Anna Little
Anna C. Little, the Republican candidate for Congress in the 6th District, can't afford big media ad buys and doesn't have the franking privilege. So she has elevated the one thing remaining to her--going door-to-door--to a high art.
Because one woman alone can scarcely knock on thousands of doors in a modern US congressional district, Little has created an "army" of volunteers. They will go to a town, fan out in pairs or small clusters, make hundreds of telephone calls, and knock on a thousand or more doors. This is how Little won the June 8 primary, despite being out-fundraised twenty-to-one. And against a much-better funded opponent (Frank Pallone), this is her best option, and she knows it.
Their first target, on July 24, was Dunellen, where, according to Little, about 25 voluntters made just under 5,000 calls and 1,000 home visits, this during one of the worst heat waves that New Jersey has ever seen. On July 31, "Anna's Army" struck again, this time in Matawan with 50 volunteers, for 3,000 telephone calls and 1,700 direct visits. (Actually, a commenter at this poll claimed 2,700 visits, though that might be a typographical error.)
The third target was South Amboy, where Little claimed 700 telephone calls and 1,800 direct home visits. These numbers form a pattern showing that "Anna's Army" much prefers to knock on someone's door rather than make a telephone call. A voice on the telephone is a voice on the telephone, and as far as the one receiving the call is concerned, that voice could be ten miles away, or a hundred, or a thousand. But a knock on the door means a face-to-face visit, carrying far more immediate impact, if only by replacing a disembodied voice with one with flesh and blood behind it.
Little's next target is Aberdeen, her largest target thus far, with 3,900 households. Little called Aberdeen her "first real test" and invited the press to, as it were, embed with "Anna's Army" this Saturday, beginning at 8:30 a.m. at the Town and Country Diner, Route 35N at Broadway, Keyport, NJ. 10:30 is her "H-hour." The Dunellen canvass took six hours; the Matawan canvass, four.
In related news, Little's feud with the Save Jersey Blog appears to have ended with her victory-by-default. Before the primary, Little had enjoyed reasonably good relations with Save Jersey Blog, as these videos seem to indicate:
Blogger J. Justin Rivera published nothing further about Little's candidacy after this blog entry. (Perhaps the unanimous "dislike" vote on the post, and the tenor of some of the comments, convinced him not to try to attack Little any further.) Matt Rooney, the senior blogger, yesterday put up this poll asking regular readers to decide, among three South Central Jersey candidates (Little, Jon Runyan in the 3rd, and Scott Sipprelle in the 12th District), had the best chance to win the general election. Of 75 people responding thus far, 35 believe Runyan has the best chance, followed by 23 for Little and 17 for Sipprelle.
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Comments
Jesse Kelly and Brian Miller as well as Jim Deakin are using the same tactics and it is working!
Although I will not be voting for Ms Little, and politely told her volunteers that when they knocked on my door in Matawan, I also told them that I respected their activism and looked forward to an interesting and, hopefully, civil and to the point campaign.
It's time to try something different. Pallone's had 22 years; I don't see him out there connecting with people. He sends mail. Eh. Unimpressed. Little wants the job. She has new ideas, wants less spending, accountability by government officials-- I like it. We just can't afford more Pallone.
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