During his recent campaign to unseat Alberta Darling for the 8th District State Senate --- Sheldon Wasserman emphasized that a Major Component of his Campaign was going "door to door" throuhout the district, to meet as many voters as possible "face to face". He has said that this practice helps him to keep in touch with the thoughts of the folks in his district.
In this last Campaign, Wasserman says that he knocked on 24,528 doors during the year leading up to the election.
Without a doubt --- that is a lot of doors ! It is interesting that the Media never questioned the number of Doors, or what it exactly meant !!
Sooooooooooo --- what exactly is "Knocking On Doors" ?
Obviously the objective to Knocking on a Door, is to get someone to answer ..... introduce yourself ...... and possibly have a short discussion about the issues and concerns for that voter in the upcoming election.
Of course, not every door will be answered. So in many cases, the Knocking on the Door (or ringing the bell) would probably be followed with leaving some literature behind, perhaps a door hanger or a campaign brochure.
Even with a "no answer" door, courtesy would demand that the occupants be given an opportunity to answer -- maybe a minute on average -- some a little longer or less, depending upon the size of the house and how long one would be expected to get to the door to answer it.
When a Door is Answered, depending upon the concerns of the individual who answers the door, it would be reasonable to assume it will take more time than when there is No Answer.
Another variable that would work into determining the time that is spent on each Door, would be the distance between the doors.
In places like Shorewood, where the houses are very close together, it shouldn't take more than about 30 seconds to walk down one walkway to the sidewalk, and up the next walkway to the door.
In other parts of the district, such as Fox Point, the distance would be much greater, and it would not be inconceivable that some houses could be a couple of minutes apart, unless you are cutting through their yards, which a politician would be wise not to do ...
And let's not forget that we are in Wisconsin --- when the walks are ice covered and slippery, when it is snowing or raining, or when it is just plain hot --- these are all factors that will affect the time for each Door.
Taking Wasserman's number of 24,528 doors, we can do some guesstimating on the time that was involved:
If it was 4 minutes per door, that would be 98,112 minutes, or 1,635 hours divided by 52 weeks = 31 hours per week
If it was 3 minutes per door, that would be 73,584 minutes, or 1,226 hours divided by 52 weeks = 24 hours per week
If it was 2 minutes per door, that would be 49,056 minutes, or 817 hours divided by 52 weeks = 16 hours per week.
Even at the lowest number of minutes per door, it would be the equivalent of two 8 hour workdays per week, for an entire year.
That would be a lot of time for someone who is a Medical Doctor and a Legislator and a Family Man --- especially when considering that there were campaign events, meetings, debates and appearances.
WHAT DO YOU THINK ? YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME !
