What can I say? It’s a good time to be Democrat. After a long time in the doghouse the American people have finally gotten fed up with the endless corruption, incompetence and I’m some cases flat out evil that is the modern day Republican party. So they went for a change. For minimum wage increases, a new direction in Iraq, healthcare for poor children. They voted For congressman who don’t want to rape underage pages and a leadership that wouldn’t cover it up if they did.
I was lucky enough to be at ground zero of one of those campaigns. My brother was a field director for the Chris Murphy campaign in the fifth district of CT. I have been spending many a weekend stuffing envelopes for Chris Murphy since the early spring when no one, including myself to be honest with you, thought he had a chance. Nancy Johnson has been in power for 24 years, has a huge war chest, had decimated every opponent who went against her, wasn't afraid to sling mud and most importantly, she had 24 years to build up a strong voter database.
As the months went on and the possibility of him winning became more and more prominent, things got really exciting. I got to meet Rahm Emmanuel at a fundraiser, Ned Lamont about 15 times, Susan Bysewiecz, Dick Blumenthal. They all became my BFF's to one extent or the other.
When the polls in the last weeks of the campaign showed Chris pulling ahead I then actually started entertaining the idea that goddamit, he might actually win this thing. Chris, the guy that would hang out with us at the headquarters shooting the shit, may actually be a congressman? So at the last minute I booked my hotel room for the Courtyard Marriott in beautiful Waterbury CT, the Dirty Water as they call it, for the election night party. Granted it was a gamble, as no one wants to get stuck at a party where the guy loses. Thankfully I warned Sarah, Chris’s campaign manager that the second it looks like Chris is losing I’m so outta there. The Larson party was only a half an hour away!
But that was all unnecessary. Chris won, and he won big. And we took the house and, eventually, the Senate. So here is my little recap of the evening, with accompanying pictures and video.
I started the day at my polling place where I voted. Dem’s all the way down the line, including Ned, to which I had to hold my nose as I did it. I would have voted for Joe but since I knew he was gonna win anyway, I figured id help pump up Ned’s #'s. Then I showed up at the campaign headquarters in New Britain at around 9 am. The place was abuzz, but not nearly as much as I excepted it to be. People were answering phones left and right from the "hotline" put in place to monitor any election day problems (ie: republican dirty tricks). Some reports in Wolcott of Republican volunteers handing out pencils with the Republican logo and information on the side for people to fill out their ballots were reported. Totally against the law, but they put a stop to it after they got caught. A few machines broke down in Hartford but that’s in another district. At one point a woman in Cheshire was having trouble voting. The poll worker there for whatever reason told her she could not vote. The woman had a fit and yelled out loudly "They wont let me vote, doesn anyone care?" To which a Murphy poll watcher stood up and told her she would help her out. They called in to our hotline where we were able to contact the polling place directly and straighten it all out. The kicker? This woman was a republican there to vote for Nancy Johnson, but the Johnson poll watchers didn’t bother helping her. By us helping her even though we knew she was a R, she switched her vote to Chris. that the difference between us and them. Where Santorum’s people will pump money into the green candidate, or make racist ads in Tennessee to make sure Harold Ford Jr. doesn’t win, we actually have a soul.
Soon I was out working the polls with Kevin’s girlfriend Jenn and some girl we just met named Elizabeth. Waving at passers by, handing out literature (Vote Row B for Chris, etc). There were Nancy Johnson people there was well, but from the looks of it they were probably staffers flown in from DC. All dressed in suits and such. After they switched out a few new Johnson poll people came by, and it was a little unfair since they were really hot chicks in tight jeans. Even I was thinking of voting for Nancy at that point. All we had was me, Jenn, Liz and a really creepy old guy who was on a town council somewhere. Town council people are weird. Not as weird as Lamont people, but weird nonetheless.
After a few hours of standing out on the cold (to which I got yet another cold that I am still fighting) we then delivered some lunches to the other campaign stops and then after a brief visit tot eh mall for my election night outfit, back to HQ. there I helped man the phones and pace around nervously with people from the campaign and a lovely young lady in from DC to help named Jessica. At a round 7 o’clock we made the trek down to Waterbury to check into the hotel.
The crowd early on
I checked into my hotel room and did the three S’s and was ready to go. Down to the ballroom. We had two TV’s set up to watch the returns and since it was 8 o’clock things were trickling in. The first returns showed Chris up by almost 20 points but it was 1% reporting so I wasn’t getting too excited. We watched Rick Santorum go down, which created a cheer in the ballroom, the same for Conrad Burns in Ohio.
Me, Jenn and my sister Rose
Instead of watching television for the returns for Murphy, we were able to get it straight from the horses mouth. The horse being my brother, and the mouth being the felt pen he was using to put the town #’s up on the big board. He would come in and everyone would watch as he put up the numbers for each town. Meriden, Kent, Canaan, Newtown, Bethlehem. All were going for Chris. I was told early on that the town to watch for was Burlington. It has a lot of homeowners, majority white, and a 1 percent poverty rate. If Chris can take that town, it means he can take the district. Then Kevin started writing the numbers. We took it. Cheers everywhere.
Once I heard this I called my friend Sue in DC who was hosting a returns party and wanted constant updates. I was explaining to her exactly what was going on and about five minutes in someone told me that since I was on the stage next to the microphones everyone could hear what I was saying. Thank god I didn’t call anyone a macaca.
Putting the numbers up on the board
A few minutes alter the word started trickling on. Boomer, Johnson’s campaign manager, called into the New Britain office for Chris. They were calling to concede. It was a landslide victory. Once I heard this I whipped out my camera and took a video of the ballroom as everyone realized Chris won:
Now it was just waiting for the man of the hour. Everyone was grinning ear to ear. Campaign workers were bursting into tears. My brother, after months of 16 hour days and 2 days without sleep actually cracked a smile.
The wall
The crown began to gather at the stage. The chants of “Murphy, Murphy, Murphy” were deafening. Then Chris entered to rock star like applause. Holy shit, he actually did it. then the conquering hero entered. The place went nuts.
Kevin and Ben Murphy.
Congressman-elect Murphy
The future Mayor of Cheshire being congratulated
Kevin and Taylor
After that everyone started drinking and celebrating,. Chris gave interviews and we all continued to watch the House and senate returns coming in. The party then moved up to the presidential suite where the staff volunteers and Chris all hung out and watched more returns come in. We also finally found time to eat.
Like an Democrat I don’t like Lieberman, but these Lamont bloggers need to stop smoking crack.
Dkos discussing Liebermans 12 point lead: Can Lamont close enough of the gap where his field operation pushes him over the line? That's the real question. I suspect it'll be a nail bitter.
As someone who actually lives in CT and has canvased for Dems let me spell this out. Lamont is going to lose. Everyone knows it. The field directors, the canvasers, the volunteers. And even if I lived in freaking Alaska even I know that a 12 point lead is a 12 point lead. Even if Lamont's ground game was excellent (and it’s actually not), he has no chance. He’s dead in the water. The congressional candidate I canvas for, we don’t even bother asking the Lamont questions or handing out the Lamont literatre any more. Because 1. he’s going to lose and 2. he’s polarizing and 3. I want the terrorists to win.
The wall
The future Mayor of Cheshire being congratulated
