Poll-watching during Massachusetts’ historic January 2010 special election

PART I:  January 18, 2010 – Today I heard about an opportunity to poll watch in tomorrow’s historic special election in Massachusetts. Of course, I jumped at the chance and responded. Moments later, my contact at Americans for Limited Government was on the line with me, making my train reservation and exchanging cell phone numbers. Then I threw together a suitcase and ran out the door to catch the subway from Astoria, Queens to Penn Station.

I had just exhausted myself on Saturday, January 16 in Agawam, Mass. with The New York Young Republican Club, in a door-to-door get-out-the-vote effort for senate hopeful Scott Brown. After that long day, I could barely muster the strength to make Internet phone bank calls for Brown from my dusty bedroom. But when I saw this job come up in today’s Facebook newsfeed, I grabbed it. High on the list of motivating factors was an opportunity to dine with fellow patriots after the day’s labors and get “liquored up.”

For those of you in transit from Jupiter, or living in a dark, muddy ditch in Venezuela, Brown has a chance to take the U.S. Senate seat vacated when Edward “Teddy” Kennedy departed to meet his maker in 2009. If successful Tuesday, Brown will destroy the Dem’s supermajority, complicate the push for ObamaCare™, and sink a sharp knife deeply into Obama’s already rapidly failing presidency. Brown’s opponent is the singularly uninspiring Martha Coakley, known to some of her most ardent supporters as “Marcia.” It’s a close race – which is why poll-watching is vital – but I am hopeful for a win.

So tonight, riding in business class on Amtrak’s exceptional Acela Express to Boston, I am meeting someone holding a sign, to be whisked to Woburn’s Hampton Inn and hopefully given some training, a late meal, and some suds.

On the train, I’m relaxing with Tarantino’s Basterds on my laptop, texting hotel details to my family, drinking Corona, typing this article, and calling the hotel to see if they have wifi (they do), and food (yes, hot breakfast and close proximity to Joe’s Bar and Grill). They’re thirty minutes from Boston’s South Station; the map I managed to snap on screen before I packed my laptop indicates that there’s a Peet’s Coffee and Tea two blocks from the station, so perhaps it was in God’s plan that I forgot to replenish my Starbucks on last night’s grocery run. Guess I’ll be leaving for the station an hour early Wednesday and driving everyone in my Amtrak car crazy from the smell.

“Pick up your penny and your suitcase,” sings ELO on my laptop’s iTunes at this very moment. Well, on my budget, this is exactly what I’m doing tonight. “Hold on tight to your dreams,” they continue on the next track. But freedom is not a dream; it is a concrete, obtainable reality. A reality we can lose, yes, but definitely not a mere dream. I’m holding on tight anyway.

I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but I’m sure I’ll be ready to make a difference at the polls. By happenstance, I had a clean purple T-shirt in my laundry, so I packed it. Maybe this will confuse the SEIU thugs likely to be lurking menacingly at my assigned polling place, or maybe it will just piss them off. Either way, it’s a win.

I’ll check in late tomorrow in Part II with a full report of the day. Meanwhile, please pray for a win for Brown. And pray hard.