Mike Anthony – True Blue Democrat Full Interview

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Hard to begin without first asking you what your reaction has been to the insurrection and the attack on the Capital.

I'm still processing it, but it's just unbelievable to see what was going on. Horrifying. I was watching it live and, in the beginning, it seemed that most of the horrible activity was outside the Capitol. Then subsequently, you realized what was going on inside. I was watching MSNBC at one point and Andrea Mitchell started to cry. She was saying how the Capital is a place to revere. You walk through there, and you see all these statutes in Statuary Hall, all the past leaders, the history of the country. And in four hours, they ransack the place. You see these costumes and carrying the confederate flag, the guys with the Nazi tee shirts, the sheer boldness of the attack, the sense of entitlement. How could they possibly think they could do that? So delusional. I mean, these people really think that all these states cheated, that we really denied Trump the presidency? After 60 courts cases, after hardly a shred of evidence about anything, they just listen to Trump. If you say something over and over again and say it loud enough, it starts to sink in with these people.

And even after that attack, our congressman, Republican Lee Zeldin, still went forward with his speech demanding that the electoral college votes not be certified. AFTER the attack. Is there any other time in our history that you think comes close to this?

The Civil War. Ann and I were talking about this the other day. We were in Washington, D.C. protesting the Vietnam War when we were in college, and of course there were things like the underground weathermen, and there were bombings by some of the fringe people. Then there was Chicago in 1968 at the Democratic Convention. But most of the demonstrations we went to were peaceful. Ann and I, we went, we chanted, then we went out and got some lunch.

Maybe that's the difference between the left and the right. We chant, and then we get lunch.

The last time the Capitol was under siege was the War of 1812. This time Americans did it.

What do you think we as Democrats can do to counter that power of the big lie that swept them all up in this, that engendered so much rage and hate that they would bash in the heads of policemen? What message we could ever put out there that would counter that?

They are so brainwashed about who we are. We are either communists or socialists or baby killers or whatever. They hate us. They are acting on hate. They have their leader, a bad man who lies 20 times a day and then social media and OAN spread the lies, creating this big cauldron of hate.

With everything going on, has it left you regretting you retired from the committee, or grateful you retired from the committee?

No impact either way. I will still stay active, working to get our candidates elected. But I don't mind no longer being part of the decision-making process or organizing things. I'm happy that other people can do that and have the skills to do it and I can just wait for instructions. “Mike, go canvas ED 20.” Okay, happy to do that.

Thinking about canvassing, we won’t get a chance to challenge Zeldin until 2022. He is complicit now. As Democrats, what do we do with that, other than protesting and signing petitions?

I know there was a protest the other day in front of his office. We've been actively trying to oppose Zeldin since 2018 when he defeated Perry. But I think he's kind of oblivious to us. He doesn't even listen. He doesn't care about us. The Southampton Press editorial page wrote about that. The East End is basically cut off from representation. He doesn't hold town halls, he doesn't care what we think. He just shuts us out. I guess he thinks, “As long as I can carry Brookhaven and Smithtown, what do I care about the East End? They're not big enough.” So, I don't know what to do with him except find a better candidate in 2020 and defeat him.

What process should we be using to try and find a better candidate to run against Zeldin?

I’m glad Rich Schaffer (Suffolk County Democratic Committee Chair) is organizing a candidate selection team comprised of Democratic, progressive and labor leaders to find a super candidate we can rally around to defeat Zeldin. I’m sure there are people out there. The last Democrat who won against him was Tim Bishop. Middle-aged white guy who is a college provost. Is that the profile who can beat Zeldin?

Could Bishop win in the district today? It seems to have moved so far to the right.

Whenever I listen to Zeldin talk, he has these talking points that he gets from the different right-wing groups. Everything with him is a false equivalency. “The Democrats did this.” But it never comes close to the damage the Republicans have done. He almost seems like a Manchurian candidate, pre-programmed, as if this is all he can say. "This is my bandwidth, and I don't go beyond it, low taxes, deregulation, God, guns, and gays and you can't have an abortion. Don't bother me with any complexity.” It's that simplistic, simple things over and over again, which Zeldin always does.

