POLL BAN. Thirty years ago, when I was doing field organizing for Mo Udall's presidential campaign, I made it a practice about three weeks out from every primary to establish a series of fines in my storefronts. Anyone bringing in a newspaper was assessed a quarter, and any mention at all of poll results cost you a buck. The fines later financed as much Election Night beer as we could afford, so, as you might imagine, there was a lot of obviously fraudulent civil disobedience down the stretch.
Anyway, the point was this: at this point in the campaign, at the grassroots level, all information outside the operation of the storefront is extraneous. It is irrelevant to the grinding, thankless work of GOTV whether or not the candidate is three points up or 30. So, my advice to all the people in the trenches is to ignore stories like this one, even though they make your heart go pitty-pat. Work like you're five points down and you can turn a five-point lead into 10. Of course, the corollary is to tell all those Democratic pols with huge warchests and no opponents -- and this means you, Marty Meehan -- to shoo the moths out of your wallets and help out. I am fond of quoting the old boxing trainer who, when Joe Louis fretted that the referee would steal his victory from him, told the fighter, "Joe, let your right hand be your referee."
So that's it. Any Democratic politician or strategist who mentions these polls before November 7 owes me a quarter. Mention Diebold and, I swear, it'll cost you a ten-spot.
--Charles P. Pierce
