It’s 10:15 on a chilly Saturday morning and Jon Powers, candidate for Congress in NY-26, is inside Main Street Coffee in Batavia happily greeting volunteers with his combat boots on.  For some of us the day is just beginning but Powers has already been working for hours.  Earlier he had visited Working Families Party representatives with the hope of earning their endorsement.

Powers was upbeat, wearing a white polo shirt emblazoned with “Jon Powers for Congress.”  He also wore a white message bracelet to highlight The One Campaign.  When I asked him what the bracelet signified Powers said “The One Campaign was started by Bono, lead singer of the band U2, and it reminds people that only 1/2 of 1% of the U.S. budget goes to foreign aid.”   The One Campaign’s focus is alleviation of extreme global poverty, hunger and disease.  Powers also wore a red, white and blue bracelet that represents the soldiers in the war.  One has to admit Powers is definitely focused.

Once the volunteers arrived Powers gave a brief welcome speech and Sara Gordon gave the volunteers a walk-through on door-to-door canvassing.  Then they were off.  Powers and his father Bill, who was also wearing a white “Jon Powers for Congress” polo shirt, drove to a local street where Charlie Mallow, Chair of the Genesee County Democratic Party and City of Batavia Council President, was conducting a neighborhood clean up called “Clean Up Batavia” along with his wife Maria and about ten other volunteers.  Powers jumped right in and began to help, raking and moving debris, talking to the residents and listening to their concerns.  At one point, Bill Blackshear, a registered Democrat who previously ran for the 8th District Legislature, and narrowly lost, came down the street to shake Jon’s hand.  He saw Powers in action and stated “It’s interesting what’s going on here.  There’s talking and there’s doing.”  He seemed very pleased.

Little kids were playing on the now spotless street, with one little boy happily running up to volunteers, Powers included, and declaring “You’re it!”  After watching Powers interacting so attentively with voters today, asking “How can we help?” I’d have to agree: Powers is it.

I’ll have another post on Powers’ next stop coming up later tonight…