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* From Scott Cisek’s Facebook page…
I have been thinking about it the last 24 hours. When you consider campaign staff survives for a year on a diet of nothing but alcohol, cigarettes, cold pizza, and parade candy you really get a sense of how strong and driven these women and men really are.
Those are the four “campaign food groups” - ask any staffer, I’m not making this up.
His commenters chimed in that he’d forgotten to include caffeinated drinks like coffee and pop.
* The Question: Your favorite personal campaign story?
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 2:34 pm
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Designing my candidate’s campaign brochure on a cocktail napkin in a bar. (Maybe that’s why she lost.)
Comment by Norseman Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 2:39 pm
My favorite would get me banned.
Comment by A guy Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 2:40 pm
Not my campaign, but partying with congressional campaign buddies as they took the girls picked up at aforementioned bar and xeroxed their behinds at campaign HQ. Now that was a good GOP platform.
Comment by Norseman Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 2:43 pm
An entire office getting too drunk to continue volunteer recruitment calls from taking a shot every time someone said yes.
Comment by I'mWithHarambe Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 2:45 pm
My personal favorite food related was after getting tired of cold pizza and fast food we chipped in to purchase a dorm refrigerator and George Foreman grill. Ended up cooking everything in the bathtub and sending the greases down drain with cold shower water. Three months in a holiday inn express. Thank you George Foreman and holiday inn for not evicting us. I’m pretty sure we broke every rule in their book.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 2:55 pm
There are too many favorite personal stories to share only one. The best part of campaigns is the camaraderie with kindred spirits. Once you’ve worked on a campaign with someone, you’re friends and allies forever. It’s what I imagine serving together in combat must be like, although obviously much safer.
To Scott’s point, one of my exhaustion related “favorite” stories was when I was driving my candidate to Chicago from Central Illinois in the middle of the day and I kept nodding off behind the wheel. No joke, if I wrecked that day, Illinois would have been robbed of a great public servant. And I don’t mean me.
Get your rest kids and lay off the sauce. Remember, nothing good happens after midnight (except on election night).
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 2:58 pm
My favorite food related campaign story is. While spending three months on a campaign in a Holiday Inn Express we got sick and tired of fast food and cold pizza so we shipped in and bought a dorm size refrigerator and a George Foreman grill. I ended up cooking my hamburgers in the bathtub and used the shower to rinse the grease down drain. I have to say it was amazing that we never got evicted and I want to thank George Foreman for teaching me Healthy cooking in a bathtub
Comment by Joseph Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 2:59 pm
I don’t have any campaign stories worth telling, but I do tell my students that college students have four main food groups: Beer, Pizza, Pretzels, and more Beer.
Comment by G'Kar Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 2:59 pm
Girls, cheap southern Illinois knock off Italian food, and a bottle of Jameson. Oh also David Bowie. The details of that story were left in that region of the state that I’m not welcome back in.
Comment by SidePiece Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 3:10 pm
the campaign office without a bathroom door and then one that did not lock.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 3:12 pm
About 20 years ago, working a campaign against Rep. (later Senator) John O. Jones. Greg Backes was our guys name, I think - it’s been so long ago. Heck of a nice guy. Anyways, 5:15 a.m. on Election Day, driving out in the middle of nowhere south of Mt. Vernon to get to a rural polling place. Come up over a hill, and standing right in the middle of the road were 12 peacocks. I kid you not, peacocks, in rural southern Illinois. I slam on the brakes, honk at the birds, and they don’t move. I honk a few more times, flash the lights, nothing. Birds are looking at me like I’m crazy. My coworker at the time (now wife) suggests throwing rocks at them, so I get out but all there is are the little pebbles you find on the edges of a rural blacktop road. So, I throw some of them at the peacocks. They still won’t move. Angry now, I run at them while waving my arms and screaming like a maniac. Peacocks finally get out of the road, so off we go.
The wife, to this day, still gives me a hard time about it and claims it’s the funniest thing she’s ever seen.
Comment by Lester Holt's Mustache Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 3:21 pm
After the robocalls, TV ads, mailers and signs the number of people who did not realize there was a special election going on.
That and the night we won the primary and it was just the staff together for a bit. That feeling was awesome to the Nth degree.
Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 3:23 pm
Watching the candidate’s face when telling them the long list of yard sign locations she had obtained from going door-to-door where not in her district.
Comment by Give Me A Break Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 3:24 pm
Being forced to sleep in the candidate’s kid’s bedroom while they were away at college. Their bedroom had all their high school trophies, posters, etc etc. The candidate acted like letting me sleep in their house was some big treat. The candidate’s spouse took pity on me and let me drink from their liquor candidate after the candidate went to bed, and the spouse would always pour their good stuff that was only for special occasions. The spouse would replace the bottle when we drank it empty.
Comment by Not It Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 3:26 pm
A man at the Little Egypt Parade in Salem threatened to kill me. No joke.
Comment by Team Sleep Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 3:29 pm
Having won the election, the candidate’s way of thanking the staff was offering to have his law firm write our wills for us. We all wrote down our information and who we wanted to leave our stuff to, and the next day his assistant gave us our copies and we signed them all together in his conference room.
15 years later it still is the only will I have; I wonder if he would update it for free…….
Comment by Not It Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 3:32 pm
A couple of quickies that come to mind:
1) the heroin addicts that used to shoot up in the bathroom of the “business center” our campaign office was located at (behind a sleazy “hotel”)
2) picking up a congressperson who ran out of gas on I-80 after a campaign event
Comment by Precinct Captain Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 3:33 pm
Attending a candidates forum where the audience was composed of nothing but supporters/ campaign staff from each camp. Not a single undecided voter in the room and lots of yelling.
A prelude to the current political landscape.
