US midterms: That awful sinking feeling

By Dave Roberts

Two weeks ago I joined the campaign to re-elect US Democratic Congressman Ron Klein in Florida District 22, a 70 mile strip running north from Fort Lauderdale to Juno Beach. The District is highly marginal, having fallen to the Democrats in a surprise victory in 2006, and was held in 2008. However, historically, the seat has been Republican and countless boundary changes have tried to keep the District as Republican as possible.

I spent my time working out of small campaign offices in down at heel strip malls in Delray Beach and Fort Lauderdale. The teams of volunteers and staff were putting in long days making calls, distributing posters and organising canvass teams – much like the final days of a British election.

This election was being fought against an anti-Obama and anti-government back drop and everyone in the team knew that Ron’s survival as a Congressman relied on fighting apathy and getting out the Democrat vote. The eve of poll activity was as frantic as it is in the UK. There was very little difference between what I was witnessing in South Florida to what I experienced earlier this year in South Dorset.

Election day started with a 6am alarm call and as I stumbled out of bed I began to feel that tingle of excitement that comes with polling day – weeks and months of preparation and campaigning all end here – in success or failure. It had been hard over the week to get excited and motivated – I’d had a nagging sense of detachment from the campaign. But as the sun rose on another beautiful South Florida morning I suddenly felt that rush of adrenalin and a sense of really belonging to the team.

After grabbing coffee and a cinnamon roll at Starbucks, and with the sun quickly rising, I arrived at the Fort Lauderdale office. The office was staffed by the congressional team “on vacation” from Washington, and Brendan and Tom who were on secondment from lobby groups. These guys were pumped up and focussed on the simple task of turning out the Democratic vote. The guys had beaten me there and I was dispatched to cover the nearby verges with Ron Klein posters and wave at passing commuters. I was having déjà vu, having spent both eve of poll and the morning rush hour on May 6th doing exactly the same thing in South Dorset.

By 9am the team had started to grow as volunteers arrived. It was now all about getting out the vote – nothing sophisticated – just boots on the ground, knocking on doors and making calls. The banter in the team was constant, quick and witty – often about Jeff’s love of food, Alec’s attempts at cool or my “poshness” (as so many Americans seem to view the British – it’s the accent).

Reports came in saying turn out was ok but not exceptional. On the other hand, early voting, which had been going on for some days in Florida, had been higher than two years before. High turn out in the US, as in the UK, is seen as being generally good news for the left.

After a lunch of Cuban pot roast, I was invited to what is known as the “boiler room”, a 7th floor hotel suite being used as an HQ by the campaigns Field Director. This is the campaign election day centre. The boiler room was a mad house: way too many people without enough sleep and with too much coffee and Red Bull. The team consisted of the Field Director and her assistants, the campaign manager, Chief of Staff, a congressional aide or two and the voter protection lawyer to name just a few.

As 7pm arrived and the South Florida polls closed, the tension mounted as we waited for the first polling districts to declare. This is a significant difference to the UK. Voting in South Florida is done on a computer, which enables each polling precinct to declare an initial result very quickly after the polls close. This tells you exact, but unverified, votes for each candidate so you gradually build up a picture of how each candidate is doing precinct by precinct.

The Klein campaign had about 40 precincts it was using to provide a sample. They ranged from safe Democrat areas to safe Republican areas. The numbers being returned were varied: in one precinct there were only two votes and both were for Klein. In others, votes were more numerous and tighter and it soon became apparent that Klein was behind and not making up ground.

Whiskey and beer began to replace coffee and coke, faces began became more sullen. Slowly we became aware that the tide that was always going to be against the Democrats was sweeping away whatever small hope there had been that Ron could hold the seat.

After greeting supporters in the hotel lobby Ron arrived in the boiler room with his wife and kids at around 9pm and it fell to the Chief of Staff to give him the bad news. We were 7000 votes behind, were not closing the gap and the sample precincts were indicating a Republican victory. As more results came in the margin of expected defeat grew and the game was up. That awful sinking feeling takes hold, all the work, the huge amount of money, the time, tears and tantrums – all for nothing. Events beyond the control of a single Congressman and his team had lead to defeat.

The voters of the US had voted against Obama and the Democrats. The American people that bothered to turn out had swallowed the Tea Party line that the economic problems of the US were Obama’s fault and what was needed was less government intervention and lower taxes. They had responded to the simplistic rhetoric of opposition and the rallying cries from the Tea Party. In South Florida they had chosen an extreme right wing former Colonel who had left the army due to his mistreatment of a prisoner and who associated with a notorious and violent biker gang. They rejected a decent hard working Democrat, not because they disliked him, or because they liked his opponent more, but because they suffered mass amnesia about who and what caused the global recession. And because the coalition of Democrats and moderates that had elected Obama didn’t either hold together or turn out to vote

It now waits to be seen if Obama can rebuild that winning coalition, get them motivated and keep the White House and America on a progressive path.