...what you've wrote about is indicative of voter attitudes outside of Kalkaska as well.
I had a similar issue when I was circulating the MCHF petition around my town.
Democrats didn't like it that someone even had the audacity to try to circulate that petition. Even moreso that I was doing it by myself.
I was shadowed. Untoward comments made at me. And people going to houses further down the block ahead of me to "educate" the people about what I was doing.
Needless to say, going door-to-door in my own town didn't pay off as well as I would've liked.
There were other times when local pols got a little too full of themselves and basically told the residents they they purportedly serve to "Go to Hell" in no uncertain terms. They didn't want their input.
They were elected to make decisions. They will be making the final call.