Bwog editor Lydia DePillis is finally back from Kentucky, with one last report.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.--The day Kentucky democrats had been awaiting for over four years dawned bright and cold. A poll the night before had their candidate up 29 points, with most other ticket members leading by similar margins.

But election day is about bodies—on the street, on the phones, at the polls--and the Louisville campaign came in sadly short on that count. They'd managed to recruit only 160 volunteers instead of their expected 400, and so the Columbia Dems arrived in Louisville (the biggest city in Kentucky, and a union stronghold) at about 9:30 AM, ready to roust the elderly out of their beds and to their polling places.

For the duration of their time in Frankfort, the Dems had politely butted heads with the campaign's field staff, and complained in private about their incompetence: the woman in charge sent canvassers to areas that had already been covered, kept the group waiting for hours, and generally micromanaged where the students were used to autonomy. "Its embarrassing for us to watch," said Dems board member Kate Redburn, CC '10.

One of the staffers also asked non-traditional student Jake Matilsky, GS '09, to ferry a large box of whiskey to a consultant in Louisville, noting that she'd "never work in politics again" if it didn't arrive safely.

"I felt like there was a trust thing between her and the e-board," Matilsky said.

This time, the activists weren't bound by the instructions of the Frankfort field staff, and the sense of relief was obvious.

Lydia DePillis is on her final day in Kentucky, where she's aware you're probably all sick of hearing about it. She promises it will end soon.

SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE LEXINGTON, Ky.--Judging by appearances at the Blue Grass Airport this evening, Columbia students are an extremely odd bunch.

Perhaps it was the frustrating afternoon spreading literature in areas that had already been covered, before a thunderstorm put a stop to the redundant canvassing. Or maybe the several hours cooped up in the staging area making signs and eating pizza. It could have just been the freezing cold—or maybe the Dems really were so fired up by Steve Beshear that they couldn't contain themselves.

Whatever the reason, while waiting for the future governor to Kentucky to land in his jet, this band of screaming students rocked the tarmac with lusty takes on Prince, the Beatles, Columbia fight songs, and assorted patriotic anthems. Mixed in with a small crowd of high schoolers, legislative staffers, teachers union people, and party apparatchiks, they worked through cheers both original ("We want Steve! Fletcher leave!") and standard ("This is what democracy looks like!"). The place felt more like a rock concert than a political event, and the non-Columbians weren't quite sure what to make of it—although reactions were almost uniformly positive.

"I'm glad to see young people so energized," said Jamie Franklin, chief of staff for the jovial state Representative Charlie Hoffman, also in attendance. "It reminds me of the 70s...it's a resurgence of those emotions."

Bwog editor Lydia DePillis is still in Kentucky, where polls will close in 26 hours.

FRANKFORT, Ky.--It started like high school--those big group trips to the state capitol, where little children run rampant around the marbled halls of power. Except this time, the visit involved stripping at the podium of the Speaker of the House, as well as a thorough investigation of the outgoing chief executive's office.

This morning, before an afternoon of blanketing the town with Beshear paraphernelia (a procedure known as a "Korean lit drop," in which vans make periodic stops and deploy their passengers to hang banners on every door within a three-block radius) the group stopped by Frankfort's majestic capitol rotunda, where they quickly located the den of their opponent.

Nellie Bowles, CC '10, led the way into the chambers of Governor Fletcher, attended by a sweet, middle aged woman. Everyone else milled nervously outside, until the secretary invited them in--the Governor was out in the state campaigning, she explained. The Columbians poured into the antechamber, peering into his capacious work area ("It looks like Bollinger's office!"), and marveling at the Ten Commandments perched on a corner cabinet.

The secretary may have suspected the group's mission--a few kids still had their Beshear stickers--but they immediately developed a silent understanding that she should not officially know what they were up to. "We're just road tripping," Elyse Ross, BC '08 blithely explained.

Bwog editor Lydia DePillis is in Kentucky, trying life on the other side.

FRANKFORT, Ky.--Another door, another vote, another Advil. According to Dems organizers, we may be hitting the entirety of Beshear's base in this 27,000-person town, and it felt like it --canvassers were assigned large suburban districts and sent out in two-person teams, rather than three. Those who had been on last year's trip to Ohio spoke wistfully of former Dems president Seth Flaxman's patented "shotgun method," wherein one person keeps track of the paperwork, dispatching doorknockers smoothly and rapid-fire. The Beshear field staff, however, had their own ideas, which the Columbia kids were largely forced to abide by.

After a few hours tailing dogged canvassers in a neighborhood within sight of the capitol dome, it was pointed out to me that—being a gossip rag and all--there's really no reason why I shouldn't try a few doors myself. So, feeling slightly traitorous holding the glossy green and blue Beshear banners, I practiced my spiel and prepared to join the activist nation.

Attempt #1: First door. As instructed, I asked for Wanda. The tall young man who came to the door informed me that I must have the wrong house. I reminded him to vote and left, the cheery smile fading from my face as I turned away.

Attempt #2: No response, despite a car in the driveway. Or maybe the doorbell just wasn't working.

Bwog editor Lydia DePillis is still in Kentucky, posting from coffeeshops.

FRANKFORT, Ky.--The Columbia cavalcade awoke at a reasonable hour this morning, shaking off the remnants of last night's indiscretions (I don't feel the need to recount them here). The Louisville visit went well, if you count driving an hour both ways to awkwardly mingle with other College Democrats and make drunken toasts to Steve Beshear a success. The CU Dems were entitled to a bit of a smug smile in the realm of internecine collegiate politics—according to a source from the George Washington/American University contingent, Beshear had praised the New Yorkers at a rally in Louisville yesterday, leaving the 40-odd DC kids largely unrecognized.

