Welcome to the Chabot zone

We are about one hour away from beginning our election day activities and its time to get pumped up! I have two Red-Bulls that I am going to slam back in the wee hours and I plan to keep the energy coming all day. This is the moment that we win this election and we are all ready to get it done.

Look forward to stories and photos from election day as soon as we find some time to breathe, good luck to everyone else out there on election day.

Gun Toting Rednecks In Cincy

So, my first blog, I now know the true meaning of being a Team Newhouse member.

Lots of stuff has happened since I've been here and I have had a great time. The guys and girl are great, and have been awesome to get to know and hang out with.

Steve "shabo" Chabot is a great guy that I wish all of the Driehaus supporters could sit down and talk with. Once they got to know him I believe that they would change their ignorant claims that we heard while campaigning at the Bengals/Jacksonville game on Sunday. He genuinely cares about Americans and I only wish that every politician was like Steve.

On a side note, while campaigning at the Bengals game with my Chabot sign and shirt, a Driehaus supporter tried to give me some lit for "the other" Steve, I told him "no thanks, the trash can is over there."

On to the story:

Saturday a couple of us headed out to Butler county. The trip was uneventful except that I found out for the second time in about three weeks that I can't drink too much liquid before going on long trips. I was riding with Meg, an awesome YOUNG girl by the way, and I had to let her know that I couldn't make it to the GOP office of Ohio. Meg is the youngest of three or four (her being the only female) and understood that I needed to take a hike in the woods. So we pulled over and I took a rest stop. The kids from Generation Joshua had no clue why we stopped and we kept it that way.

So I am out dropping literature for Chabot/McCain a few days ago in Butler "Wherearewe" County. Most people are not home but one of the few folks I come across happens to have a McCain/Palin sign in their yard. I approach him and hand him the literature. I could see the relief in his eyes when he saw I wasn't canvasing for Obama. He immediately starts to unload his thoughts onto me. I didn't mind, it was nice to actually speak to someone, and one who doesn't completely hate being bothered by strangers.

First words that come out of his mouth, "I'm a gun-toting redneck." He goes on to talk about his views of Obama. "Obama is a wolf in sheep's clothing," and "That is one slimy man." Him being a Vietnam vet, and a fellow hunter, I felt a connection with this stranger. He is afraid for his constitutional right to own a gun, and feels Obama would try to take that away from him. He brought up the Revolutionary war and talked about the tactics and weaponry that made it possible to wear down the Brits. He added that the French got more credit than was deserved considering they only arrived at the end. This guy is an American, and as true as they come. I totally and completely agreed with almost every word that came out of his Skoal-sucking mouth. So fifteen minutes and a handshake later I had made a new friend and left Meg waiting by the van.

A shoutout to the hotel bar downstairs for Halloween and karaoke, and creepy guys/girls. Including but definitely not limited to creepy mask guy, old white Sinatra, the dream cheer squad, and the not so creepy Harry Potter chick.

Shoutout to the Cheviot Sports Bar, cornhole in the afternoon and pool/karaoke/Nov 1 Halloween party.
Shoutout to team Newhouse's cornhole victory (Brennan/Me) who kicked some Nathan/Jarrett "you know what" for all the marbles and when it counted. Brennan likes to say that he carried the team, but that's debatable. Jarrett definitely carried his team, though Nate had some pretty amazing shots. Team Newhouse did dominate though not as much as I'd like. (Shoulda gone undefeated)
In case you still don't know what cornhole is, it is a midwest hit. The game consists of beanbags and an inclined board with a hole. One point for a bag on the board and three for a bag in the hole. Take the difference of the two teams and you add that to the total score. If you haven't tried it, do. It may be a better, underrated, undiscovered alternative to BP and Flip Cup.
Hows that Brennan?

And a shoutout to the great opportunity and experience I've had with this whole experience the last five weeks. And to those who made it happen.


- Hunter "Silver Bullet" Lord

"Nathan and his assistant"

Jarrett is busy pulling together the goings on of the past couple of days for everyone since it has been a while since we have had the time to get a post up. In the meantime I wanted to let you all know about the pecking order out here.

Today while driving around with some home-school kids (they were doing a fantastic job of covering the precincts by the way) there was one girl of 13 years that was absolutely glued to her cell phone. While she was on the phone with one of her parents that wanted to know what she was doing and where she was, we overheard her telling her parents about her drivers (Jarrett and I). She said "our drivers are pretty cool, there is this one guy Nathan and, um, his assistant."

