(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . "They'll Be Bummed." So Much Energy in Wisconsin that They HAVE to Keep Growing. Swing State Canvass [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2022-08-25 The Four Smiling Ladies. They Get Around! “I don’t think anyone wants to win more than Wisconsinites.” Setting aside whether that is true, we consistently get this kind of feedback. And I have no explanation, but it is the Wisconsin volunteers who bug organizers about how they are doing. So when I told one that we had 7 fewer volunteers on Saturday, they responded, “They’ll be bummed.” Not sure who they are competing with, but you can definitely sense the desperation for ridding themselves of their incumbent Senator. ASAP. Are we there yet? 411 volunteers canvased with Hope Springs from Field PAC on Saturday. We continue to canvass in Milwaukee (where we are canvassing in African-American wards), as well as Waukesha and Dane counties. We just started in Kenosha county. The key Democratic and swing areas of this Senate Swing State. We started knocking doors in Kenosha county because we had volunteers come up to walk in the WOWs. Some of them had been knocking doors with “me” (not actually with me, but in the same campaigns) all the way back to Dean/ Kerry in 2004. But none of them felt comfortable leading a canvass. Still, they (11 alums) knew the system. Show the voter the survey. Let the voter talk out their issues. Register those who needed to (mostly update their addresses). “I almost forgot about the Constituent Service Requests!” one of them came back and said. But each one of them had been around the work I’ve done in the past to basically mentor other volunteers. So when one of the newbies commented about how rigid “the system” seemed, they piped up. “You’ll love it.” The funny thing is, for me, volunteers seem to love it for different reasons. More than a hundred thousand conversations with voters and I get a sense of what each volunteer focuses on at the door. This has been a reason (there are many) why I try to walk with our volunteers each week. I couldn’t this week because Saturday was the day our monthly FEC report was due. But then, again, I get a different sense about those who have supported this effort. I even have a contributor who keeps bugging me about getting out there to knock on doors. The longer that I do this (and I mean, Hope Springs), the more I sense the energy, the eagerness among Democrats to break out of the 50/50 America and end the paralysis we seem stuck in. We knock on doors with an Issues Questionnaire, which we use as a conversational device to make it easier for both volunteers and voters. But not only do we find it easier to train volunteers to knock on doors, we have had them ask to take blank Issues Surveys home with them to show other, including their local Democratic Party orgs (which, as I always say, is fine — that’s why I post them every week). But we find that, by sharing the survey with voters (we literally ask volunteers to show it to voters before they start asking questions), many of them pick out the questions they want to answer — sometimes even moving directly to those questions. And the survey also sparks conversation and because we train our volunteers to absorb information, not challenge voter comments, we can learn an awful lot about individual voters and their views of the political and cultural trends of the area. This tactic means that we tend to get about 65% of those who answer their doors to provide at least 2 answers to the survey, and generally answer at least 6 questions. This week, per usual, The Economy was the most popular response to “What Issue is most Urgent?” Schools was the second most frequent response and we did hear about concerns about School Safety for the upcoming school year. And it isn’t just about fear over school shootings but also the potential for violence at school event (not from students), PTAs and school board meetings. That’s new (to me, anyway). Reproductive Rights was third. We do still hear a lot additional comments about Reproductive Rights and Gun Violence in the “Anything to add” or message to Congress query. And even though most volunteers only get to talk to 8-10 voters (maybe double that, if you include other voters in the same household) a weekend, you get the sense that what we learn over time is what voters in those areas are talking about, thinking about, making their voting decisions on. 58% of the voters we talked to expressed approval of President Biden last Saturday, a slight uptick. 7% expressed disapproval in the job the president was doing. But instead of complaining, this week, about their wish that Biden would do more, we got a lot of “atta boys” about the president, the Senate and the jobs picture (even as they expressed concern about Jobs for young people!). 2% of the voters we talked to expressed approval of Ron Johnson this Saturday. 2 percent. In good news (?), only 53% of voters told us they had an unfavorable opinion (which is a good number for Johnson in comparison to what we have been hearing!). Governor Evers, on the other hand, got a better reception. 54% of the Democratic and Independent voters we talked to gave Evers a favorable rating. 7% said they had an unfavorable impression. And, since the other major candidates dropped out of the Democratic primary for Senate, we started asking the voters we talked to how they felt about Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. 66% had a favorable view of Barnes this week. Hope Springs from Field PAC has been knocking on doors in a grassroots-led effort to prepare the Electoral Battleground in what has been called the First Round of a traditional Five Round Canvass. We are taking those efforts to the doors of the communities most effected (the intended targets or victims) of these new voter suppression laws. Obviously, we rely on grassroots support, so if you support field/grassroots organizing, voter registration (and follow-up) and our efforts to protect our voters, we would certainly appreciate your support: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/2022senateswing Hope Springs from Field PAC understands that repeated face to face interactions are critical. And we are among those who believe that Democrats didn’t do as well in the 2020 Congressional races as expected because we didn’t knock on doors — and we didn’t register new voters (while Republicans dud). We are returning to the old school basics: repeated contacts, repeated efforts to remind them of protocols, meeting them were they are. Mentoring those who need it (like first time and newly registered voters). Reminding, reminding, reminding, and then chasing down those voters whose ballots need to be cured. We registered 11 New Voters last Saturday and updated (or corrected) the addresses of another 67 voters. As you can see from the very first question in the Issues Questionnaire, making sure that voters are registered from their current address is a major function of early canvassing. But we are also asking people who open their doors about whether they need services delivered to their neighborhood. 138 voters we talked to filled out Constituent Service Request forms last Saturday. In general, we send these to Democratic elected officials responsible for the requested functions, but if the appropriate office is held by a Republican, we still send it along. For Democrats, though, we encourage them to reach out immediately to the voter who filled out the Constituent Service Request forms and let them know they are working on the issue. This credit-taking is enormously valuable to the Democratic office-holder. We specifically ask voters in the Issues Survey if they have any concerns about the upcoming elections. Voters who tell us they have experience voter intimidation or other problems with voting are asked to fill out Incident Reports. We found 9 voters in Milwaukee who wanted to fill out an Incident Report in Milwaukee on Saturday. We collate these Incident Reports, to be shared with local, state and federal officials in charge of voting, as well as use them to plan out our Election Protection strategy in the fall. They could also be used in court cases. But asking — and collecting — Incident Reports has a second purpose at this time. We are reminding voters that we care about Election Protection, that if they witness something, they can say something and it will matter. It also assures them that we are ready to do something if they see something. Interest in Fair Elections, as they say in Georgia, is a particular interest in the African-American wards in Milwaukee and especially an interest of those volunteers who are canvassing there. Voters are keenly aware of the complete waste of the (now fired) Gableman investigation and we hear resentment about chasing down mythical election fraud when voters in Milwaukee can experience real voter suppression “that they don’t care about” [they being the GOP legislature in Madison]. By starting early, and aiming towards super-compliance with Wisconsin’s voting laws, Hope Springs from Field PAC seeks to undermine the Republican strategy of shaping the electorate. If you are able to support our efforts to protect Democratic voters, expand the electorate, and believe in grassroots efforts to increase voter participation and election protection, please help: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/2022senateswing Thank you for your support. This work depends on you! 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