Canvassing anecdotes? (OR-Leg, but not exclusively)

As I'm sure most of you know, today has been designated a Fifty-State Turnout National Day of Action for Democrats. I spent a chunk of the day knocking on doors for Rob Brading, who's running for state representative in District 49 in the suburbs northeast of Portland, Oregon. Rob's opponent is Karen Minnis, the loathsome Republican speaker of the Oregon House for the last few years.

As far as precinct walking goes, this was a relatively unexceptional day. I went out by myself rather than with a partner, as I prefer to do. I walked through a pleasant middle-class suburban landscape of confusingly addressed single-story houses old enough to be distinctive yet without any sense of the historic. My list consisted of a mixed bag of Democrats, unaffiliated voters, minor party voters, and Republicans over 65. The latter were a stretch for the campaign and my contacts with them were generally not satisfying (with one notable exception). But in a district where registration leans Democratic and where Rob Brading made a very credible run in 2004, I feel heartened all in all by the work I put in today and the attitudes people expressed. Of the voters with whom I actually made contact today, the majority clearly favored Rob -- and this neighborhood was no a nest of rabid moonbats, let me tell you. The cultural indicia on the street, in fact, were center-right. Apparently the voters are not.

So how 'bout you? I'd love to hear others' stories of pounding the pavement today. I'm going to head out front and put another coat of primer on my new front porch stair railings while the weather's nice, but I'll be back in to check up in a bit.