Two Campaigns, One Trail

Kara Hahn and Anthony Moncayo may be running against each other for a Suffolk County legislature seat, but at this point in the race, their campaigns bear at least one very fundamental similarity.

They've both been spending hours each week walking from house to house in the neighborhoods of the fifth legislative district, meeting prospective voters and hand-delivering fliers with their respective messages.

Moncayo, the Republican candidate, and Hahn, the Democratic candidate, have each knocked on hundreds of doors over the past several weeks, accompanied by a campaign volunteer driving an air-conditioned car between the different parts of town. Maybe one of them has even knocked on your door.

Both candidates invited Patch to spend some time walking the campaign trail with them in recent weeks.

The rules of the road are fairly simple: Avoid walking on people's lawns and pulling into people's driveways. Be sensitive to the fact that you are probably interrupting. Wear sensible shoes.

"It's not that exciting," Moncayo said during a recent neighborhood walk, "but it is rewarding when you meet people."

They walked even in the intense heat wave that hit Long Island a few weeks ago. For Moncayo, an Army reserve veteran, the sweltering temperatures of mid July recalled the hottest weather he'd ever experienced.

"It was 125 degrees in Saudi Arabia," he said as he trekked through the S Section in Stony Brook with a stack of his fliers in hand. "And you had about 50 pounds of Army gear on."

His hot weather training, as it turns out, yielded a lesson useful on the summertime campaign trail.

"Stay hydrated," he said. "Don't wait until you get thirsty, because then you're already dehydrated."

But in weather this hot, he said, people are oftentimes out in the backyard pool or holed up inside their homes with the air conditioning on, and can't hear the doorbell.

That's also been Hahn's experience in the warm weather. In fact, she said, as a general rule of thumb, 50 percent of residents aren't going to answer their doors. Or even less, she said, depending on the day and time.

But on the evening of July 27, someone answered the door at eight out of the first ten homes Hahn visited, with some even taking the time to chat. Hahn has walked the campaign trail in the past for candidates she has supported, and has done a number of neighborhood petitions as well.

"It's refreshing when someone wants to talk about the issues," Hahn said. "But sometimes, people think you're trying to sell something."

A few weeks ago, she sent out a postcard in advance to let people know she'd be traveling through neighborhoods to introduce herself in person. After a little more than an hour in a Setauket neighborhood, Hahn visited 15 homes and spoke to 11 people. She doesn't just visit those who are registered Democrats; there are also a couple of other party affiliations on her list – "likely voters," she said. For those who weren't home, she'll follow up with a "sorry I missed you" postcard.

Moncayo has done this before, too, via a past unsuccessful run against New York State Assemb. Steve Englebright, D-Setauket. He knocks mostly on the doors of registered Republican households, a list that's public record from the county's Board of Elections. He hit about 20 homes in a little more than an hour on the afternoon of July 22, but at most of them, no one was home. At those homes, he leaves his flier.

But in the end, both candidates agreed that the door-to-door methodology is important to a local campaign, regardless of party affiliation.

"I don't think there's a Democratic or Republican way to knock on doors," she said. "It's tried-and-true and it means a lot to people."