Having just arrived back to testPAC headquarters in Phoenix, I am proud to say that I think our field campaign is off to a great start. While our membership has been debating the pros and cons of constructing a mailer for voters in Texas’ 21st Congressional District, our canvassing teams have organized and our about to start our first official canvass this Saturday. Here’s what they’ve accomplished so far:
Friday, May 4th
- Scouted turf in Fredericksburg and determined the population was not dense enough for a canvass. Driving door-to-door would be an expensive drain on gasoline.
- Met and recruited Steve, our UT-Austin campus coordinator until he leaves for summer break on May 16th. He will hand over the reigns of his work to Sara, who will work on canvassing until the election on May 29.
Saturday, May 5th
- Attended a Sheriff Mack rally hosted by Liberty for All Super PAC and talked to a few dozen Mack supporters about the upcoming election. Also met and recruited Matt, our new San Antonio director, who was speaking at the rally shortly after Mack finished.
- Canvassed roughly 200 UT-Austin students with an impromptu flier (the one on the left) on Guadalupe Rd. and inside student housing within the district.
Sunday, May 6th
- Attended a Ron Paul & Tea Party rally and canvassed 700 people with a flier (the one on the right) at the Texas State Capitol building in Austin. Met Richard Morgan and determined he is a polite and well-spoken individual.
- Met with 14 or so Ron Paul supporters at a bar and canvassed them about Smith’s upcoming primary challenge.
- Met with Occupy Austin and asked them for their help promoting testPAC. They agreed to make a sign a with a QR code linking to our campaign site, unseatlamar.com. It was here that I met the second person on our trip that had already heard of testPAC.
Monday, May 7th
- Scouted turf in New Braunfels. It was decent turf! Will consider canvassing here for two days closer to the election if we can find the volunteer-power.
- Went to Lamar Smith’s office and delivered a special flier/letter written just for him and his staff. We took video but I’m not sure whether it turned out very well – we’ll put it on the sub-reddit if it proves to be interesting!
- Scouted and canvassed one neighborhood in San Antonio with the help of two volunteers. Looks like primo, A+ turf in north San Antonio!
During the rest of this week, one of our volunteers is developing the canvassing grid that we will use for our first official door canvass on Saturday, meeting on Skype tonight to discuss plans (if you’d like to join in, add me: andy.posterick), and reaching out to volunteers. I will be making a post in the sub-reddit on Friday to discuss what we come up with.
Stay involved, internet!