That's right, you heard it here first, the pecking order has been clearly established.

More to come soon, with pictures!

"He's uncool isn't he?"

And so I'm back.

After a long three days, I've returned to these here Interwebs. This is to the delight of three people, my parents (Hi mom) and my boss. Maybe a few people in Mississippi? (I would add Blizzard to this list, but he’s probably too busy watching Gossip Girl to read our blog).

So let's go through the recap...

Friday was mostly uneventful during the day. In the morning, Nathan, Lisa, Brennan and I did lit drops again. Unfortunately I have no good stories that involve elderly ladies this time. Sorry to disappoint.

In the afternoon we were teamed up with the Congressman's staff to lead an out of state volunteer group of 30 or so kids. We covered a great deal of ground. Nathan managed to pawn off about two hours worth of work on Hunter, Brennan and I. For that little move, I am granting him cover/label making duty through the New Year.

After the campaign let us go for the night, we decided that since it was Halloween, we needed to celebrate (work hard play hard, right?). So we found a Wal-Mart on the way back to the hotel and stopped in to gear up for the night. After nearly an hour (I took the longest to figure out my costume. Father Time and I wanted to go as Mario and Luigi, but the necessary clothes were not in store, so we had to come up with new costumes on the spot), we settled on our respective attire for the evening. Brennan and Hunter went as "Team Newhouse," dressed up as basketball players, with headbands, baggy shorts, rec specs and all. Nathan went as Batman (for you Blizz and Gramps). I donned golf attire. Lisa went as, well, Lisa. Creative.

After some pictures in the hallway, the four guys made our way down to the hotel bar. Let's just say there was an "interesting" mix of people. It provided us with a great deal of entertainment and conversation material. The bar had karaoke and we figured we should go ahead and delight the crowd with a performance. So Nathan, Hunter and I sang "Friends in Low Places," by Garth Brooks. Yes you read that right. Nathan sang karaoke, and it was a country song.

When in Rome right?

On Saturday we woke up early and headed over to the campaign HQ. From there they sent us off with our teams to drop lit. My team headed up to Butler County, where the Congressman has a small percentage of voters (most of Butler County is in John Boehner's territory). The Congressman came and spoke briefly to a small group of volunteers that were doing phone calls for McCain. After that we headed out into the district. This time was a little different than the previous lit drops we had done. Because we were doing it in conjunction with the McCain campaign, we were asked us to go door to door to talk to voters. We were in the middle of nowhere and split up from each other. It was great. The precincts went house, half mile of nothing, house. Awesome. Most of the people were supporters, but I came across a few that weren't so welcoming. I told the ones not supporting us that no matter who they were backing, it was important for democracy that they voted on Wednesday, November 5.

Kidding.

In the afternoon, Joe the Plumber stopped in with the Congressman. They did a rally at the campaign headquarters and then again at a local restaurant.

Later on Saturday, we went to hold up signs to the incoming 10,000 fans at the Elder high school football state playoff game. What's important to note here is that Elder high school is Steve Driehaus's alma mater, so we knew he was going to be there with all of his people. All 10 of them. We had a much larger group of supporters than they did and we had MUCH more energy. Oh and we had Joe too. You could see the difference in the two candidates as they stood 10 feet apart from each other. Chabot was smiling and charismatic and having fun, while Driehaus looked miserable. Advantage, Chabot.

After the rally we went out with a group of the Chabot people to a bar down the street from headquarters. After a night of a few drinks and dancing, we headed back to the hotel and to bed. (Author’s note: This post would have gone up sooner, but I couldn't hear myself thinking over the sound of Father Time snoring last night).

Today Hunter, Nathan, Angela (one of Chabot’s people) and I headed downtown with the Congressman to hold up signs for Bengals fans that were going into the game. Nathan and I separated from the others and made our way around the stadium, where we had mostly positive responses from people. One guy told me he didn’t support Chabot and was going to vote for “Drysanhoose.” I asked him if this was a write in candidate I hadn’t heard about. He didn’t find this amusing.

A few Driehaus people showed up with signs. One lady I recognized from the football game last night kept moving to block my sign out. I countered by doing the same. She eventually moved to a spot where there was a guy playing the bongo drums for people coming into the game and began to dance while holding the sign. It looked something like this. Yep, I’m pretty sure she pushed some undecideds towards us.

After the game we headed back out to walk around different precincts and hand out literature. I handed one flier to a mom who was sitting outside with her very young daughter. As I was walking down the driveway, I could hear the mom explaining the ad and why we were passing them out to her daughter. A child’s first political ad. It was a beautiful moment really.

