Door-to-door alert: If anyone says they’re with the Dems …

Just sent to us by 34th District Democrats chair Ivan Weiss, his response to a note he received about solicitor concerns in the Fairmount Springs area — someone reportedly asking for $100 contributions to the Democratic Party:

From the e-mails forwarded to me, I would say this is *not* legitimate.
NO one should be canvassing in our District claiming to represent the Democratic Party who is not working with the 34th District Democrats or with a specific candidate’s campaign — ESPECIALLY if they are asking for $100 donations!!!

There is at least some precedent for this. The Democratic National Committee, under its (thank goodness) former chairman, Terry McAuliffe, did send solicitors door-to-door for contributions to the DNC in 2004. I thought Howard Dean had stopped this practice.

Even so, neighbors should refer any such solicitors to me. If they are, in fact, sent here by the DNC, I will get to the bottom of this but FAST! This is NOT the face of the Democratic Party that *I* want represented in our communities. When we canvass door to door, I want our volunteers to be able to say “We are your neighbors!”

Bottom line, if anybody shows up on your doorstep saying they’re soliciting for the Dems, contact Ivan. You can e-mail him at ivan.weiss@centurytel.net. In the same area, someone had written us pointing out a lot of recent concern about security-system soliciting, which one neighbor reportedly checked out and discovered to be legitimate.

6 Replies to "Door-to-door alert: If anyone says they're with the Dems ..."

  • tt May 24, 2008 (1:31 pm)

    A young woman came to our door last night with this same story, we’re south of the junction. She left when we told her it was a bad time and that we don’t give money to door to door solicitors.

  • RickB May 24, 2008 (5:24 pm)

    Regarding the alarm solicitors–I would say there are degrees of “legitimate.” I had a couple of guys come by (of course literally while I was eating dinner) selling a convoluted “deal” in which I would get a bunch of alarm stuff for free if I put one of their signs in my yard. I blew them off and did some internet research.

    Their company, First Defense Security, didn’t have much info out there, but the monitoring company, Monitronic, had a very large number of “scam” web site hits. These guys are on the shady side, and from what I can tell, don’t really even deliver on the security end of the deal.

    Anyway, I encourage anyone thinking about signing up with an alarm company (or any company for that matter) to go to your favorite search engine and put in their name with “scam” and see what you find.

    -Rick

  • The Velvet Bulldog May 24, 2008 (5:51 pm)

    Also had a young woman soliciting for Dems come to my door. (Am near Kenny Home.) Didn’t give her anything.

  • JanS May 25, 2008 (7:03 am)

    hmm..if they want money from me, they can do what any self respecting phone bank can do, and call me during dinner ;-)

  • Trick May 26, 2008 (5:24 pm)

    I also had a couple young men come to my door selling security systems. I asked them to leave once kindly, said I wasn’t interested. One of them proceeded to ask me if I’d post the sign in the yard. I replied “No, unless you’re going to pay me”. He then began speaking again and I said a second time. I’m not interested and asked them to leave. He then again began asking why I wasn’t interested in any security and I told him I had plenty, in fact you’re being watched right now. I asked him to leave a 3rd time with a little more eye contact and raised eyebrow. The 2nd young guy said to his colleague “We better go..” and the 1st one looked at me and said ” Good luck not protecting yourself”…..I wanted to string him up by his britches…
    After that I put up “No solicitors” sign by my door. They’re aggressive no doubt.

  • mark May 27, 2008 (8:59 pm)

    Just had a young man in his 20s come to my door.Soft spoken, dark hair a bit long but less than shoulder length and glasses wearing a blue DNC t-shirt. When advised that we know there are no DNC reps sent to solicit he said he had a 25min talk with police who made some calls and everything checks out. I informed him that I would not donate or anything without I’d or at least a business card which he could not furnish. Thus I furnished him with a view of my front door!

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