Kerry campaign coming to northern MI

I'll spare you the details of the e-mail from my party chair regarding their exchanges but I will tell you what I witnessed first hand.

Kerry's campaign called our Dem office today. They already told us they were planning to open an office here, anyhow they call today with some questions about the area and guess what their first question was.

No, guess.......

"Is Dean sending staff?"

haha That was fun. Glad I happened to be there.

I find it interesting that 2 weeks out Kerry has found that state shaped like a mitten. They have been virtually invisible. No supporters or activities at all. The only person I know who supports him joined our party recently because the GOP rebuffed his desire to run for a state Senate seat.

It'll be interesting to watch how fast they get from zero to whatever in two weeks with no ground troops. I'll keep ya'll posted. Love that initial question!! :-)

Julie

Or Traverse City?

I should have specified, northern lower MI. Sorry.

Julie

I live in a rock solid Democratic Detroit suburb and I've seen little presence of any campaign except Dean's and, before he dropped out, Gephardt's.

They have it here in SC, too. they just needed to free up the cash to get it pumping. Timing is everything. Kerry is out-maneuvering everyone else. He had alot in place for over a year. They just needed the signal to march.

The bad press throughout last year dried up the fundraising for Kerry. He had to spend his money where he most needed it, and rely on personal campaigning, ads, and his volunteers from the firefighters and veterans.

Add the organization skills of a strong network of women, and it's a whole new ballgame with Kerry batting cleanup.

No quiet infrastructure, no low-profile, nothing.

I've they have anything it must be concentrated on the more heavily populated south of the state but I am not sure. I do know that the only campaign they had questions about was Dean's. They know Dean is the one to beat in MI. For good reason. Long term grass roots for Dean would be that reason.

Julie

that don't know who to vote for now that Gep's bowed out.

Your state's First Gentleman is on Kerry's national steering committee, and the campaign has been centered downstate.
Have you guys opened a permanent HQ yet? I hope so. You've got a great organization!

How's your party chair (who is also a former republican, btw) doing? I hope she is feeling well! She is such a trooper!

I haven't seen numbers since the Detroit News the day of Iowa caucus but then Kerry had 7% of the Dem vote. I wonder what it's at now, considering what a different ball game it is. Back then Dean was at 32% and Gephardt 16%. Clark was at 5%.

We have a permanent HQ, kind of....it's space given to us by a board member and we get something more high profile at election time. Since I introduced them to the beauty of serious membership growth efforts, that may change quicker than originally thought. ;-)

Lynn was a former Repub eh? Hard to believe, former MEA VP and all. Interesting. I'll have to ask her about that.

Very cold and very, very snowy here. We're supposedly going to get hammered historically hard early next week. I suspect you'll be glad you're not here at that time. ;-)

Julie