Reporting on our Halloween Cakewalk for Rich Sexton, who's challenging Jim Saxton for NJ-3 seat in Congress.
Truth is, we almost punked out. (“Whose idea was this, anyway?”) But we screwed up our courage, headed out, and spent about 2 hours cakewalking through the goblin-infested streets of our old suburban town, ringing doorbells, and singing our ditty. Watch it.
The good news is that our reception was overwhelmingly positive. (Only one door slammed in our faces.) Better news is that most of those we “entertained” were planning to support Dems next week. The best news was that quite a few had actually seen and heard Rich Sexton at campaign events. (OK, we live in Sexton’s hometown, but it’s still impressive, since Sexton has had no paid media.)
More after the jump.
Needless to say, Halloween is a strange night. One block would teem with young trick-or-treaters and parents, thus offering us many performance opportunities. But just around the corner, we’d ring a doorbell and were told that we were the first visitors of the night. From a personal standpoint, our cakewalk made Halloween fun for the first time in many years. It’s a hell of a lot more enjoyable going door-to-door, rather than waiting at the door.
The high point of the night came when one gentleman invited us inside. Arrayed around his living room were a concert piano, a full-sized church organ (complete with wooden pipes), and a small harpsichord. He accompanied us on piano as we sang and played, then treated us to Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desire” on the organ. We were awed and humbled. (Watch the video and you'll understand why.)
We realized we’d been preaching to the choir when the gentleman produced, literally, a stack of books, including Tom Ricks’ “Fiasco,” Sy Hersh’s “Chain of Command,” and Frank Rich’s “The Greatest Story Ever Sold.”
We finished up the night at the home of a local Dem couple, where we were treated to real food, fortifying drink, and good conversation. So, we had some fun, maybe influenced a voter or two to go to the polls next week, and charged ourselves up for election day.
I'm very proud of what Rich did (over 40%) considering his situation. All the NJ underdogs put up a good fight. Great Job!
Love your song too - you should do his commercials :-)
Posted by: Tom Wyka | November 14, 2006 at 11:58 PM