and twenty eight precincts.  With a separate precinct captain in each, and a small cadre of poll checkers and telephoners, it used to be a simple process to determine who had voted on Election day, and who had not.   By the end of the day, with a little motivation like picking up people and driving them to the polls, we were able to guanrantee that all of the people who were in favor of our candidate had voted.
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Every time we worked this system, our candidate won.... without fail.   And I'm talking about some guys that were elected, who the pundits had ruled out without a doubt.  It was a mechanical process... make sure that your supporters made it to the polls, and ignore anyone who was neutral or against your candidate.
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By virtue of the fact that the majority of the voters in a community don't vote in elections, this process was highly successful.
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Last Tuesday, as I went to my polling place in the Marblehead Senior Center, I noticed poll checkers sitting behind the ballot workers for the first time since I moved to Marblehead over 25 years ago.  When I asked the checker who he was working for, he said, "the Democratic Party".
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In Massachusetts, Democrats carried every Congressional seat as well as the Governor.  The Democratic sweep here completely bucked the trend as nationally, Republicans picked up over 70 seats to capture the majority of the House of Representatives.
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Did Scott Brown wake up the Democrats in Massachusetts?  Maybe he did.

Tool Shop Owner said...

Time to get to the bottom line. We need to stand for something.