Walking Dubuque for Obama

Written by: Frank Palmer on Jul 23, 2008 12:10 PM EDT

Northside (Chicago) DFA sent a contingent to Iowa Saturday to canvass for Obama. This was my report on Daily Kos:

The Obama campaign isn't worrying about Illinois. You only think Obama is popular in your state; he's really popular in IL.

They're sending people from different congressional districts to different states. The 9th CD, on the eastern edge of IL, is assigned to Iowa, over the western edge. On Saturday,  Northside DFA drove from Chicago to Dubuque to canvass.

As of Friday morning, we expected three canvassers and no cars. In the event we had six canvassers and a potential of three cars. We left one of the cars in Chicago and drove off a little after 7:00 a.m. We expected to arrive before 11:00, but one car headed wrong and the other got a flat tire. We didn't head out of the Dubuque Obama office until after noon.

We left Chicago in a soft rain and had worried about the weather for canvassing. We needn't have. Iowa had bright sun by the time we got there.

The Dubuque Obama HQ is in storefront in a strip mall which is the permanent headquarters of the Dmocratic Party of Dubuque County. There were signs for other candidates but no other evidence of activity except  for Obama. This was fortunate, since the space was crowded. Twenty people had arriced on time and got the spiel. Another twenty went out at the same time as we did.

The four in our car were assigned to a precinct which was spread out, fairly ell-to-do, and mostly republican. The walk sheets were split into two sections for each fraction of a precinct. The campaign staffers were prepared for greenhorns who feared canvassing alone, and they had provided a system where the canvassers could be across the street from each other; indeed, they sugggested that anyone too nervous go to the door in pairs to begin with. In the event, they got mostly seasoned canvassers. (They had another crew scheduled to start out at @;00 p.m. Perhaps that group had more Iowans among them. I think it unlikely for someone to cross a state for his first experience canvassing; I, for one, would be loath to depend on strangers for the ride back.)

The territory we covered was much more hilly than I associate with the Midwest. As a Pittsburgh native, I felt that I had come home.

Most of the people weren't spending this sunny day at home. Those I met were mostly either unwilling to commit or undecided. (The campaign told us that these were people who sometimes voted, but not always.) I got several McCain supporters and three solid Obama supporters -- two of whom were about to molve out of state.

Well, the neighborhood had to be canvassed, and I was able to report that one section was all student housing, probably it would not be occupied by the same families in November that it had been during the caucuses.

All told, the trip was worth it. More worth it, of course, if Obama wins Iowa.

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Location: Chicago, IL 60660