A Sure Sign of a Winning Campaign

All elections have tell tale signs of when the mood changes. Almost always it is not when a poll comes out and has you ahead by x points. Usually it is not when a memorable phrase such as when "You are not Jack Kennedy," line was uttered.

The tell tale sign is when some average person not political connected, not hard wired for electoral politics says or does something so obvious that you know the race is over. There is no need to count any more ballots. The result is no longer in doubt.

Here is that story from the Donna Edwards - Al Wynn race yesterday.

The story is not mine. The story comes from Tom Pollow, who is a member of PDA. He was working a Wynn stronghold of a precinct in PG County. A driver for Wynn was delivering lunches to Wynn volunteers just after noon. He came up to Tom and asked him if he was there for Edwards or Wynn. Tom pointed to his buttons and said "Donna". Tom said the Wynn volunteer had left about an hour ago. The driver still had several lunches to dispatch. Tom, a large man who was once a professional wrestler, worked two meals out of the Wynn driver for himself.

Then the two of them started talking about the race. Then came the key moment. The driver asked Tom how did he know that Donna would not stray from her original message. Tom said he didn't know but he did know that if Donna stopped supporting policies to help common folks that PDA and its members would find someone to run against her.

The driver, who remember was paid to deliver food to Wynn supporters, then talked about how Wynn forgot about the people of the district. The driver concluded with "I'm voting for Donna."

At that moment the race was over.

Other observations from the front lines
Sorry this is my first post since the pre-election. I was working as a Democratic Area Coordinator in LD20. I had four precincts that were in CD4 and one in CD8. I also looked in on a few other precincts nearby. The striking thing for me was how many of the Edwards supporters stayed longer at more precincts than Wynn supporters.

Here is a picture of Edwards supporter at the George Meany Center (05-07) which is at New Hampshire Avenue and the Beltway. The Wynn supporter was sitting in her Luxus SUV about 100 yards from the polling place. (The polling place itself is a 200+ yard walk from the parking lot.) The Edwards supporter was about 25 yards from the polling place out in the elements. Note the picture. That's dedication. That's the sign of a winning campaign.

Update: I want to id this person but I forgot to get her name. So if you are out there please respond and I will put your name to this picture.