But really their major premise is white supremacy. "You people need to stay in your place." To me, that's what's going on. Each day they get angrier and angrier and angrier. We had a black president, we have a Black vice president now, and there's more people of color getting elected to Congress. Georgia now has a Jewish senator and a Black senator. To them, it makes them feel, “This can't be, this can't happen. We’re under attack.” They are very shallow, indecent people.

That's what I think we're fighting against. But what is hopeful, as I said recently to SHDems member Katie Moran, is there are more of us than there are of them.

I've heard people say what we need in our district is a kind of Stacey Abrams Fair Fight voter registration initiative. Do you think there are enough people we could register to flip Brookhaven?

We need to be asking, “Where's the county Dems voter registration program? How active are the Democratic committees in voter registration? And what is our message?” I think we have an appealing message, let’s get it out there.

Could we get past the lock the Republican Party seems to have on messaging?

That’s a good point. Maybe that's just one leg of the stool that we have to put together to be able to win the congressional seat again. One thing that I was thinking about, that “the Republicans want to give you $600 reluctantly, but we are adding $1400 to make it $2,000 for you.” I think the policy and the message from that would have an impact.

I read the other day that there are about eight areas around the country where people are already leaving the Republican Party. They are either registering as Democrats or something else or just stopping their registration. I don't know if that's just an immediate, knee-jerk reaction to what they're seeing lately, or if it's something else, like “Wow, this Republican Party's really off the rails.”

Also, I think Nancy Goroff was hurt last year by COVID, we couldn’t get out there and knock on doors and speak directly to people. She was new with no name recognition.

One other thing that could help for 2022 is if Schumer, as the majority leader, could help to remove the SALT cap. Cuomo mentioned this the other day. This would be a big deal for our district. Schumer was hinting that, "I can't wait to help New York." He was asked about what he was going to do for New York and basically indicated, “I'm going to do as much as I can." No qualms.

In the book, you said that your becoming chair of the SHDems in 2007, “was just a case of being in the right place at the right time,” but I know it’s more than that.

If I could go back to that quote in the book about being at the right place at the right time, there is a lot behind that in a sense that I grew up out here, and then I lived in New Jersey and worked in New York City for 33-34 years, and then we moved back here. And I just happened to move back when the party wasn't on its feet. There was internal conflict and I came in as the neutral guy. When I was interviewed to become a Democratic committee member by the chair at the time, he spent two or three hours with me telling me his version about what was going on with the Southampton Democratic Party. And Ann and I were both, “we just want to help Democrats get elected.” It was kind of a fresh start then.

After a while, I realized that the party was kind of stuck in the mud with people just having beefs with one another. So, after a while and observing the dysfunction I said maybe I should run for committee chair. By that time, I had met different people, Mackie Finnerty and Walter Skretch , Grania Brolin, Dianne Rulnick, Mia Grosjean and Meg Taylor, who has left now, but those are some of my early allies. And they were very interested that I should run. So, I did and I won. But then it was like that scene in that Robert Redford movie, The Candidate, where after he wins, he says, "Now what?"

That was your feeling after you won, now what am I supposed to do?

Yes. Slowly it dawned on me, wait a second, we have to come up with candidates now. The thing that I had started paying attention to right away was that we just didn't have a very good public reputation. We needed to change our image to have any success. I remember reading an editorial in The Southampton Press that said something like, "It’s too bad there's no real opposition against Republicans. Too bad there’s not a strong two-party system." I felt like we had to find candidates that we could present to the public. We also had to resolve the internal divisions and start trying to be united. Those were our two immediate needs. Then we were fortunate enough in 2007 to find three candidates for Town Board who all had post-graduate degrees. Not that you need to have a degree to be a public servant, but at least these were people who could stand up in front of a crowd, be articulate, sound rational and make sense. Again, this whole idea about being presentable to the public.

