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Four years ago, I began volunteering as a driver for state Rep. Cheryl Golek, taking her door to door around Harpswell and Brunswick as she campaigned for her first term in the Maine Legislature. I drove her again two years ago. And now, as she runs for a third term, I’m doing it again.
During those years, Cheryl has knocked on literally thousands of doors. Her goal has been extraordinary: to visit every household in her district.
But what has impressed me most hasn’t changed.
Cheryl doesn’t just walk up to a door, say, “Hi, please vote for me,” hand them a flyer, and hurry away. She asks people: “What’s on your mind?” “What can Augusta — and I — do for you?”
And then she listens.
Sometimes she listens for a very long time. I’ve repeatedly sat in the car for 40 minutes while Cheryl talked with the people at a single house!
What I’ve learned is that this isn’t just campaigning. It’s how Cheryl thinks government ought to work.
And she doesn’t just climb back into the car saying, “That person was wrong!” She thinks about what she heard. She writes it down. She tries to understand what people — including people who disagree with her — actually care about, need and fear.
At a time when American politics seems increasingly to consist of people shouting past one another, this strikes me as something worth noting, celebrating and promoting.
John F. Kennedy once urged Americans not to seek “the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer.”
Cheryl is out there looking for it.
I hope you’ll join me in voting for her again this November.
George Simonson, Harpswell
