What it is really like to work on an electoral campaign: getting started

The E.P. and I are getting settled in Reno, our home away from home for the next two months as we work to elect a new Democratic Senator, Jacky Rosen, and a new Democratic Governor, Steve Sisolak. In this perilous moment when the small measure of equal opportunity working people and people of color have won in this country are at risk from Trump and the GOPers, nothing seems more important than replacing as many Republicans as we can in November. Nevada is ground zero for this effort, our best shot at replacing a sitting GOP Senator. So here we are.

We are fortunate to be working in a small, highly efficient, sub-branch of the campaign. The union UniteHERE (that's the hotel and hospitality folks) have the project of making Washoe County (Reno and Sparks) blue. This is the second largest concentration of people in the state; most of the rest are around Las Vegas. The union has worked here in the last two presidential elections and done the job, but never before in a midterm. This is a campaign operation that knows what it is doing. You can read more specifics at this link.

I find myself in a fortunate position here: I've been around enough of these efforts to know the ropes -- but I am just lower middle management this time, not responsible for the stressful and confidential stuff that running a campaign involves. I just have a job to do -- mostly coordinating volunteers and being a spare pair of hands. Consequently, I will be able to blog about what it is really like to work on an election.

And so, here's a first installment: lead organizers spent Labor Day clearing out a crowded, underused borrowed office of superfluous junk from a decade of campaigns past:

We'll generate our own junk over the next two months. It was thrilling to make a new start.

Anyone who wants to volunteer to help make Nevada a blue state that treats workers and people of color right, email me here.