After we finished, we made our way back to headquarters, ate dinner and then headed back to the hotel. The five of us are sitting in the room, blogging, and watching 27 Dresses. Just a usual night for Nathan.

Random thoughts/observations/questions from the past few days...

*I wonder if the Joe the Plumber phenomenon would have caught on if he were an orthodontist or accountant. Joe the CPA just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

*The Congressman is one of the nicest and most gracious people I have ever met. But I have to mention that we have had so many people comment on his comb over that I’ve lost count. So I wanted to compare the Congressman to the legend of comb overs-The Donald.

We win. (I'm Steve Chabot and I approve this hairdo).

*Dave, what the hell happened to UGA yesterday?

*While there were a couple of snide comments made about the Congressman today at the Bengals game, I noticed that no one made them when we were walking with him. I have two theories for this. Either people are respectful of the office, or Nathan's reputation as a sniper precedes him.

*Throwing objects at a snoring roommate ends the snoring.

*People around here have been so bombarded with political ads (we've probably seen over 150 on tv, and we're not usually anywhere near a tv) that they have become confused...

At least this guy can say he supported the winner.

Your move Mississippi...

The Old Lady Whisperer

So i have about two minutes to post before Nathan comes in and shuttles us off for another day of lit drops. Yesterday went really well, but I did have one story to share.

During lunch, we took a break and starting working on mail with a bunch of older ladies from the campaign. I don't know what it is, but they love Jarrett. Whether it is in the campaign office or out in the field, something about him just draws in older ladies. It is pretty entertaining, so I have started calling him the "old lady whisperer."

One of the women working with us was Steve Chabot's mom, and she had lots of great stories about his political career. And then the two other women we chatted with, both in their 50s I would say, were hilarious. They kept talking about how cute Mitt Romney was in person and the plan to take a picture with him alone, how they wanted to egg the houses of people who had put up Driehaus signs, and which type of gun they were planning on buying before election day (basically me in about 30 years).

All right, off for another day of precinct walking.

Opposition research

In the field, if you come across a guy with orange socks and multi-colored hair it's not a Halloween child, it's an Obama supporter! This friggin fruitcake was out dropping info, looking like rainbow brite. Wow, this guy obviously wants to be laughed at and not taken seriously. Stay on the look out!

Ground Warfare

Day - two. On the trail, DD coffee and a bunch of flyers. Just finished one section done already. In the car heading back to HQ. Keep you updated.

Day Two - 'Responsibility'

Good Morning,

I just need to say that this sleeping in stuff is great! The sun is actually up before we leave to get to campaign HQ and that is not something I have gotten used to recently.

Today we have some more walking to do in the morning and then we are going to be thrust into positions of responsibility. Project Joshua (I think that's the name of it) is sending 60 volunteers to help out starting today at 12:00 and we are going to be helping to organize the chaos. Jamie (campaign manager) has asked us to pair up with people from his staff to take leadership positions with small groups of volunteers. Each of us will help shepherd a group of about 6 volunteers around in a rented van all the way through the election. These are mostly kids and some parents from a home-schooling program in Alabama so this could be interesting.

We will be sure to update you!

First day

OK, one down but a week is gonna be interesting. Stay tuned, gonna be fun. Nate did a great job yelling at us from the "CAR" to HURRY UP! Ya, all day, to his credit based on the position of the sun and the winter solstice coming up, he knew where we were going. By the way Lisa is a COMMANDO/ STORM TROOPER- she keeps moving non-stop! Got to give a shout, you know who you are ladies nails, wow, looking good. Prim and proper! By the way Jarrett is quick and nimble like a 6'2 Clemson sprite, but still makes the trip more fun than it would be. Ohio, we got you covered.

Verbatim of the Day

Nice guy who flaggged me over when dropping info on the other side of the street(Bald by the way). "I don't know who he is trying to fool with that ridiculous comb over, seriously! Don't get me wrong he's got my vote, but it is the only thing I don't like about him. You work for him, tell him to get with it!" I mentioned that the reverse "mohawk" is in these days. He agreed!

1 down, 5 to go

Well, day 1 is over. I'm tired.

(I'm tempted to end the post right there, but I figure the guy who paid for me to come out here wouldn't like that. So I continue).


After enjoying a nice continental breakfast/chat with a lovely elderly couple, I meet up with the rest of the group and we head to the Chabot headquarters. (Side note: Nathan's little plan to scare me did not go as he had planned.)


