SHREWSBURY — It’s Valentine’s Day, a snowstorm is coming, and the temperature is 14 degrees in Shrewsbury’s Edgemere section, but Jason Palitsch is pounding the pavement.
On Bay View Drive, one of the few residents to answer Palitsch’s knock praises him and a campaign volunteer.
“You’re hardy people — resilient,” the man says, accepting a flier from Palitsch before shooing his cat aside to close the door.
Resilience may be key for Palitsch, 25, a Democrat and the apparent underdog in a two-way race for a special legislative election that, on this frigid Valentine’s Day, still lies more than six weeks away.
His Republican opponent, Hannah Kane, has the support of the man both seek to replace, former state representative Matthew A. Beaton, who left to become Governor Charlie Baker’s secretary of energy and environmental affairs and happens to co-own a construction company with Kane.
The 11th Worcester seat represents Shrewsbury and two precincts in Westborough. Neither Kane nor Palitsch faces a challenger from within their parties, and no independent candidates are running.
A few miles north of Edgemere, at Town Hall, Kane is spending Valentine’s Day with her husband — as chairman of the town’s Board of Selectmen, he is attending an all-day meeting of the Shrewsbury Finance Committee, on which she sits.
Kane, 43, joined the committee last year, after more than a decade of involvement in local issues and three years at MassDevelopment, the state’s finance and development authority. She was recruited for that post by then-Lieutenant Governor Paul Cellucci, a family friend, to oversee marketing for the redevelopment of Fort Devens after the closure of the Army post there.
She has been active in raising money for local schools, heating oil assistance, and homelessness issues. One of her proudest moments, she says, came when she and Beaton presented checks of $11,500 each, raised through a charity golf tournament, to three organizations that aid the homeless.
“It was a very powerful and moving moment,” she said. “You’re seeing this direct impact based on something you did.”
Kane’s community involvement has also brought her together with Palitsch. Both played prominent roles in the successful effort, last June, to pass Shrewsbury’s first-ever operational Proposition 2½ override to fund operations of the town and its schools, winning the support of nearly two-thirds of voters.
There’s no apparent acrimony between the two, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t campaigning aggressively. Kane is using her commanding fund-raising lead — having raised just over $100,000 to Palitsch’s $36,625, as of Feb. 13 — to hire professional canvassers to bolster her own efforts to reach voters one on one.
Palitsch, meanwhile, is talking to voters on weekends and at night, after his workday as government and public affairs specialist at Veterans Inc., a nonprofit group that serves veterans and their families. He says he isn’t intimidated by Kane’s fund-raising advantage.
“I’m expecting to be heavily outspent, and that’s not something that concerns me in the least,” he said. “The focus of my campaign strategy is direct voter contact. It’s me knocking on doors talking to voters. It’s friends and volunteers on the phones. And you know what? That’s free.”
In the end, money may matter less than experience. Kane is 18 years older than Palitsch and has lived in Shrewsbury 18 years, building a reputation for hard work through her participation in events such as the town’s successful annual garden party fund-raiser for Shrewsbury public schools.
Selectman Maurice M. DePalo, an independent voter who has supported Republicans Beaton and his predecessor in the House, Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito, says Kane’s experience in local issues and her drive have earned his support and are likely to persuade other voters.
“I think he’s an intelligent guy. He’s well spoken,” DePalo says of Palitsch. “I think the difference is Hannah has a lot more public, private, and political experience . . . than Jason has.”
DePalo also praises the seemingly indefatigable Kane for her energy and focus.
“If you want to get something done, you go to Hannah,” he says. “If she takes on a cause, she’s going to make it happen.”
Palitsch, though, has been politically active since his teens and has compiled a record that includes being elected to Town Meeting at 19, to the Shrewsbury School Committee at 22, as well as three years working under state Senator Michael O. Moore.
Palitsch supporter Dale W. Schaetzke, who serves on the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals, says Palitsch “takes a reasonable approach to serving the community and making a difference whether it be in education or tackling the opiates problem that we have in the area.”
Schaetzke says he believes Palitsch’s practical approach can accomplish much for local voters, but he acknowledges that the Democrat and the Republican, both vocal advocates for improving public education, have many shared values.
“I think the supporters of both candidates have some of the very same concerns, and they just see their candidate as speaking for them better,” he says.
That could be one more reason that, as DePalo suggests, voter turnout is key.
Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeremycfox.