Shutout in office search, candidate goes mobile

By Jennifer Eisenbart

Editor

Challenging 63rd Assembly District representative and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in an election was bound to be challenging for Democrat Andy Mitchell.

It got a little harder for Mitchell – a resident of Rochester – when he tried to find a Burlington campaign office in the last month.

Mitchell’s campaign manager, Susan Sheldon, said finding a space in Burlington proved to be difficult.

Sheldon said she tried to obtain the office used by Jonathan Steitz’s campaign on North Pine, a property on East Chestnut and another property on West Chestnut Street.

None of the three worked out, either because of costs, the need to commit to a long-term lease – or in one case according to Sheldon, because the owner didn’t want to lease to a Democrat.

The end result, though, turned out to be the better of the ideas – at least according to Mitchell. A mobile office has made appearances around the area in the last few weeks, drawing in a good number of people.

For a campaign that is being run on a shoestring budget – Sheldon said Mitchell isn’t taking money from special interest groups, and that all signs are homemade – that mobile office is the home away from home.

When asked if not finding a campaign office space was frustrating, Mitchell said yes – and no.

“More no than yes,” Mitchell explained. “If you have an office, you have to have people there to staff it and make sure it’s open.”

Mitchell cited a trip to Rochester last week, where he reached people he didn’t think would have otherwise.

“I suspected it would work well, but it’s worked better than I ever would’ve imagined,” the candidate said.

With a pair of magnetic signs placed on the car, Mitchell and Sheldon make stops in area communities. The low-pressure option allows people to come in on their own terms, Mitchell said, vs. him going door to door (which he has also done).

“You’re not interfering,” he said. “They’re coming up on their own accord.”

Sheldon added, “The mobile office is an alternative to having a front porch. People come up to us.

“It’s mostly just being available to people,” she said. “We’re not really parading up and down.”

Mitchell said the plan has worked better than they could have imagined.

“The first day we did it … about half the people had read about it on the Facebook page or on the website,” Mitchell explained. “The other half were drive-bys.

“We’re reaching some people … we hadn’t contacted,” he added. “I suspected it would work well, but it’s worked better than I ever would’ve imagined.

“I’ve underestimated how successful this would be in terms of outreach.”