Come to Tampa and Sing

Andrew Gillum and Ron DeSantis are running for Governor of Florida and had a debate last night.  Gillum pointed out that his Republican challenger DeSantis was attending racists groups meetings to drum up support for his campaign.

“I’m not calling Mr. DeSantis a racist,” Gillum added. “I’m simply saying the racists believe he’s a racist.”

When he said this our team of organizers laughed because it was such a good zinger.

We are canvassing or phone banking or both everyday.  Mostly door to door canvassing, since that is what is most desired by the local organizers.  While the heat is breaking a bit, it is still hot on the streets of Tampa Florida.

Here is a quick Canvassers Flow Chart:

• Voter is supporting Gillum and Nelson: Promote State Senator Janet Cruz
• Voter is Republican: Push amendment 4 restoring voting rights
• Voter is apathetic: Talk about Trump
• Voted has already voted all democratic and for Amendment 4: Give them a button (and ask if they want to volunteer).

We have better buttons, but not better images.

It is an amazing group assembled here in Tampa.  Almost all of us have commune experience, which makes a number of things flow easier: meetings, meals and logistics specifically.  And while there have been some bumpy spots, overwhelmingly everyone gets along with everyone else and is pretty excited to be here.  We have created a temporary autonomous magical zone.

We also compare notes.  We track the number of doors we knock on and the number of people we talk to.  A high success rate for most canvassers is talking to 20% of the doors we knock on.  I  knocked on 83 doors this evening and was pretty stoked to get 17 real conversations out of them.

But Thumbs does better.  Much better.  Every day he has canvassed so far he has been getting over 50% of people whose doors he knocks on to answer.  We wanted to know his secret.  He shared it with us and fortunately Jenny caught it on video.

He sings.  It is brilliant.  It also proves that there are many more people home than we think and just this novel and clever approach will get us connected with them.  We will see how many canvassers can pull this off.  I am certainly willing to try.

But what i love most is that Thumbs developed it in the first place and the thought that in the next election canvass organizers will be asking their volunteers if they are willing to sing.

Our group is expanding.  Kelpie and Skylar from Twin Oaks arrive on Friday to join Thumbs, Karen, GPaul, Jenny, Calico, Carlos and myself.

Want to come and join this merry band?  Here is the check list:

• Can you drop everything right now ?
• Can you walk 5 hours a day for 6 days in a week?
• Can you live in a tight highly collective house?
• Can you get to Tampa?
• Can you sing?

Then drop me an email.

But what likely makes far more sense than you coming all the way to Tampa is for you to phone bank from where you are. Here is a link you can go to on competitive races across the country.

And if you don’t have a favorite group to phone bank with (Indivisible is a good one, MoveOn will help you set up a phone banking party) we can hook you up.

If you can’t come, you can still support this group, we are still actively seeking donations through our  GoFundMe campaign.  And please feel encouraged to follow our adventures on Facebook.

Team Tampa: After our morning meeting, before volunteering for phone banking