How did you find these people?

Fortuitously, I got a call from the Suffolk County Democrats and they said there is a woman in Southampton, her name is Anna Throne-Holst and she is interested in running. I said, "Okay, great." I reached out to Anna but we kept missing each other, we weren't connecting. Then we finally met at a Democratic Club breakfast. I was seated at the table with her, not knowing who she was. And we introduced ourselves eventually and she goes, "Oh, hi, I'm Anna Throne-Holst and I said, “Oh, Anna, I’ve been looking forward to talking to you, I hear you're interested in running." That’s how we got our first candidate.

Then someone said to me, "You know, Mike, the ACLU is having a luncheon at Touro College Law School, why don't you go?" And I thought, I should since I need to get my name and face out there, so I went. I sat at a table with Jim Henry who was unhappy with Jay, as a matter of fact. (Jay Schneiderman is presently the Southampton Town Supervisor but was a representative in the County Legislature in 2007).

Jim wanted to challenge Jay in the primary. I said, "Why do you want to be one of 16 people when you can be the town supervisor?" And, to my surprise, he agrees. "Yeah, that sounds good." Then Sandra Dunn was our third candidate. And I forget how I met Sandra but she was great and with a robust resume so I asked her if she would also run for Town Board and she said yes.

Those were our first candidates. I was pleased that we fielded a strong slate and we brought more people into the party. Sandra and Jim lost. Jim lost in a three-way race for town supervisor. But Anna won that race for Town Board and that was a real beginning.

And this was in 2007?

Yes, and at that time there were, I think, 4,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats. I knew what we were in for and we couldn’t expect overnight miracles, that we had to be in it for the long haul. So, I guess my first call is to get strong candidates and try to improve our public face. Then Anna won and she was very successful. She served on the board and then she was the town supervisor for a couple of terms. Unfortunately, she ultimately lost the congressional race to Lee Zeldin in 2016.

So, in a way you were building that bench. Did your own experiences having been a town council member in New Jersey inform some of this feeling that you had to get better candidates out there in front of the public?

Absolutely. I'm sort of a wonky guy. I read a lot about health care, climate, immigration, social justice issues. While I'm on the wonky side, I know that the personal connection with a candidate, the press-the-flesh factor, if I can use that phrase, means a lot. It is so important. When I ran for office in New Jersey I worked tirelessly, knocked on doors about five days a week, stood on street corners handing out flyers, and I won. I won big. Although I was new to electoral politics my running mate and I defeated two incumbents. We won because of hard work and issue framing. Never underestimate issue presentation. We do that well here, too. Last thing, my running mate was a terrific singer, a voice reminiscent of Tony Bennet. I heard “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” about 50 times that year. I can still hear the shout outs at our fund raisers: “Joe, sing I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” So, yes, the personal touch is important.

Did you think of running yourself for town board here?

Not unless I can have the meetings at the golf course. One other thing that stuck with me from my time in New Jersey. Our congressman's name was Henry Helstoski. He looked like your quintessential Marine-type guy. He had the jaw, the square face, the crew cut and the mannerisms, but he was as liberal as could be. I was a George McGovern town coordinator. I would be out knocking on doors for McGovern and everybody would say to me, "I can't vote for George McGovern, he's too liberal, but I am voting for Henry Helstoski." And I would say, "Henry’s voting record is pretty much a carbon copy of George McGovern's voting record." They would say, "Get out of here, no way."

Clearly they were not voting for him based on his record because they didn't even know he was that liberal.

Yes. He's a guy that looks like a Marine who walked right out of Iwo Jima. And Henry was our guy. Of course, he focused on veterans and all the other constituency service things you have to do but he was a liberal in the George McGovern mold. He wouldn't wear his liberalism on his sleeve, for sure, but his policies were very liberal. It stayed with me how important the image aspect of this is. The basic appeal, the gut appeal that candidates should have, cannot be overstated. It helps to have an appealing candidate.

