Democrats: Get Ready for the REALITY WAVE

Parties working to win the turnout battle
By Donald Lambro
The Washington Times
October 23, 2006

...At this stage of the game, turnout specialists say the Republicans might have the edge in the sheer numbers of volunteers and a more sophisticated, computerized ground operation, which held off a fierce Democratic offensive in 2004.
"It's a great, sustaining grass-roots operation with a large degree of centralized direction, and Democrats have not done that. It's very sophisticated," said Curtis Gans, a veteran voter turnout specialist who heads American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate.

Mr. Gans' praise for the organization built by Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Ken Mehlman is privately echoed by some in the Democratic camp.
"We're not going to match the Republicans at their ground game," a senior Democrat involved in party turnout told The Washington Times, acknowledging that Democrats this year "started too late."

That's not the case with the Republican Party's turnout operation, which has built its voter lists and volunteer ground force since 2004 and has been sending weekly voter-contact reports from the precinct level up the political chain of command. Those reports eventually reach the RNC's "turnout war room."

"Republican volunteers have contacted more than 14 million voters this year and more than 7 million since Labor Day alone," Mr. Mehlman said. "We have made 1 million voter contacts every week for the past five weeks, and for six weeks, we have surpassed the number of contacts we made at comparable times in 2004, a presidential election year."

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean, who sent paid DNC organizers to all 50 states, has been "playing catch-up," a Democratic campaign official said. But the party's turnout efforts -- which depend more heavily on paid workers, union members and other groups -- have been more extensive in recent months.
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Notice the contrast between Republican volunteer based networks and paid Democrat operatives. Sound familiar?

I started Mike's America in November 2004 a few weeks after the re-election of President George W. Bush. One of my first posts (seventh to be exact) was titled "Bush WON Ohio." It was in response to a New York Times article that was dissecting the reasons John Kerry LOST Ohio. Kerry didn't LOSE Ohio, President Bush WON Ohio.

I was in Ohio a few weeks before the 2004 election and as described in the post, I saw people driving cars with out of state license plates with "Kerry for President" bumper stickers going through my hometown. They were there to put up yard signs and do door to door voter contacts.

Now, if some smelly hippie shows up at your door late at night and asks you to vote for Kerry, you'd probably just agree so he would go away and not attack you. But then you turn around and your friend Joe from church or your civic club asks you to vote for Bush you're more likely to be honest in whether you agree or not.

That's what happened in Ohio in 2004 and that's what is happening this year in Ohio and Missouri, and Pennsylvania, and Virginia and Tennessee and..and...and...

If anything the strength of the Rove/Mehlman machine has grown over the years. Democrats may be in for a surprise on November 7th. And you can expect them to start whining about it immediately.

Each of us can do our part. Contact friends and family and urge them to vote. Help them get absentee ballots and get them returned well before election day if they are less likely to vote on their own.

Just remember: We cannot be defeated by our opponents. We can only defeat ourselves.