The new precinct captain

I was knocking on doors when a guy came running down the block yelling at me.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded to know.

“I’m passing out literature for a candidate,” I answered.

“Well, I’m the precinct captain,” he declared. “This is MY precinct.”

“It’s not YOUR precinct,” I said. “You don’t even win it.”

He continued yelling at me. “We had a meeting and decided we don’t want you here,” he shouted

I laughed at him and just said, “Get lost.” Then I walked away.

I knew I wouldn’t win the precinct because the opponent lived nearby and he was a popular incumbent. But I hadn’t thought I’d lose it too badly. Our candidates had carried it in some previous elections and we found that the precinct captain was not very effective.

This guy, apparently, was the new precinct captain and he was determined to do well. He was the President of the Townhouse Association, which covered 80% of the precinct. His son had a patronage job with Snow Command and plowed the alley behind the townhouses, even though alleys were low priority for the city, so residents could more easily get in and out of their parking lot.

On Election Day, I did worse than I expected (so did he). Things had obviously changed. The precinct was no longer competitive.