That is so interesting. It goes to the disconnect of why voters keep reelecting politicians who are not providing what they need from services.

People just feel comfortable with certain people, right? I think that's a big part of it. Look at Joe Biden, who couldn’t get a vote in Iowa or New Hampshire, but goes to South Carolina and Congressman Clyburn says, "We know Joe, Joe knows us."

It's that personal level.

I don’t want to overplay the personal appeal issue too much. The political zeitgeist matters, too. And, out here, geography matters – meaning west or east of the canal and how do we play in Hampton Bays. And as we moved from 2007 to the present, I think we’ve learned a few things about party building and candidate appeal. We’ve gotten better with the nuts and bolts aspect of politics, too, thanks to Gordon and really good committee members and candidates. I think we’ve learned that in the best of all worlds running candidates that have general public as well as Democratic Party appeal is ideal. In 2007, we ran two candidates who weren’t registered Democrats but shared our values. Anna Throne-Holst didn’t register as a Democrat until 2016. That was a function of having few Democrats in Southampton. Now, with a robust registration advantage we can focus on our party.

Was it easier for her to win that race not being registered as a Democrat?

At that point in time, it probably was. I don't think she advertised her party affiliation too much, unless an advantage presented itself. Eventually, as years went by, it became the exact opposite. We have probably reversed it by 8,000 votes. We now have more than 3,000-4,000 more Democrats than Republicans.

Which is remarkable.

Yes. This year, with the judicial race in Southampton Township, Karen Sartain won with only one ballot line, the Democratic Party line and she won. Incredible. Winning with one line and during COVID-19, very impressive.

That was amazing, especially because down ballot Democrats all over the country didn’t fare as well as Biden. In our congressional district, Biden lost CD-1 by about four points, but Zeldin won CD-1 by 10 points. So, there had to have been some Republicans who voted for Biden but then voted for Zeldin.

Ticket splitting and never-Trumpers. I don't think ticket splitting is as prevalent as it used to be, in this tribal time we are in now, but it does appear that’s what happened. Going back to the Henry Helstoski factor in New Jersey. People were comfortable with him. Who was Nancy Goroff? She was this person from up the Island, she was a scientist, that should have been a good thing, but I don't think there was a comfort level yet with her. Maybe if she runs again, there'd be more of a comfort level. Somebody would have to convince me that Zeldin has an appealing public demeanor.

I'm trying to figure that out, because if you didn't like Trump, what was there to like about Zeldin, who is one of Trump's biggest supporters? What is it they saw in Zeldin? He won by a larger margin than he did in 2018.

I go shopping for groceries in Eastport and just as you turn into Eastport Shopping Center there's this huge Zeldin sign, which is still up, that says the Suffolk County Police have endorsed Zeldin. He has that working class, middle class, salt-of-the-earth kind of persona with some people that they just relate to. Personally, I think he's an empty suit.

I loved your recent letter in The Southampton Press. Yours was part of a series of letters criticizing what Zeldin is doing supporting Trump and the GOP in protesting Biden’s win. The newspaper’s editorial was scathing. But, obviously, he knows that this plays with his base. He didn't suffer anything by being so closely tied to Trump in the election. He did better than Trump.

I made a lot of calls for Nancy Goroff phone banking and I had a lot of hang-ups. I also had some people call me names, “You knucklehead” and stuff like that. I didn't know their party affiliation, it wasn't specified on the call sheet.

Is there anything from your experience in Southampton, the evolution of more registered Democrats than Republicans, that you think might be replicable in Brookhaven or Riverhead, to get ready for 2022?

