On Thursday, July 13 a Zeese Flock went to Frederick, MD for a night of midnight campaigning.  We campaigned from just before 11:00 PM to about 1:30 AM. One of the goals of the effort was to talk to people who work the late night shifts and get a sense of their concerns and challenges.  The late night workers keep America going while the country sleeps but they are ignored by most people running for office, I hoped to begin to change that – to recognize and respect them for the work they do.

The Zeese Flock was joined by Washington Post reporter Philip Rucker who is working on a profile of me as part of a campaign journal – a day in the life of a senate candidate.  Of course, meeting with voters – without any prep or control of those voters is a bit different than what we see in American politics these days.  Usually campaign events organized by the two old parties are very scripted – only party activists and supporters are allowed in – especially when there is media present.  But, Philip wanted to see me interact with voters – he had already attended the Bus Boys and Poets event, and he attended part of a Z-Core group meeting – so we thought we’d let him see the real thing!

Our first stop was the Frederick Memorial Hospital.  I went outside to the employee entrance and talked with employees as they left their shift or began their late night shift.  While I was outside other Zeese Flock members were inside the employee parking garage where they put literature on approximately 300 cars. When I was in undergraduate school I worked as an orderly on the 11 PM to 7 AM shift at LaGuardia Hospital in New York City, so I know what it is like to work all night.

The employees loved being talked to by someone running for office.  Two trends of the evening emerged when I was talking with voters: (1) they were shocked that someone running for office would be talking to them – no candidate has ever sought them out or asked their views, (2) when they heard I was not a Democrat or Republican they were more likely to talk to me – not once throughout the night did any voter express concern about a third candidate “spoiling” the election – in fact, just the opposite, voters wanted to see someone who challenged the two special interest parties.  More and more it is clear that the fear of the evil from the other party is just a PR tool of the two old parties to try and scare voters into voting for their candidate rather than voting for what they want.

Another trend was shown in a conversation I had with a lab tech.  He was leaving the building after his shift and when we started talking about health care he expressed concern about his mother who had health problems and could not afford to take care of them.  Here we have a health care worker who can’t get health care for his own family! Sadly, this un-American image has become all too common in America – fireman he can’t live where they work, Whole Food workers who can’t afford to buy organic, builders who can’t afford the houses the build, restaurant workers who could not afford a meal at their own restaurant – on and on, Americans are shut out from an economy that only works for the wealthiest.

We were not allowed to stay too long at the hospital because security came up and told us to leave.  (In fact, we had only planned on spending 15 minutes at the hospital, so we were only cut short by about five minutes.) While some of the flock was talking with security, I kept talking to voters.  After a short while I went over and joined the conversation with security.  I told them how much the employees were enjoying the conversation.  The security officer said, we had to leave.  I decided to engage the security guard in a political discussion.  As Leonard Minsky said later (he was part of the flock and observing this encounter), the guard quickly got put in the conflict of enjoying his conversation with me and at the same time having to do his job.  He gave us the name of someone at the hospital to talk to – of course, there is no way the hospital will approve us giving out political information to employees, so that was more a symbolic gesture – and he took our literature for himself and expressed pleasure and understanding of our effort.

Being forced off the hospital property shows a common problem in our democracy – less and less area where the public can be engaged.  As more and more land is corporatized it becomes harder and harder to communicate directly to voters.

We went from the hospital to two nearby supermarkets – a midnight Safeway and a 24-hour Giant.  We talked to customers and to people working at the stores.  Surprisingly, at neither venue were we harassed or asked to leave.  

Some vignettes:

-          a security guard who worked the late night shift from 10 PM to 6 AM at a supermarket that closes at midnight.  The guard lives in PG County and has a second job in Washington, DC.  Thus he must drive more than a hundred miles a day for low paying jobs.  He is like much of America’s work force – struggling.  One out of four full time workers in the US makes less than $10 per hour – starvation wages that require two jobs in order to survive. No wonder the most common reason for not voting is the inconvenience of voting on a work day (the second most common reason is the two candidates make no difference).

-          a professional fireman who works in Montgomery County – where he protects homes and businesses from fires and other emergencies.  Yet, he can’t afford to live in the community he serves, so he commutes from Frederick – ends up shopping late night close to midnight after his commute home.

-          a night manager of an all night supermarket – just graduated from college with a degree in graphic design, yet he’s unable to find a job in his field of expertise, so he is stuck as a late night manager.  He’s hoping to break through and get a job in his field.  But, for now its Giant and playing music on the side.

-          a cashier whose adult son is legally blind – but not disabled enough to get benefits.  As a result the son works two jobs and all of the family tries to work their schedule so they can help him get to and from work.  She sees a government that is disconnected from the people, doesn’t care about their basic needs and has its priorities confused.

