Glenden BrownHey, I was wrong
A while back, I predicted the outcome of the Primary - I predicted Buhler in 1st, followed closely by Becker then Wilson.
I made two basic mistakes - I overestimated the support for both Buhler and Wilson and I underestimated the impact of the Becker campaign’s door to door work. I thought more of the City’s progressive voters would back Wilson, making it a dead heat between the Wilson and Becker. Wow was I wrong. Boy is my face red!
Okay, moving in snark free mode . . .
The Becker campaign did an amazing job - I mean that in every way. They didn’t miss a trick, they guaranteed that motivated and enthusiastic volunteers (believe me, I’ve seen these volunteers up close) go out and walked precincts and knocked on doors and talked to voters. They did the hard work of retail politics, every single day for months on end. It paid of yesterday in a really stunning and I think surprising victory for Ralph Becker.
I have a few more stories from Election day volunteering that I’ll be sharing later today, so check back for those.
In the meantime, I’ve been wondering - how does it feel the morning after an election to have volunteered for a campaign that didn’t make it? Oh, yeah, I remember. In 2004, I volunteered for Paul Van Dam’s senate race. I loved every minute of it - the day we went door to door, the long evenings of calling supporters, the hours of sorting a massive database to make it usable, the phoning to invite people to a fundraiser. It was hard work but it was great fun. On election night 2004, I loved going into the campaign suite, I loved hanging out with the Party at the hotel. But it hurt to lose - it’s not like it came as a surprise or anything. But it hurts to lose. You know you did all the right things, you worked hard and you still lost. I’ve never been a candidate but as a volunteer you get the same kind of feeling - the rush when you talk to a supporter, the letdown when the votes don’t go your way. JP Hughes, Jenny Wilson and Keith Christensen ran honest campaigns and worked hard and even though they didn’t make it through the primary, they should feel proud this morning. JP in particular strikes me as an amazingly decent man - he was at every event, he talked to god knows how many people and he never stopped campaigning right up until the end. That’s admirable. So, hold your heads up high - you may not have won, but you did the right thing.