Think about Southampton, going back to when I first started out as chair in 2007 and continuing with Gordon, who came after me as chair, is knowing that we’re in it for the long haul. We knew that if we just stuck to it, put one foot in front of the other, that if our goal is to knock on 10 doors, then let's knock on 15 doors. Let's write one more letter to the editor. Let's just do one extra little thing. Then we had some nice summer parties and it looked like we knew what we were doing. It's a long-haul process. I think there's a lot to be said about just sticking to it. Of course, you're going to stumble along the way and you make some mistakes, which we did, as humans we all do. Stick to it and believe in the cause. I love the Democratic Party so it was easy for me to hang in and do the little extra.

It is hard to imagine going forward with the SHDems without you because you have been such a rock for so many of us, helping us understand what we were doing and how to navigate some of the issues within the committee. You were a bridge to all sides. How are you feeling having declared your retirement? Is there some relief?

Well, I'm definitely committed to helping our candidates. I can't wait until we're back to normal and I can go knock on doors again. I love knocking on doors. I want to do that for candidates again. It's not like I'm disappearing. So I'll be out there working for the party, working for our candidates, helping to get them elected. But I began to feel that I wanted to make room for other people, other ideas. I think I mentioned to you I just felt like a little bit spent. But now I don’t worry about anything else except getting another door knocking assignment. And, I just helped out the Warnock and Ossoff campaigns with a few bucks and postcard writing to Georgia voters.

Are you staying with some of the other groups that you are part of, like Neighbors In Support of Immigrants (NISI)?

Actually, I sent a note to NISI saying I'm retired. I haven't been active with NISI the last few months either. But I am hoping to get back to doing stuff with them as well.

So you're really taking a vacation from being one of the decision-makers for these groups while still staying involved. Same with Drawdown and other environmental groups? I know how close climate change is to your heart.

I was the co-chair of the Democratic Environmental Committee, which is how I got plugged into Drawdown. I do plan on getting back into Drawdown. Climate Change is such a huge thing.

Finding the right balance between being an executive vs. staying involved but not being a decision maker is a challenge. I think a lot of us are asking this question of ourselves. How did you arrive at knowing what was the best balance for you?

It was kind of a slow process. I started thinking about it two or three years ago. I feel strongly that the party has to become younger and more diverse. And I don't fit those two characteristics. So I hope whoever replaces me on the committee is young and a person of color. I just think, say looking at climate change for a second, young people have to realize that they have to fight this existential problem, to get people who will start paying attention. They need to get involved from an advocacy as well as a political perspective. I'm so thrilled about Biden with his all-government approach to fighting climate change. The debate will come has he gone far enough but for now, it's such a relief from having Trump in there.

Imagine how we'd be feeling right now if Trump had won! Speaking of younger voters, how do you think we could be more successful at recruiting younger members?

I think it goes back to what we started doing a couple years ago, maybe we need to step it up a bit, is outreach. We know who's registering, we know their age. We did reach out to them. I can remember conducting door-to-door outreach to some new voters, some of them who were young. Some seemed really interested. But then they paused and said, "Oh, but I'm in college and I'm working this job to help me get through college." The same thing when I knock on the doors in African American communities in town. Somebody who seemed interested, was glad I was at the door, and I'd say, "Would you like to get involved?" But the answer would come back, “No.” It's hard. I’ll go back to saying we have to keep plugging away. But we should do a full court press on outreach.

Maybe having moved to virtual meetings will help to bring in people in their 20s and 30s.

I was 24 when I got involved with politics, with the McGovern campaign. Zoom and other social media platforms probably help a lot. My daughter was just telling me how my 14-year-old granddaughter is cultivating a political conscience and she and her friends are voicing their views on Zoom and Facebook. Speaking of McGovern and 1972, talk about the difference between local and national races. The local Democratic Party where I was in '72 won huge, they won in a landslide. McGovern got absolutely crushed.

Is it because the McGovern campaign brought out people like you and then that translated into the local activism in a way that it didn't nationally?

