political columns: pressing the flesh
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8/7/2019 Political Columns: Pressing the Flesh
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P R E S S I N G T H E F L E S H 37
P R E S S I N G T H E F L E S H
V I T A L PA R T O F C A M P A I G N I N G
Ive had the privilege of knocking on manythousands of doors with winning and losing
candidates. Best practices include: getting people
to actually open the door; getting candidates to
disengage in a long conversation; and covering
lots of real estate quickly.
In a tall building, I watch the candidate at the last
door on a floor. As the conversation is windingdown, I run down the stairs to the next floor and
take the chance of knocking on the first two doors
across the hall from each other. I assume one person
is out and Ill get one live body for my trouble. I
proceed in the same way down the hall as the
candidate arrives on this new floor.
Street campaigning presents different challenges.The principle is still to charge through lots of real
estate and get live bodies at the door. I try to hop
ahead of the candidate and like at least two teams
of two going down each side of the street. But
canvassers have to avoid walking on peoples lawns
or interrupting lawn or car care.
One joke among political canvassers is that the
average person in an apartment takes his or her
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