Longtime TPM Reader FC checks in …
An update from someone working the past 2 days in suburbs around Boston and the high-turnout neighborhoods of West Roxbury and Hyde Park.
There has been a huge uptick in activity by Coakley supporters over the past 48 hours, especially grassroots progressive groups and the well-oiled, disciplined and certain-to-vote unions who came out big for Coakley in the primary: SEIU has quietly conducted numerous GOTV-prep sessions numbering several hundred volunteers each; teachers in Brookline, Newton and Watertown conducted day-long phone banks and canvassing; pro-choice womens’ groups (including a large contingent of nurses) have been running an intensive outreach to female voters.
I’ve also been receiving a deluge of emails and text messages from individuals and groups who have been quiet since the primary, all urging me to vote, volunteer, etc. My sense is that the progressive majority here has simply been procrastinating on this, the fourth election since October, and are now clicking into action.