Now they're in Frankfort, getting ready for another round of "hot knocking" in this picturesque southern capitol. The Dems board had been treated to an inspirational e-mail last night from absent president Josh Lipsky, who declared that "this trip helps transcend the usual comings and goings of a college organization and makes us a force in progressive action." The rank and file, in turn, received a pep talk from communications director Jonathan Backer, who jumped up and down and whooped to whip up enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, rather than trying to rehash the larger race, I'll direct you to today's coverage from the Post. Although my Spec colleague and I may snag an interview with the soon-to-be Kentucky governor later today. E-mail me if you've got questions.

Bwog editor Lydia DePillis is still in Kentucky, where she's misplaced her camera cord--pictures are going to have to wait until the morning.

The Columbia Dems are Beshear's shock troops. Not that anyone's shocked to see them--most residents in contested districts have encountered eager young campaign workers before. But it's a cool name anyway.
The typical activity on a campaign trip, along with phone banking, is canvassing. After rallying at campaign headquarters, the 50-odd college students split into three-person teams, girded themselves with Google maps, and set out to cheerily remind the citizens of Fayette County to vote.

The intimidating lists of names and accompanying numbers that each trio carried is part a sophisticated "microtargeting" system (pioneered by Hillary brain Mark Penn) that the campaign director told me cost in the neighborhood of half a million dollars. According to him, the system will be used all around the country next year, although the Republicans have had it for decades. With almost no other big races around the country, the Democratic National Committee has poured quite a bit of money and resources into the Beshear campaign—the campaign director himself is a DNC employee.

Bwog editor Lydia DePillis is still in Kentucky, along with Brit Spec reporter Josh Chambers, who's blogging here.

"Ten?"
"Um, Eleven."
"Oh, yeah, eleven."

Honks, that is. Such began the morning, at 8:00 AM, with the entire Columbia contingent lining S. Broadway St. shivering almost as violently as they were waving their signs—almost everyone had underdressed, and the mercury came up to a decidedly un-Kentuckyish 45 degrees.

Nancy Huemer, BC '10, yelled gustily in her oversized Beshear t-shirt, fading back to avoid speeding cars. "A year ago, I never would have thought I would be here standing on a street corner at seven A.M.," she said. "I'm in Kentucky, where none of my friends live. It's kind of cool."

The Dems had again roused themselves before dawn to get to campaign headquarters for a rally to launch the canvassing trips that would take up the rest of the morning. Their noise conveyed an outsized impression of their actual presence—at least a hundred other Beshear supporters came out for the rally, mostly well-dressed middle aged to elderly white people.

Milling around before the arrival of the candidate himself, I spoke with a couple young and bubbly campaign staffers, who were ranging around dragooning the rallyers into volunteer duty. They've been here for months registering voters, which is most of the work in an environment where your candidate has almost zero chance of losing. Not only Beshear, but the entire slate of Democratic candidates is leading in the polls, in an effect that staffer Travis Scott called "100 percent coattails."

Bwog editor Lydia DePillis hitched a ride with the College Democrats on their annual campaign trip. Her dispatches follow, wireless permitting.

LEXINGTON, Ky.--We've touched down in the South, and my minivan might as well have been a spaceship for the distance I feel like we've traveled in the last 18 hours. The sun rose and set on the road as we hopped from gas station to gas station, as the population grew in tattoo to tooth ratio with every passing mile.

"I want to see southerners! Where are they?" one girl yelled as kids getting lunch poured out of the various eating establishments at a barren strip mall somewhere deep in Maryland.

We rolled into Lexington as the sun was fading, dumping our stuff at a bare-bones Econolodge—right next to Spearmint Rhino Gentleman's Club and the simply named Waffle House—before piling back into the vans for a quick pit stop at the Beshear campaign headquarters. An advance group of CU Dems had been there for most of the day already, making up the canvassing routes for tomorrow and raking leaves from the parking lot in preparation for a rally with the man himself in the morning.

Bwog editor Lydia DePillis hitched a ride with the Columbia Democrats this weekend on their annual fall campaign trip. Over the next few days, she'll be filing dispatches from the trail, wireless permitting.

LEXINGTON, Ky.--I'm not sure why I woke up at 5:40 AM this morning, evidently without my alarm.

I catapulted out of bed, swearing loudly, glad that my roommate wasn't there to be rudely rousted from slumber. I was late for a road trip to help oust a governor.

Still cursing, I threw my electronic implements and their assorted chargers in my half-packed bags and shuffled over to College Walk, where four vans sat idling, full of 43 Democrats munching bagels. They had gathered to spend their election day weekend as Columbia's historical mandarins had intended: pleading with apathetic Americans to vote Democrat.

I doubt that those who switched fall break from Columbus Day to early November considered political off years. There are almost no competitive elections around the country, and the one the Dems picked—the Kentucky gubernatorial race—is as uncompetitive as they come when both candidates have a pulse. Ernie Fletcher, the state's first Republican governor in 30 years, has been charged with conspiracy, official misconduct, and political discrimination for one of the most blatant patronage schemes since the heyday of machine politics. His Democratic opponent, Steve Beshear, could be your grandma's fruitcake and still lead the polls by 23 points.