My college roommate Tushar, asked me if I would start an LA phonebank operation for John Kerry. Basically I would get a bunch of fellow Dems together and we would use our unlimited weekend cell phone minutes to call likely South Asian voters in Florida. We would plead Kerry’s case and get them to turn out to vote. A very smart strategy I think. Usually with me the ends justify the means. Bush must be defeated at all costs. Yet in this case, its hard for me to commit time to a candidate that I am not crazy about. I haven’t yet taken him up on his request, but I may still. From India West as reported by New California Media:

Last weekend, from both the east coast and west coast, phone calls went into the homes of registered South Asian voters in Florida with a simple message from callers: Vote for John Kerry.

With pollsters predicting a razor-thin election still too close to call, and Florida once again a toss-up state, the calls may well have a decisive impact. The Kerry supporters hope to reach 20,000 registered South Asian voters in Florida before they are done.

In what could be a first for the community, young South Asian supporters of the Massachusetts senator are getting involved in the nitty gritty of grass-roots campaigning in a U.S. presidential campaign.

“We think for the first time in the history of American politics, it was a phone bank targeted specifically to South Asian American voters, and phone calls made by South Asian Americans,” Tushar Sheth, a 28-year-old New York-based attorney, told India-West.

If anyone does want to be involved in a phonebank operation you can get information at SAKI2004.