I just returned home from a day of campaigning for Lisa Hernandez. Hernandez is running for re-election in the 24th District for State Representative. Being that this class is called Doing Democracy and this assignment is about observing the democratic process, I figured what is more democratic than campaigning.
I showed up to her office on W. Cermak in Cicero at 9:30am. Immediately when I entered, I was greeted with smiles and warm faces. I was offered coffee and donuts before I was even able to introduce myself. Needless to say I felt very welcomed. I looked around and noticed that most of the people there were workmen. I later found out that these men were plumbers that came out to support Hernandez because of her support for the workers union.
I arrived with two other people representing the Tamms Year Ten (TY10) organization. Hernandez has been a great political ally for TY10 for years. As a way to show thanks/support to Hernandez and to encourage her continued support for TY10, we volunteered to help her campaign. After meeting Hernandez, I got a great since of the type of woman she was. She seemed very down to earth, and after learning about her stance on raising property tax and on politicians’ salaries, it sounds like she is very “for the people”. Last week, my friend Laura made numerous phone calls along side of Hernandez to the residents of her district. They informed people about where she stands on current issues, answer the questions people had, and spread the word about the upcoming election on March 20th. This week we hit the streets and went door knocking.
We were handed flyers and clipboards, then supplied with a list of addresses and names. We were given a map of our area to cover, briefed on the door knocking process, and sent on our way. This all seemed very foreign to me, as I have not done this type of work before. I was nervous about ringing doorbells to strangers’ houses in an area I was not familiar with. I was concerned I would not having all the answers to peoples questions, or not be well received by the community. Thankfully I had two other people with me because they made the experience memorable.
Laura, Darryl and I packed in the car and headed to our designated area. We jumped out and immediately started knocking. At first a lot of people didn’t answer their doors, in which case we were instructed to leave a flyer and place a “NH” (Not Home) next to their name on our sheet. House after house we went to, our sheet began filling up with “NH”s. I kept thinking, “this isn’t hard, I barely have to talk to anyone”. Then someone answered.
When people did come to the door we first introduced ourselves, who we were representing, and handed them a flyer. We proceeded by asking if they had heard of her before and offered to answer questions. Next we described the petition we were encouraging people to sign for a policy Hernandez was trying to pass. It stated that if your property value decreased the county would not be able to raise your property tax. People were very receptive to this, as it seemed raising property taxes directly effected many of them. After they signed the petition, we reminded them of the up coming election and asked if we could count on their vote. If they said yes, placed a “+” next to their name on our list and asked if they would be interested in having a sign placed in their yard to show their support. I met many different characters today. I had a great time interacting and listening to the stories of the people. Each one was different and offered different insight into the policy issues impacting their lives.
After checking off the names on the list we headed back to Hernandez’s office to drop off the results and describe our experience. The campaign manager was interested to hear how well people responded to us. He was excited to see the signatures we collected on petition and the number of people who volunteered their yards for sign placement. He thanked us tremendously and encouraged us to come back next week.
The democratic process is based on the people voice and frequently this is expressed through the voting process. The right to vote is something someone should not take for granted: it is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal. The election process has many layers to it, but it is important that the people running for office (and their campaign) meet the people and hear their voices directly.
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