I think so. I can still remember I was at the Democratic headquarters getting results in 1972 and feeling just devastated that he was losing that much. I didn't feel like hanging around, so I was walking out the door to go home. And one local candidate ran up to me and said, "Mike, Mike, wait. I just want to thank you so much. All the effort you put in this year. Knocking on doors and getting people energized and excited. It really helped our local effort, so I just want to thank you so much." It made me feel good.

I came into the committee in 2017, as a lot of people did because of Trump. Turns out Trump really was a uniter, he united people passionately against him and he united support behind him. We saw both sides come out in this election. There was a blue wave and there was a red wave. Without Trump, where do you think the Resistance goes?

That's a tough one. I think there's going to be that push and pull between the moderates and progressives. I think that'll continue. I happen to think that's not a bad thing, but other people go, “Oh, the Democratic Party is split again” and all that stuff. It is so important that we stay united one way or the other. We have to do a better job of rolling out the vaccine, we have to get the economy back on track, we have to tackle climate change. There are so many issues and we need to be united to be able to fight hard for those issues. I hope that wanting a better America, a better world, that will be the glue that keeps us together.

One of the campaign tactics that I've read about this year is Deep Canvassing. It is the idea that voters can be persuaded by spending time with them and engaging in a positive value-laden conversation. It's new to me as I always thought quantity over quality, that the visit to a voter was a reminder, a touch, to ID as many good votes as possible for GOTV. Deep Canvassing endeavors to meet people where they are using positive examples to move them toward our candidate. In the following link is a document about using deep canvassing to improve Biden's numbers. They didn't bother mentioning Trump, believing the saturation point had been reached regarding Trump. This group claims to have moved 3.1% of voters to Biden using this method. Can it work here and in CD#1? Probably, but it would require some training and practice. https://peoplesaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/PA-ReportDeepCanvassingResults09.14-FINAL.pdf

I wonder if Deep Canvassing can help counter the tribalism. Was it the same when you were in New Jersey on the town board, was the tribalism pretty much the same then?

Not even close, not even close, no. We'd fight it out but it wasn't this, “These are my facts and those are your facts.” You had differences of opinions but now these right-wing outlets are just spewing out garbage conspiracy theories that people just lap up. I think the media is a huge part of the problem. I predate Fox News. I remember when I was on the town board in New Jersey, we had an election and this Republican guy won. And the first thing he said to me was, "Mike, I know you're a liaison for the police department. Do you mind if I help out?" I said, "Sure." So, he did, he did some things and he always checked with me, "Mike, I'm going to do this." There was more give and take.

You started at 24 with the Democratic Party, and you stayed with it. How do we create the next generation of Mikes?

That's a good question. I don't know. How do we find the next somebody who would be as super committed as I was? Someone who will say to themselves, “Do I want to go knock on these doors, or go hit some balls at the driving range? I'll go knock on doors, I’ll make that right decision.”

Well, think about when I came out here, I was retired. Ann and both took early retirement. I was able to devote the time to it. Like I said, we must think long term. One foot in front of the next. Commitment, there's got to be a commitment. That's something that comes from within somebody. To me, social justice and doing good, for the common person was always animating to me so I'm fighting for it. I don't know if this is relevant to a lot of people, I think it was relevant to me, is that I grew up playing team sports. Some of my best memories are achieving something with other people. We're all fighting for the same thing, to me that's very uplifting. There's got to be other people out there that see that we're on a team and we're trying to do good.

Of course, we have these stumbling blocks ideologically. If somebody wants a Green New Deal, somebody says that’s too far or we want Medicare for All, someone else says, not that far, but I always felt that we can work together within the party because we all have the same long range goal. We are on the same team. Take the Affordable Care Act, people complained it didn't go far enough, that’s true except that millions and millions and millions of people now have health insurance that didn't before. They can criticize the heck out of it, and we can work to expand it, but there are people's whose lives have been saved.

