This is a beautiful day for it, and some campaigns were lured by this weather into going from door to door. I was out reading in the screened tent when someone on the front porch hailed me. It was candidate Raul Alvarez, former member of the Austin city council now running against a long-time incumbent for the office of Travis County precinct 4 commissioner. He made the mistake of asking what issues are of concern and probably heard way too much about proposed total elimination of our neighborhood bus route after a century of public transportation serving what began as a streetcar suburb and also about the lack of any health ordinances governing frequency of emptying or setback placement away from property lines of portable chemical toilets on construction sites. While Mr. A. was still on the front porch, the spouse of Democratic primary candidate Cliff Brown appeared and joined the conversation. He’s running for the office of judge of the 147th District Court. This was very much like the old days in Austin, when nearly all candidates running for city or county office went personally from door to door. What has changed is that modern candidates have Web sites and Twitter accounts. I’m glad that our doorbell doesn’t work, but I’m also glad to have enjoyed the opportunity to hear about these campaigns in person.