SUNDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2010
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POLITICS & THE NATION Hope isn’t what it used to be
In Arkansas, this Democrat is staying positive. But the GOP’s inroads are tough to ignore.
BY SANDHYA SOMASHEKHAR IN LITTLE ROCK
stoop asks her whether she’ll be voting forDemocrats this year. Yes, Buddie Everett says, she
W
will. “Great!” says the activist, John
Joyce. “Can we put a sign in your yard?” Sure. Joyce, smiling even bigger now,
goes off to fetch the sign. One morevoter solidlyintheDcolumn — no small thing in a year and a state like this. Or perhaps not. “Honestly, I’m still kind of
wishy-washy,” Everett confides once Joyce is out of earshot. “I’m just frustrated, andIdon’tknowif it’s the government orwhat, but it just seems like there are somany horrific things happening right now.” That about sums up what it’s
like for a Democratic activist this year. At some doors, even once- committed supporters look at their party leaders and words such as “horrific” come tomind. Joyce is a deep-in-the-bones
Democrat who has been walking these neighborhoods and tapping signs into these lawns during campaign seasons for 18 years. He’s an optimist who looks for signsofhope ineverywarmhand- shake and every nod of the head. But the reality this year is that the people behind the doors are less enthusiasticandmoreskepticalof his party’s pitch. The reception he received re-
cently in a rural neighborhood outside Little Rock was so hostile that he abandoned his efforts af- ter knocking on just a couple of doors. “I’ve never seen so many pit
bulls inmy life,” he says. His enthusiasm masks an un-
deniable trend: This state, once reliably Democratic, is steadily turningRepublican.Amajority of elected officials in Arkansas are still Democrats, but even Joyce acknowledges that the number is misleading.Arkansaswas justone of ahandful of stateswhere voters supported John McCain in 2008 in greater numbers than they did GeorgeW.Bush four years earlier. Polls show Sen. Blanche Lin-
coln (D) lagging behind her Re- publican challenger, Rep. John Boozman.Two veteranDemocrat- ic congressmen are retiring this year,andbothseatspresentprime opportunities forRepublicancon- tenders. Joyce isn’t interested in dwell-
ing on such statistics.He is a true believer and wills himself to be optimistic. When the pundits on cable TV start making doomsday predictions, he reaches for the mute button.Whenhe gets a criti- cal e-mail, he deletes it.When his wife sees a car with a snarky Re- publican bumper sticker — “How’s that Hopey Changey Stuff WorkingOut forYou?”—she slaps a scribbled reply on the wind- shield: “It’s going just fine, thanks for asking.” “We just don’t sit and think
about it at night and worry about what’s going on,” Joyce says. “I approach it as,we just go out and dowhatwe can.Youdoyourall for yourcandidate. Ifyoudogoodand get some votes, that’s all thatmat- ters.”
Arkansas Travelers In 1992, Joyce was one of the
Arkansas Travelers, amerry band of activists who drove around the country in rented vans to support Bill Clinton’s presidential cam- paign. Subsisting on cookies and crackers, they spent their days knocking on doors, cheering at rallies and waving signs at inter-
Joyce volunteers at Sen. Blanche Lincoln’s Little Rock campaign headquarters. Lincoln is behind Republican John Boozman in polls.
sections. Years later they re- grouped forHillaryRodhamClin- ton, and when that didn’t work out they threw their support be- hind Barack Obama. This year, theywill climb back in the van for Lincoln. Joyce plans to be at the wheel. Back in the day, the group
would park in Democratic-lean- ing neighborhoods and hit every door on the block. Now they use computer-generated lists gleaned from voter databases and target only thosehomes that are likely to have friendly faces inside. Thedaygoes likethis:Knockon
a door, drive a couple of blocks. Knock on another door, drive an- other couple of blocks. On a recent morning, Joyce
pulls on his baby-blue “Blanche Lincoln for Senate” T-shirt, fas- tens his clip-on sunglasses and climbs into hisVolvo SUV. “Let’s rock-and-roll,” he says. When he talks to voters, he
reminds them that the economic downturn began on Bush’swatch. IfLincolnloses toBoozman, Joyce says, the state will also lose her strong advocacy as chairwoman of the Senate agriculture commit- tee, which oversees the state’s largest industry. Gamely, he says he senses peo-
ple becoming more receptive to hismessage. “It’s getting more positive for
the Democratic Party,” he says. “Everybody seems to have a new bounce in their step.” Joyce will go anywhere he
thinks he’ll find voters willing to listen. Manning the Democratic Party table at the Arkansas State Fair,he callsout tomeninoveralls and cowboy hats, towomen push- ing strollers. On the table, he’s set out a fresh crop of Blanche Lin- coln bumper stickers that declare her “One Tough Lady.”