The thing I'd like to say is that we have to love each other. Democratic committee members, we have to be patient with each other. We may be unhappy with each other from time to time for various reasons, but we have to go in it thinking that everybody's giving it their best effort and it's all in good faith because the things we're trying to get accomplished and the people who are opposing us are huge things. We really need to stay united.

What's your sense about where the divisions are within the SHDems that we’ve seen in the past?

I think it’s a good sign that we approved these recent procedural matters, like the procedures to support candidates. There’s always going to be some people that are looking under rocks, looking everywhere they can to find something wrong. But I think for the most part, the committee is strong. I just think that people can have their say, they can make their arguments. Try and marshal support, and whatever happens, happens. But I think most of us will keep our eye on the ball, which is trying to get Democrats elected.

Whatever divisions we have, it sounds like it wasn't nearly as bad as when you first took over as chair.

When I took over, the year or so before that, it was just very cliquish, and to me, my reading at the time was that the people who were in charge, as long as they could stay in charge, they were happy. "Look, I'm the chair of the Democratic Committee. Look, I'm the vice chair of the Democratic committee. Take your 10 votes, but I'm the chair." Some people have a little group, and if they can give themselves titles, then everything is fine, right? The idea is to win elections. And then the public will notice. But it was kind of an easy for me to turn things around, because we were at subzero.

When you're at the bottom, you've got no place else to go but up.

Yes, and there were great people that helped that along. For me, it never deterred me that people opposed me. It’s their point of view. I always thought, “Good for you.” That was my attitude. “I can still work with you. Can we just move forward now, and get the work done?” That's what I tried to get across. To me, it’s always about candidates. You can do the best you can as a party leader, and you want to be able to get the troops pulling in the right direction but in terms of the vast public out there, I think the candidates are what matter the most. If you get good candidates, and you win, that takes care of a lot of other stuff. I mean, we had that division in 2019, but we still were winning races.

To turn a township around in such a short time, from one registration of a party to another, is really remarkable. Now we have to hold on to it.

I think that unless we do something really dumb, I think we should be in good shape. I think we're strong on the East End, east of the canal.

Going forward, what do you think should be our first priority or first action this year? What would be the thing you would be telling us as committee members, "This is our number one priority, this is what I need you to all be working on."

As I mentioned, I think it remains outreach. We have to meet as many people as we can and when you do, bring voter registration forms with you. Find out who the newly registered are and say hi to them. Tell them we're here, we're interested in what they have to say. We're the grassroots of the grassroots, right?

The more you get out there, the more you will interact. I always said to myself when I'm was out canvassing, if I knock on 20 doors, a lot of times somebody's not going to be home or somebody's going to be so non-receptive that I might as well be talking to the wall, but there's always a few people that I think, "Thank goodness I was at that door," because something clicked with them, somehow, some way. Most of the time, they will say, “Thank you for telling me about this." That’s the kind of response you want to get. So, I think the more that you can build up those kinds of responses, it means something. But it is hard work. Gum shoe work.

I would also be recommending that we, as a committee, do more fun things together. Camaraderie is so important. A lot of times when professional athletes retire, they are asked, "What do you miss? You're not going to hit another home run. You're not going to score another three-point basket. What do you miss?" And they say, "I miss the locker room. The friendships, the camaraderie that's built up there.” I think if there's more fun things that we could think about once we can get back together, that would be good.

We have worked so hard the last few years to put new structures in place for the committee, structures like the rules and regulations, the letter-writing group, the great website and Facebook page. Now we need to use these structures to reach out to the community. Also, I can't wait to hear the feedback about how people like the new candidate selection process. Hopefully that will work out well.

You had a hand in helping put these structures in place. Do you think you might get bored with golf and think, “I really miss the committee”?

Funny you should say that. I'm always in the living room checking my golf stance, thinking, "What should I do with my right elbow? What should I do with my left elbow?" I was toying around with how far apart my feet should be, and I thought, "I can’t wait to get out there again on the golf course.”