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By Scott Nicholson, in the Watauga Democrat, 4 Nov. 2008:
The Democratic Party campaign office on the corner of Straight and King streets
has been busy as the brain trust and social center for the local campaign
effort.
Friday afternoon, much of the work was done, but the phone and e-mail campaign
kept staffers busy, though much of the cold-calling was taking place at the
homes of volunteers.
Candy Winebarger and John Keener took turns at the desk, coming to the local
party from different roads.
Winebarger started volunteering in October, working at the Democratic campaign
headquarters in Boone on Fridays. She’s also the precinct judge for the Meat
Camp precinct, a member of the local ABC Board and 10-year member of the
Democratic Party.
“I was raised in a Republican family, but I had a community problem back in the
’90s and only the Democrats would help me,” she said.
“Only the Democratic Party would come to my aid. Even my stepmother changed
[her registration to Democrat]. So I try to volunteer all I can.”
Keener is a lifelong Democrat who has lived in the High Country for 12 years.
“I knew that Watauga County had an active Democratic Party, and I wanted
to get involved, but I lived in Avery
County, which doesn’t
have an active Democratic Party,” he said. “When I moved to Boone a year ago, I
sought out the party.”
From the campaign headquarters, the daily business is mostly answering phones
and being able to distribute materials. The office also has sign-up sheets for
special projects like calling different groups to tell them about candidates
and to urge them to vote, but that’s typically not handled from the office.
“We got a lot of calls about early voting, people wanting directions to one-stop
sites,” Keener said. “It’s been slower here this last week.”
“Our strong point is get-out-the-vote,” Winebarger said. “Anyone I see, I tell
them to get out to vote. I do care how they vote, but I don’t tell them [how to
vote].”
The office tries to have two volunteers on staff at all times, rotating through
about six volunteers a day. The office has candy, a break room and a computer
with speakers, so the news can be broadcast through the three rooms, and a
ceramic donkey to represent the party’s trademark animal.
“We take a lot of that for granted, because we know ‘X’ is our candidate for
such and such,” Keener said.
“We tell them the hours for early voting. We had a fellow call this morning who
said he was vision impaired and wanted someone to make sure he voted for who he
wanted to vote for.
“We also schedule the people campaigning at the polls, and before the deadline
we registered people to vote. We also give out yard signs and bumper stickers.
Sometimes people just want to come in and get something off their chest. They
sit down and talk politics.”
Keener got a call that morning from a “conservative fellow” who wanted to
complain about Democrats in general. “The thing I find important about that is
trying not to say too much,” Keener said. “You don’t want to argue.”
Winebarger got one call from someone who confused the party headquarters with
the Watauga Democrat newspaper. The
man was seeking a photograph that had been published in the paper. “He just
said, ‘I’m not voting for a [N-word].’ I went home and clipped and mailed him a
copy of the photograph despite his derogatory comment.”
Keener said he’d gotten supportive calls, such as a woman who complained about
receiving a mail advertisement linking Democratic presidential candidate Barack
Obama to terrorism. Keener said the office wasn’t bombarded by negative
comments, and his favorite times were when people came by to chat.
Keener said a naturalized citizen dropped in one day and expressed passion for
the voting process and democracy and delivered Keener’s favorite analysis of
the difference between the two parties. “He said, ‘Republicans climb the ladder
but then they pull it up and take it with them; Democracts climb the ladder and
then leave it for the next guy.’ That summed it up for me,” Keener said.
The office was “a lot crazier” a few weeks ago, Keener said, believing the
party had organized its one-stop, early-voting drive so successfully there were
not many last-minute details or questions. Appalachian State University
students had also been a key target for the office’s business.
Volunteer Becka Saunders Friday picked up a Hispanic woman who was casting her
first-ever vote and drove her to a one-stop site. Saunders said the woman
understood English but was a little nervous about casting her first vote. “It
was very easy for her, and I’m glad she got her vote in,” Saunders said.
“One of the best things about being in this office is that people come in and
just sit down and visit,” Saunders said. “We ask what we’re going to do after
the election because we’re all used to seeing each other.”
The Democratic Party plans to hold all-day office hours on Election Day, Nov.
4, and attend to those last few voters. Keener said if he had a last-minute
pitch to make to a voter, he’d use the one from his dad, a pipe fitter for 45
years.
“Dad put things simple: the Democrats are for the working guy and that’s all
you need to know,” Keener said. “To that I would add, ‘Government exists to
make life better.’ ”
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