We get to the campaign headquarters, and it resembles everything that any movie which invokes politics and campaigning suggests it should (Man of the Year, Primary Colors, Dave, Swing Vote, Definitely Maybe...yep, I have seen the last one... -10 guy points). We meet with a few people and then head out to drop fliers off at specific houses. After Father Time figures out how to get to the precinct we are going to, we head off and get to work.

We drop fliers at 700* houses today, spending about 8 total hours doing so (there is a morning run, back to the HQ for lunch, and then an afternoon run). For the most part it goes well and without incident, but I have a few encounters worth mentioning.

(*Rough estimate-author not so great with numbers)

As I am starting to get the hang of what we are doing in the morning run (walk up to house, put flier in door/under doormat, turn, walk away from house. Repeat.), I walk up to a house that has the main door open but screen door closed. As I am leaning over to put one of the fliers under the doormat, I am startled by a thunderous bark. I look up to find myself looking into the face of a not-so-welcoming German Sheppard. Not trusting the screen door, I find out just how fast I am. Usain Bolt has nothing on me.


In the afternoon, an elderly lady comes out to greet me as I am going up to her house. We strike up a conversation and she invites me in for some hot cocoa she has just made. I almost say yes, but realize I have 50 more fliers in my hand, and Lisa "the dictator" Valentine will not approve of this. So I move on.


Later in the afternoon, yet another elderly lady strikes up a conversation with me. As we are talking (she tells me she thinks John McCain will make a wonderful President, and "that Palin...well anyone who tries to say you have no experience after popping out 5 kids clearly has no idea what they are talking about...plus she hunts!" Yep, I love this lady), her husband wanders out. He is sporting calf high tube socks, mid thigh high shorts, a white t-shirt, and bed head at 4 pm in the afternoon. This is the guy I hope to be after I retire one day in the distant future. He is mumbling about something, notices me, and asks "well who the hell is this?" The lady tells her husband I am volunteering for Chabot's campaign, and that I am "just so polite and pleasant to talk to" (POS'ers, you know it's true). So after my exchanges today I've concluded that should I ever decide to run for office in Ohio, I've pretty much got the +65/female vote locked up. Fantastic.

We finish up with the afternoon precincts and head back to the campaign headquarters, thinking they will have more for us to do. They tell us to go home, and who are we to argue? So we're now back at the hotel and getting ready to head to bed. More to come tomorrow.

On the trail!

200 more votes for Chabot, count-em! Ground game is in full swing. Back at headquarters fueling up! Action picks soon to come!

Well, Nathan is off to go harass Jarrett and it is my turn to blog.

Last night after the Phillies game, I started going through the local channels and I have probably already seen 25-30 political ads. Mostly negative and a few contrast, so it looks like the campaigns up here are doing something right. It will be interesting going door-to-door today for lit drops, because Ohioans in this area are getting blasted with tv and radio for every office and I am sure are sick of it. And Kentucky ads too apparently, since we have seen some for McConnell.

All right, nothing else too exciting to post. Though I am sure batman and robin will do something today that will be noteworthy.

Fun times

When we went to bed last night we figured we should get to campaign headquarters around 9:00 am, leaving the hotel at 8:30. We learned this morning that they don't need us there until 10:00 but Jarrett doesn't know yet since we have let him sleep in due to the circumstances. But that is all about to change when I run into the hotel room screaming that we're going to be late on our first day!

I'll let you know how it goes.

Mariah sang beautifully as always. Nathan "father time" Klein refused to use modern technology, and instead relied on maps and sticking his finger out of the window. He is currently trying to blog with a chisel and piece of granite.

We just finished dinner and we are sitting in one of the rooms watching the World Series (yes we are pulling for the Phillies grandpa Ruch).

We are heading over to the Chabot headquarters at 9 tomorrow morning. This of course means we get to "sleep in." Other than Lisa, this is a new experience to us. So we're excited to see what happens. It will be a new experience to see a campaign from this point of view.

Well, the Phillies just won it all...Jeremy may or may not be into work tomorrow.

Alright, I'm off to bed. We'll try and have something up mid-day tomorrow. Pictures to come in the next post.

*Special thanks to Becky, who helped Lisa out big time today!

Gearing -up!

Recap: Nate drove, Lisa navigated, Jarret operated the tunes(Hey, in his defense Mariah Carey is catchy). Great start - to a great week!

On the road!

65 miles out side of Columbus on the road and going strong!

Knighted

I hereby knight this blog and declare it open for business.

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