We were standing with Paul Hackett, former Marine Major and Democratic candidate for Congress, while he was waiting to do a TV interview for the local station.
All of a sudden there was a loud car horn blaring outside -- everyone looked out the window, and Hackett said, "Oh, that's Butch in the jeep."
That's Master Sergeant Butch Davis, of Brown County in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District. He's been driving since before 7 AM today, getting out the vote among veterans and other voters here in Southern Ohio.
Butch is a 30-year veteran of the Marines, the Army and the Air Force. He didn't know Paul Hackett before this race, but when he saw a Marine running he decided to do something.
There won't be any exit polls in this race today, but I asked Butch what he thought -- he said he called 300 veterans he knows in the district over the last 48 hours. He managed to get in contact with 100 of them.
According to Butch, only three of that 100 were voting for Hackett's opponent.Butch is exactly the kind of Democrat we're looking to energize. When I asked him what he thought of the campaign and what was happening here he said, "This is the best organization I've seen down here."
Butch told me that, "We sure need a different direction in this country." Well, a whole lot of other Democrats in Southern Ohio agree.
And thanks to a national party committed to a 50-state strategy, even in this most Republican bastion in the state, Democrats have the resources and energy to wage a fight that will lay the groundwork for the future.
http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/08/veterans_for_ha.php