Bob Schreiber, the financial professional and environmental
activist who just finished a remote second to winner Jim Strickland in the
District 5 city council race, says that he nevertheless enjoyed the experience,
even the daily grind of going door-to-door to promote his candidacy.
He tells this story: At one house, the occupant who
answered his knock, “this lady who was 55 or 60-ish,” immediately demanded,
“What are you, a Republican or a Democrat?” Schreiber says he told her he tried
to be independent, making up his own mind about issues, regardless of party
considerations.
The woman was skeptical and responded tersely, according to
Schreiber. “She said, ‘I am a Republican, and I never in my life voted for a
Democrat! What’s more, I early-voted, and I didn’t vote for you!’ Just
like that. So I said, ‘Well, who did you vote for?'”
Schreiber says the woman immediately answered: “David
Kustoff told me who to vote for.” and that he responded, “Did you by any
chance vote for Jim Strickland?” to which the voter replied with a satisfied nod
and the firm answer, “Yes!” He waited a beat and then said, “Do you realize you
just voted for the past chairman of the Democratic Party?”
The woman, said Schreiber, responded with open-mouthed
shock, as if she’d swallowed poison unknowingly.
As it happens,
Strickland, who indeed was chairman of the Shelby County Democrats a decade or
so back, is the law partner of Kustoff, a former Republican chairman who, as a Bush
appointee, is serving these days as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of
Tennessee.
And, for the record, Strickland clearly had ample support across party lines, polling 73 percent of the District 5 vote.