Berning Up Long Island: Canvassing Report from the Trenches

Last edited Sun Apr 17, 2016, 10:20 PM - Edit history (1)

I spent a few hours yesterday and today canvassing for Bernie in Port Washington, a well-off but partially degentrifying suburb of NYC. Some observations:

1) We really need more volunteers. Apparently all of Nassau County does. We didn't have enough people to cover the whole town as they had hoped. If you live in or near Nassau County and can help out today or tomorrow we really need the help.

2) Surprisingly, Bernie supporters could be found even among people who owned million dollar homes (caveat: a million dollar home here is not even that big of a house - it's upper middle class at best). When I first saw the neighborhood, I said "this is a waste of time", because richer neighborhoods take longer to canvass and I figured people who could afford those homes wouldn't be for Bernie. But suprisingly, I found a few supporters, almost as many as said they were for Hillary. No Trump or Cruz supporters, but we were only canvassing registered Dems. I guess in New York, unlike other places I have canvassed, registered Dems usually vote Democrat.

3) Today I canvassed a more middle class neighborhood, and a lot of people were not home and a lot of others were not the person on the sheet. But of the people I did get, it was about an even split between Bernie and Hillary supporters.

4) I had one heartbreaking encounter with a woman who really liked Bernie and planned to vote for him, but didn't realize it was too late to register. I promised to bring her forms to register for the general.

5) Yesterday in the well-off neighborhood I met an undecided couple who asked why I supported Bernie. I told them he was the most authentic, sincere candidate I had seen have a serious chance to be president in my lifetime. They laughed at the "in my lifetime part", because I am in my early 30's and look like I'm in my 20's, but then they told me they agreed with me. They like Bernie better, but think Hillary is more realistic about how to get things done. I sort of read between the lines that they were also concerned about Bernie's electability, so I told them the story about my boyfriend and his libertarian/Republican friends all saying they liked Bernie the best of anyone on either side. Hopefully that convinced them.

6) Most people, even the Hillary supporters, seemed happy to see me out there volunteering for Bernie. A lot of them seemed to like him despite supporting Hillary. I did not feel the same hostility toward Bernie that I felt toward Obama from Hillary supporters in 2008.

7) The campaign here is a little disorganized. Lots of wires crossed figuring out where to go yesterday.

8) The miniVan app is really cool! Instead of carrying clipboards, I was able to enter the data directly into my phone and upload it instead of carrying around a clipboard. Very well designed app.

I don't think Bernie is going to win Long Island, or New York state, but hopefully we can put up enough of a fight to keep him viable.

Edited to add a few more:

9) We did not see any field activity on behalf of Hillary in our area.

10) None of the volunteers were “Bernie or Bust” types. All of us plan to vote for Hillary in November if we have to.

11) Many of us in New York are really excited to finally matter in a presidential election!