Battling on the Other Side's Turf

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Obama Rural

A small town in Southern Virginia is the unlikely home to one of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign offices.

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What she didn't want to do, she told him, was canvass neighborhoods, or work phone banks. But she used to be a secretary, and Spencer said that was exactly what the campaign needed: someone to log into a computer the record of voters reached by phone and whether they are for or against Obama or are undecided. That she could do, Hayne said. "I've never been involved in a campaign before. Never." She figures Spencer must have found her name on some Democratic list. "I never meant to work this hard," Hayne said, but the work somehow became infectious. "It's the best job I've ever had and the hardest I've ever worked for the least amount of money." Which is to say no money at all.

Some Chase City residents consider their participation a calling. "How did we get involved? We basically obeyed the spirit," said Jean Goode. "When the Lord says move, you move."

And move is something her husband does well, all over town, but slowly, deliberately. When the Rev. James Goode of Silone Baptist Church comes calling, folks listen.

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Goode cruised past the Tastee Freeze, turned on Washington Street and pulled his silver '95 Bonneville to the curb. He left the motor running. Goode is 82 with curly white hair combed back. He has been a Democrat all his life, always remembering what his mother told him when he was a boy, after the family had suffered through the Great Depression: Never vote Republican because it will get you in trouble. "She was pretty much right," he said.

Curtis L. Jones, 69, was mixing paint on his porch when he saw Goode's car pull up. He came to the street to chat.

"I know you to be a Democrat," the preacher began, holding his lists of voters.

"I'm a Democrat," Jones replied, "but I told you I don't vote for nobody."

"You going to vote this year?" Goode continued.

"I'm too old now," Jones said. "I'll put it to you this way: I came up the hard way." And Jones started into his rap about the hard way, the odds growing up, the segregation, the lack of opportunity, etc.

Goode listened for a bit, patient, but finally cut him off. "Let's get back to Obama." Goode knew Jones, knew he was stubborn. Jones cut grass down at the church. Goode appealed to Jones's sense of history, and pleaded a better life for future generations.

"I know what you're saying, Rev. But I don't vote. My wife vote, but I don't. I ain't giving you no short answer."