Naked residents and dangerous dogs: The perils of the political door knock

There are just 38 days to go until the general election and until then, you can be sure that political candidates will be pounding the pavement and knocking on thousands of doors as they seek to win votes.While they might be able to reach far greater numbers of potential people through advertising or social media campaigns, the candidates that RNZ spoke to are adamant there is nothing quite like a face-to-face conversation to try and gain votes.The political door-knock is also the source of countless memorable yarns - from dangerous dogs to constituents answering the door in various states of undress.Despite the miserable weather, ACT Party leader David Seymour set a ferocious pace as went door-to-door through Auckland's Mission Bay to endorse his new candidate for the Tāmaki electorate James Christmas on Saturday.On a good day, he said people will answer the door half the time, that the hit rate is about one in four. But the responses were largely positive."It's a real antidote to social media. When you get out and talk to people, even today, we've had pretty good political support, but even if they're not hanging out to vote for us, they're still very positive and friendly," Seymour said."I think that's a really nice thing that more people need to see. Because you go on a Facebook comment section, bloody hell, it makes you fear for humanity and democracy."Seymour reckoned he had knocked on about 15,000 doors during the course of his political career, and he said he had become an expert in all manner of latches, door knobs, knockers and doorbells."This is an old tactic - I always go to the very back first so that if someone did want to cause trouble, you haven't alerted them to your presence and then left them between you and the road."Another thing he has learned: never assume how people might vote based on their place of residence."When I was first door knocking down the bottom of Baradine College, I knocked on the nunnery and I found three hardcore ACT voting nuns. So you should never judge a book by its cover."While he found the experience of door-knocking overwhelmingly positive, Seymour has had a few close scrapes."I was knocking on a door with this huge front yard and a big stone wall and I heard this ferocious dog coming so I hoofed it, leapt the fence, tore my pants and then I looked around and despite the huge noise it was a tiny little thing."On the other side of the political divide, Labour's deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni was equally adamant about the importance of door knocking."I think you shouldn't underestimate the importance of face to face - kanohi ki te kanohi - New Zealanders still appreciate it. And there's nothing more persuasive than having someone in front of you having a genuine conversation talking about things that matter to you."Even if they made it clear they were not going to give her their vote, people were by and large very polite, although not always entirely presentable."We had to walk past a bedroom window to get to the main entrance and unfortunately the window was open and someone was putting their pants on."In that situation I said to my volunteer with me, 'just pretend you didn't see that and to save embarrassment for that person and also ourselves'."National MP Cameron Brewer door-knocking in Greenhithe.RNZ / Matthew TheunissenCatching someone just after they have hopped out of the shower is another occupational hazard for the door knocker, as National Party MP Cameron Brewer discovered when RNZ joined him on a door-knock on the streets of Greenhithe in his Upper Harbour electorate.Nonetheless, a key advantage that door knocking had over other forms of campaigning was that people remembered, said Brewer."I remember at primary school - or even in adulthood - who came to my place of business, who came to my primary school, and you never forget."People still say to me, 'you knocked on my door, remember what we talked about?' And I'm like, 'yes, I do'. And they say, 'so what have you done about it?' I said, 'we're looking into that issue. Just give it to me again. Was it traffic?' 'No, it wasn't traffic!'."Brewer had also had his fare share of awkward encounters."Sometimes there's a bit of cuddling on the couch watching Netflix. One's kind of in a bit of a predicament there as to whether they kind of try to tiptoe away, which might even look worse - a peeping tom kind of comes to mind - or whether you just kind of back yourself and knock on the door and look the other way."Brewer said campaigners were also being briefed about the potential perils of "smart doorbells"."Normally these days when you push them, they start recording and... sometimes someone might be in Singapore listening and watching," he said."If you're an ill-disciplined candidate that has big opinions about people's gardens or wants to exchange a bad taste joke with the volunteer or whatever, that quip could be recorded. And so smart doorbells are a bit of an occupational hazard."Not that he would ever say a bad word about one of his constituent's gardens. "My constituents are world class and we know that because they vote very well every election."He said some of his colleagues had not quite finessed the art of the door-knock. He recounted a story that John Banks told him about a door-knock he did with his then-colleague Paul Goldsmith."Banksy rang me up and he said, 'Cam, he knocked on this door and it was quite a challenging neighbourhood and this young woman came to the door and she was holding a crying baby and had a toddler kind of wrapped around her leg and she was very busy and looked exhausted'."Goldsmith reportedly said: "'Would you like to eradicate socialism?' That's typical Goldie," said Brewer.Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said relationships developed on doorsteps were vital for good politics."One of my favourite things is talking to people who think that they hate me," she laughed."I think when you wear away the concept of each other that we may be holding in our minds and you come back down to the brass tacks of the things that we have in common, you'll find most New Zealanders want more affordable lives, not just for themselves, but for their fellow New Zealanders."They want greater job opportunities for all of us. They want healthy nature and they want honest politics.So between now and 7 November, keep in mind the person knocking on your door could be a politician with a media pack in tow. It could be wise to put some clothes on before answering.