TALK SHOWS Guests to be interviewed Sunday onmajor television talk shows:
FOX NEWS SUNDAY WTTG, 9 a.m. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and ClaireMcCaskill (D-Mo.) and Carly Fiorina, Republican Senate candidate fromCalifornia.
STATE OF THE UNION CNN, 9 a.m. White House senior adviser David Axelrod.
THIS WEEK ABC,WJLA, 10 a.m. Delaware Senate candidates Chris Coons (D) and Christine O’Donnell (R) and California first lady Maria Shriver.
FACE THE NATION CBS,WUSA, 10:30 a.m.
Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, GOP strategist Liz Cheney, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and the Brookings Institution’sWilliamGalston.
MEET THE PRESS NBC,WRC, 10:30 a.m. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and Colorado Senate candidates Michael Bennet (D) and Ken Buck (R).
WASHINGTON WATCH TV One, 11 a.m. ElizabethWarren, special adviser to the Treasury secretary on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
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wearing a green T-shirt that says “Either he dies, or the country dies.”Themansays, “Blanche’llbe gone in four weeks, thank good- ness.” Joyce mumbles back, “I hope
that works out for you” — a lame response, he acknowledges. But what do you say to such in-your- face animosity? It takes Joyce a bit to rebound.
After a few minutes he says he’s shaken it off. “He’s gone, forgotten about,” he
says. He looks at hiswatch. “Timetorock-and-roll,”hesays, and he gathers up his things.
Keeping his head up Joyce sets out next to knock on
doors for Democratic House can- didate JoyceElliott, inaneighbor- hood not far fromhis home in the Heights, an upscale neighbor- hood set atop a lush hill in north- west LittleRock.
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hen the woman answers the door, the smiling ac- tivistwaiting onher front
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PHOTOS BY RUSSELL POWELL FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
John Joyce has campaigned for Democrats in Arkansas for 18 years. These days, he’s seeing fewer friendly faces and finding people frustrated with his party.Here he visits with Kristi Scott in Little Rock.
It is in this neighborhood of
tiny brick homes and tree-dense yards that JoycemeetsEverett. After learning that she isn’t
such a rock-solid supporter after all, he says, “I ought to go back there and get my pin back,” and then lets out awhoop of laughter. Instead, he moves on. At one
home, Ryan Brooks, 31, an engi- neer, emerges sleepily from his darkened doorway. He says he voted for Obama but is mildly disappointed at the sluggish pace of change—“though it seems like it’s not all his fault,” he says. Brooks says he has not paid
much attention to the midterm elections. That’s another big chal- lenge for Democrats this year: drawing out the Obama “surge” voters who backed the president but do not typically vote in off- yearelections.Their lackofenthu- siasm for this year’s contest has helped Republicans, who boast greater energywithin their base. Still, the exchange is hearten-
ing to Joyce, and a quick succes- sion of positive responses follows, further lifting hismood. “We understand she’s going to
win,” one elderly woman says of Elliott from inside her screen door. Joyce grins and nods and thanks her for her support. He does not point out that El-
liott is nowconsidered the under- dog in her race against Republi- can TimGriffin. Inthe car, Joycemops the sweat
from his forehead. His cellphone rings. It is Sheila Bronfman, head of the Arkansas Travelers, check- ing in to see howthings are going. “It’s going great,” he tells her. “A
lot of people are voting straight ticket.” The ones on the targeted lists,
at least. He doesn’t mention the man in the green T-shirt.
sandhya@washpost.com
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