Comment by Boone's is Back Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 3:48 pm
Calling and cancelling telephone service for our opponent’s telephone bank the day before the election. It happened more than two decades ago when a simply phone call sufficed and there was little security.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 3:56 pm
Getting questioned by suburban police while hanging door hangers at 4:30 a.m. The report noted that I had bloodshot eyes and looked liked I had not slept in some time. Yep.
Comment by Signal & Noise Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 4:02 pm
When someone got the idea to microwave day old Dunkin Donuts to soften them up! Goo and frosting all over the place!
Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 4:03 pm
When phone-banking for Obama in 08, even with a clean list, we all too frequently got a hold of someone who was an unrepentant racist. I instructed my volunteers to hang-up immediately, and then make another call right away to clean the filth out of their heads.
I then copied the racist’s name, address and telephone number onto a list that I kept in my notebook.
For later…
– MrJM
Comment by @MisterJayEm Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 4:11 pm
One time toward the end of a race after I made a candidate knock doors all day they came back to the office in a rage…pretty sure it was because they didn’t see enough yard signs, though the why is sort of irrelevant.
They had the crazy-eyed-end-of-campaign candidate look in their eyes, along with some pent up rage issues, and I was sincerely concerned for my physical safety.
Another operative on another race happened to walk into the office off the street, which the candidate did not notice, so I knew someone would be there to step in if they physically attacked.
This is a crazy business.
Comment by Who Else Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 4:12 pm
I have too many favorite campaign stories, but looking back on it, I can’t believe how lucky I am to not have gotten badly hurt:
–A voter threatened to shoot me;
–Attack by a dog (thank God for clip boards)
–Got whistled at by a gang member
–My supervisor came to pick my up when someone told me they assigned me to walk North Chicago by myself. Some woman came out of her house, asked me if I was lost because she was genuinely worried about me
–Canvassed creepy trailer parks by myself
–And I lost count of how many times voters told me I shouldn’t be in their neighborhood w/ out a gun
Oh and I think a forgotten campaign food group is McDonalds. Easy to eat while driving but I got terribly sick when I had it too many days in a row
Comment by Miss Marie Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 4:20 pm
I also saw a naked person when walking door-to-door. That was interesting. I came back to HQ with a very wide-eyed look.
Comment by Team Sleep Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 4:20 pm
2004. The County Clerk was so angry that our campaign was registering so many new student voters that he ran into our campaign office, found the box of copied registrations, stole them, and began calling the voters while standing in the street in front of our office. The next couple of hours involved police and the local newspaper. The Clerk returning our property was the best part.
Comment by Toothpicks and Ice Cream Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 4:21 pm
Ate White Castles with the candidate, after walking in the 90 degree heat. It was gross but strangely good at the same time.
I also would like to add bad take Chinese food on paper plates to the food group list.
Ironing my pants on a desk while standing in the middle of the campaign office in my underwear.
Comment by hockey fan Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 4:21 pm
I’ll also say nothing is more motivating to canvass a neighborhood quickly than trying to get it done before gang members wake up.
I kid you not. The candidate would forbid us from going to those areas, and soon as he’d leave the office, the field director would send me out there alone.
Comment by Miss Marie Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 4:25 pm
=== I then copied the racist’s name, address and telephone number onto a list that I kept in my notebook. ===
Planning on selling to the KKK for their next recruitment campaign? /s
Comment by Norseman Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 4:41 pm
Too many to talk about here and some I can’t share, although the statutes of limitation have expired on some of them. If you have beers with the old campaign crew, you’ll inevitably hear about some of them. You know how war stories go.
That being said, I’ll go with meeting my future bride on one of the craziest campaigns I’ve ever been on. That’s how we roll!😉
Comment by AnonyMau5 Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 4:41 pm
Actually, now that I think about it, I do have a story to share. Back in the `80’s when I was doing graduate work at the University of Minnesota, I did work on a phone bank for a mayoral candidate. I was very green and not all that comfortable cold calling people. I was given a page from the phone book and told to call people and ask them to support our guy. One of my calls was to “A. B. Jones” (I can’t remember the real name, but it was abbreviated). Mr. Jones answered, I did my spiel, and he ask if I knew who I was talking to. I said, Mr. A. B. Jones. He replied, yes Mr. Andrew Jones. I then realized I was talking to my candidate’s opponent! I said, I suspect then, we do not have your support. He laughed goodnaturedly, told me now to worry about it, and hung up.
Comment by G'Kar Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 4:55 pm
Most people celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. Campaign people celebrate the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Comment by 312 Tuesday, Sep 13, 16 @ 7:38 pm
Telling a candidate on a statewide race- follow that guy, who is from the town, in the parade route, he’ll introduce you to friendly folks, get great photo ops and shake some hands.
Ask the guy later how’d it go?- The candidate was always across the street from him, baiting the people who were heckling and arguing position points.
Candidate told me- parade went great lots of fun.
Comment by DuPage Bard Wednesday, Sep 14, 16 @ 12:13 am
Worked for an also-ran in a gubernatorial primary. I’m not saying we were short on volunteers, but sometimes, wearing my bib overalls and chasing farmers in fields for permission to put up a 4 X 8, I’d return to HQ for my next assignment. Sometimes it would be a “civilized” assignment; I’d hang up the mud-caked bibs, put on a suit, and out the door I’d go.
Comment by Stumpy's bunker Wednesday, Sep 14, 16 @ 6:04 am
I’m friends with Cisek. I’ve worked campaigns with him. He forgot to mention going weeks without doing laundry. Might not sound like a health thing but to the people around you it is.
Comment by Southern Dawg1 Wednesday, Sep 14, 16 @ 8:18 am
drinking beer after hours in stryofoam coffee cups so no one notices.
Comment by quicknote Wednesday, Sep 14, 16 @ 6:21 pm