On Thursday, my job was all but done. The mail was written, printed, and dropped. The radio buys were running. The paid calls were recorded and scheduled. So, like most every election, I decided to spend the last few days walking precincts so I could get a first hand feel of what the electorate was thinking.

Over the weekend I walked two large precincts – one in Vista and one in Carlsbad – in North County San Diego. The targets were GOP and Decline to State Primary voters. Probably close to a total of 250 households, of which I spoke to around 85… maybe more.

The temperature the first day (Vista) was a boiling 95 and I drew a hilly precinct in an inland upper middle-class community called Shadowridge. This precinct is not in the hotly contested CD50. It is represented by Congressman Darrell Issa, and amusingly I actually ended up walking his precinct and knocking on his door (he wasn’t home). The second day, mercifully, the weather was in the 70’s and I was fairly near the coast in another upper middle-class community. In the second precinct, I was in the middle of the Bilbray-Busby brawl. These are both very, very Republican and very conservative areas. The average age of the voters was probably late 50s’. I only talked to one non-white voter, who was a DTS.

I didn’t notice much of a difference between the voters in the two precincts. First, to the Republicans. As a rule every Republican voter I talked to for more than 10 seconds brought up illegal immigration. I had expected folks to have pretty firm opinions, but the sheer anger they expressed to a complete stranger (me) was surprising. After the voter had determined from my short pitch that I was representing a candidate who was opposed to illegal immigration they would UNLOAD (so much so I shortened my pitch to that issue only). At least half of the Republicans voters expressed disgust with President Bush – directly on the issue of illegal immigration, and a few lumped “Your Republican Party” in with him. Not one mention of abortion. Not one mention of guns. Not one mention of taxes. Not one mention of gay marriage. Not one mention of over-spending. One mention on the war. One person alone said they were quitting the GOP and kicked me off their property. It was pretty clear – there is a new litmus test in GOP primary elections.

Decline to State voters were a very different sort of fish. As always, they were much less interested in the election and in politics in general. I got more than one slammed door. But I’ve walked these neighborhoods before and always found them center-right leaning. Not this time. If I spoke to 20 DTS households I can safely say not one of them expressed a positive opinion of the Republican Party or our candidates. Not one. And every yard sign in DTS yards was for a Democrat candidate of some sort.

This obviously isn’t a scientific poll. It’s just several dozen somewhat lengthy conversations with voters. Draw your own conclusions.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 5th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.