Democratic Committees driven by fear of Clinton-Republican Committees driven by fear of “President Trump”

On Election Day Nov. 2008 I was chair of the Democratic Committee of Coatesville, PA.

There was an incident late in the day at Coatesville’s First Ward.  At the time Coatesville’s First Ward was heavily Democratic and there was a line around the corner waiting to enter to vote.

A man hired by Rep. Tim Hennessey was passing out handbills aimed at Democrats that said something like vote straight for Democrat for Obama and then fill in the oval for Tim Hennessey. Hennessey is a Republican and the people passing out the fliers for him were not received well by the mostly Democratic voters waiting in line.

The man passing out the handbills was overwhelmingly rejected. He appeared inebriated and increasingly belligerent. He began to push the handbills hard into voter’s chests. Several fistfights nearly broke out.

The normal procedure when something like this occurs in Chester County is to call on the State Constable who was elected by the voters of Coatesville’s First Ward. The Constable is the only officer legally enabled to enforce order at a polling place in Chester County.

But nobody ran for State Constable in Coatesville’s First Ward and there was no Constable available.

I was called over to try to restore order. I saw in person what was happening. I drove to Coatesville’s Fourth Ward where there was a State Constable, who at the time was the only State Constable in the City of Coatesville.

The State Constable gave me his phone to call the Coatesville Police and then got on the line to tell police he gave them jurisdiction to do what was needed to restore order to the Fourth Ward Polls.

When I came back to the Fourth Ward Polls a man working for the Obama Campaign had artfully persuaded Hennessey’s drunk and disorderly paid campaign worker to be respectful of voters. 

When the Coatesville PD officer came by we waved him off.

The man quietly handed out his handbills the rest of the evening without incident.

The people working for the Obama campaign were top-notch campaign workers. They were truly impressive.

Working at the local level to elect Barack Obama in Coatesville was an uplifting experience.

I don’t think the 2016 elections will be uplifting.

It’s very clear to me that Democratic Committee-people in Chester County and probably all over America are driven to support Clinton mostly out of fear of retribution. 

I expect some of the corrupt underbelly of professional campaign workers in Hillary’s campaign and the usual corrupt professional Republican campaign workers.  I believe the political professionals hired by Hillary for President will be some of the same people hired by the GOP. They work for any political party. My experience with GOP campaign managers is they are without scruples.

I’ve run across a few Trump hat-wearing people talking up Trump on the street and inside stores but I think they are volunteers maybe working for Trump on their own.

I don’t know if the Trump Pence Campaign will have a paid staff on the ground in Pennsylvania. 

I think the Republican Party has a mixed view of Trump. Some Republicans will even support Hillary Clinton.

I believe the Chester County Republican Committee will have people working for down ballot Republicans. They may antagonistic towards Trump supporting Republicans. 

I believe some local Republicans are more extremist than Donald Trump. They will be out supporting Trump. 

(SEE: Quiet War)

I think it’s going to be a rough election for poll workers this year.