Dukakis focused on polling and issues of state- and precinct-level campaigning, especially door-to-door outreach, a skill he said he honed while canvassing in Brookline more than 40 years ago.,Former Massachusetts Governor and 1988 presidential candidate Michael Dukakis preached the grassroots gospel to about 50 Emerson students on Dec. 5, sharing anecdotes and insight gleaned from his career in American presidential politics and elections.

Dukakis focused on polling and issues of state- and precinct-level campaigning, especially door-to-door outreach, a skill he said he honed while canvassing in Brookline more than 40 years ago.

“The thing that won me the nomination was a grassroots campaign,” Dukakis said, urging students to “do [in their careers] nationally what we did as block captains.”

The lecture was part of the Presidential Campaign Semester, a course in which Emerson students work for campaigns and non-profit organizations. Professor David Paleologos, who arranged the event is the director of the political research center at Suffolk University and a pollster for WHDH NBC-TV Boston.