-          a shopper who would not stop and talk until I said I did not represent either of the two parties – that I was running independent of the two parties with the support of three new alternative parties, Green, Populist and Libertarian.  Once she heard that she stopped and we talked.  She expressed frustration with politics in America, with two parties that don’t listen to their own voters.  She was so pleased to see someone challenging them.

For me this was the toughest group of all.  Too many of the folks in the bars were too drunk to talk to (in the future we’ll do bars earlier in the evening).  But, at the first stop, I was able to talk to a couple of people – one who had just moved here from Georgia and another who was thinking of moving to Frederick from Pennsylvania.  (I let her know that Frederick was founded by people traveling from Pennsylvania to Virginia and that she was following a historical path.)  After some initial conversation, these folks were particularly interested in my tax plan – the first $100,000 of income federal tax free made up for by a tiny tax of 1/10^th a percent on the purchase of stocks, bonds, currency and derivatives.  They loved the plan – indeed every voter loves the plan.  They recognize that a 22% raise for everyone earning under $100,000 (90% of US workers) would be good not only for them but as a spur for the economy.

We then went to several bars on the Frederick strip.  Leonard, who was observing thought this may have been the best part of the night because it showed me talking to some challenging voters – incoherent and a bit belligerent.  He particularly enjoyed watching one conversation I had with an x-Marine who had spent 2 ½ years in Iraq.  The Marine was getting up close and personal – putting an arm around me and then both of his arms on my shoulder – telling me the Patriot Act did not change the law, but merely reiterated law that was already in place – of course, he has that wrong, but he was in no position to listen!  Leonard liked that I did not back down and turned it into a conversation that the x-Marine was engaged in – as best as someone who was drunk could do so. There was also a rather drunk, short woman who wanted to get my views on the former mayor of Frederick but when I tried to answer she was not capable of understanding me.  Then there was the guy who suggested that legalizing marijuana and requiring that all the farmer, processing and sales jobs created be kept in America and how this could save the economy.  He was perplexed when I explained that I used to be the director of NORML (more than 20 years ago) and knew a good deal about that issue and supported controlling marijuana by bringing it within the law – rather than the current failed marijuana prohibition.  He seemed befuddled that a US Senate candidate knew something about the marijuana issue!  (Hey – its only 700,000 arrests each year in America – why should someone running for office understand the marijuana issue!)  

The final person who talked with me was a youth who said he voted for Ralph Nader and was pleased to see me doing what I was doing.  He said it was tough to get out there “on your own without either of the two old parties.”  But, he also expressed frustration with the possibility of change.  I tried to encourage him to keep up the hope and not give up.  He seemed happy I was running – I urged him to check out the website on the card I gave him and get involved!

We had three final stops on the way out of town – a 24 hour Giant, a 7/11 and a Kinko’s.  Many similar conversations were had at the Giant – by this time the Zeese Flock was showing its tiredness so we were not as effective but we were still able to let voters know we wanted to hear their views.  At the 7/11 the cashier – who got pretty upset when Philip took a photo of me talking to him – expressed total disenchantment with politics.  He was sick of politicians who say one thing and do the other (his comments reminded me of my thoughts of reading a Cardin direct mail piece that said he protected civil liberties, when in fact he voted for the Patriot Act – every time – including the version filibustered by the Senate!)   After I talked with him a bit I opened his mind a little – that there was till hope, that the only chance to take the country back from the wealthy special interests is for people like him to participate.  I’m not sure he’ll actually follow through – but at least for a short time his mind is open to the possibility.  Perhaps if my campaign starts to get attention he will feel like there really is some hope for American politics.  I find giving people hope is one of the most important things about this campaign – people are so frustrated by unresponsive government that they have lost any belief that the government can ever really be ‘of, by and for’ the people.

While the rest of the crew was buying water and refreshments at 7/11 I made my final stop at the Kinko’s next door.  The store was empty except for a worker and a friend.  They were eating a McDonald’s dinner when I came in.  I told them I was running for the U.S. Senate and doing some midnight campaigning.  They were perplexed.  I explained that I want people who work the night shift to know that some people recognize and appreciate their work.  I quickly laid out some of the key parts of my agenda – health care for all, no taxes on the first $100,000 in income and ending the Iraq War – they nodded agreement with each.  I gave them each a “Unity for Change” card and thanked them.  They expressed appreciation and wished me the best.

Although midnight campaigning is exhausting – it is also exhilarating to talk to people who are never asked their opinion, to let voters who are treated as marginal and unimportant know that they matter to someone who is running for office, to hear how the current economy and the current government is not working for them.  It gives me the energy to push on in this very challenging undertaking of trying to take the government back from the special interests and give it to the people.