In recent days, Meg Whitman’s campaign has been trying to convince anyone who will listen that the polls are wrong because she has used her unlimited resources to buy a superior Get Out the Vote operation that’s going to shock the prognosticators. Just one problem with that… there’s already a massive, sophisticated GOTV operation under way to defeat her.
That operation is powered by the energy of tens of thousands of union volunteers who are embarking on restless days and sleepless nights through Election Day to get the word out to millions of voters. If Whitman's ace in the hole is to beat Jerry Brown with a ground operation, she might consider a Plan B.
Whitman’s spent $170 million and counting to convince voters that the Wall Street way is the right way. But the more voters we talk to, the more clear it becomes that they are rejecting her message that California needs more of the same failed Bush policies -- tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation -- that collapsed our economy. Instead, working people are embracing a new direction for California that helps us rebuild from the bottom up by investing in jobs, education and the public services our families rely upon. That's what Jerry Brown will do as Governor.
California Labor’s GOTV program is years in the making, culminating this weekend with more than 30,000 volunteers fanning out across the state to reach as many as 4 million voters. In the final week alone, California Labor will make more than 3.3 million GOTV phone calls, visit 325,000 homes and distribute more than a half million flyers at worksites.
In addition to the outreach from union member to union member – which is vastly superior to Whitman and Fiorina’s impersonal approach to voter contact – there’s a massive, targeted effort to reach working-class non-union voters in critical areas of the state. More than 2 million voters in the Central Valley, Inland Empire, Orange County and San Diego -- traditional Republican strongholds -- have been receiving information for weeks on the candidates’ positions on issues like jobs, education and public safety. To further stress the importance of voting, the California Labor Federation launched a GOTV television ad last week, using Whitman's regret over her atrocious voting record to urge voters to not have a "Meg Moment" and get to the polls on Tuesday.
With 2 weeks left until E-Day, California Progressives have been building a firewall to beat back the tide of the Red Menace. We are walking precincts, knocking on doors, engaging voters neighbor to neighbor, and phonebanking, phonebanking, phonebanking!
The task at hand is daunting and morale may flag and spirits may dwindle, but I say we must stand together! We must show not just California, but the nation that we will not go quietly into the night; that we, the Progressive Movement, on principle will not go down without a fight.
In this this vien, the acronym G.R.I.T. should serve as a rally cry to all activists in our movement.
Grim Determination:We may not have the enthusiasm of the other side, but we have the intestinal fortitude to soldier on in the face of long odds and short tempers. We will snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Regain the Momentum:Very soon...maybe not today, maybe not tommorrow, and because of our efforts we will regain the momentum. Maintaing a positive attitude leads to positive results.
Intensify the Effort:Every waking moment and every single body should be focused on winning this election. If we are not exhausted by the time this thing is over, then we have not done enough.
Turn the Tide:Our organization is better than the Teabaggers and thier allies, our determination is greater, our GOTV is legendary! We can win this!
(While they won't replace good old-fashioned shoe leather, tools matter. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
Consultants in California and everywhere would like us to believe that the money game is everything. But something seems to be changing. On November 3rd of this year, a loose coalition of progressive groups won a tremendous set of victories in a small California city despite getting outspent by a factor of more than 20. This could be what California democracy would look like if it was built on a person to person foundation. The following is a first-person account from Hillary Blackerby, Secretary of the local Democratic Party organization, who asked me to post it (full discolsure, this post says nice things about California VoterConnect):
The City of Santa Barbara on California's Central Coast is one of those silly places that still has its city elections in November of odd years. Our city ballot this year consisted of a mayor's seat, 3 city council seats and 4 ballot measures. Two of the five mayoral candidates were current sitting councilmembers with time left in their terms, so if one of them were to win the mayor's seat, the 4th highest vote getter in the council race would get a 2 year term to finish out the mayor's council term. There were thirteen candidates for city council.
Progressive organizations with ground forces that were activated for the campaign included...
I have a request to our friends in the netroots: remind anyone you know who lives in the 10th Congressional District, a Northern California district that includes portions of Contra Costa, Solano, Alameda, and Sacramento counties, to vote on Tuesday, November 3rd.
We're only two days away from a gaining a 60-seat filibuster-proof US Senate majority.
On Tuesday, December 2nd, the good citizens of Georgia will go to the polls for the second time in less than a month to chose their next Senator in an unexpected run-off election. Currently Democractic challenger Jim Martin trails Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss by only a few percentage points. But the polls mean nothing. Turnout means everything.
We need your help to get out the vote. Will you commit to taking 60 minutes out of your busy schedule between now and 3pm on Tuesday, Dec. 2nd?
Jim Martin's Georgia Senate campaign has reached out to former Obama phone bank groups all over the country, but has made a special effort to reach out to California.
I'm happy to report we're answering the call here in Southern California. Read on if you want to learn how you can help.
This is at one of Debbie Cook's offices in Orange County:
You can help. There are still close to four hours until the polls close. I hear turnout is up in LA County and down a touch in Orange County. We can beat Dana Rohrabacher.
Make my election prediction come out right! This is from Debbie Cook's campaign, via email:
We have volunteers monitoring precincts across the district, and the results look encouraging. Our voters are showing up and Republicans are just not very excited by Rohrabacher.
We need you to help phone from home now, and until the polls close at 8:00.
We need to personally call every Democrat in the district before 7:30 and get them out to vote.
Can you help?
If you can, please email debbiecookforcongress-at-gmail-dot-com and we'll send you the simple instructions to call from home.
Joe Shaw
Communications Director
Debbie Cook for Congress
A Cook victory would be the biggest ideological shift in the entire House of Representatives. She is a Better Democrat who needs your help. Stay for Change and give Debbie Cook a hand. She will make you proud in Washington.
(here's a less gory Charlie Brown story. GOTV - promoted by shayera)
As many of you know, Charlie Brown is running a different kind of campaign. He is not running for fame or for power or to derail the ambitions of an opponent. Instead, Charlie is running a campaign focused on taking action, solving problems and producing results.
• I'll remind you about this on Monday, but if you're looking for some election day activities in LA, how about this phonebank at USC?
• The Palo Alto Police Chief is in hot water after 'she instructed officers to stop African-Americans and "find out who they are."' Classy, but she meant something else entirely, I'm sure.
• On the national front, our "post-partisan" governor called Barack Obama "scrawny." Apparently he loved the whole girly-man blowback so much, he thought he'd give it another shot. For reals:
"We're going to make him do some squats, and then we're going to give him some bicep curls to beef up those scrawny little arms, but if you only could do something about putting some meat on his ideas," he said. "Sen. McCain on the other hand is built like a rock," Schwarzenegger joked.
Schwarzenegger questioned Obama's readiness to be president, noting that McCain "served this country longer in a POW camp than his opponent has served in the United States Senate," he said, as the crowd roared with approval. "Ladies and gentlemen, I only play an action hero in my movies, but John McCain is a real action hero." (LA Times10/31)
Yes, apparently the same cliches he's been using in California haven't gone out of style in Ohio yet.
Below you will find information about GOTV efforts on behalf of Joan Buchanan in AD15 and Fran Florez in AD30. They are both terrific candidates and can use as much people power hitting the streets this GOTV weekend. If any of you can spare a couple hours to help out, it would go a long way. Thanks!
One of the biggest ways you can impact this election is to disseminate information to your circle of friends. A couple organizations have stepped up in a big way to make that process smooth and easy.
Google noticed that millions of people were searching through their site for voting information - where their polling place is, when the last day for early voting is, etc. Google created this great tool as a one-stop shop to answer all of those questions.
It's hard to believe that in 2008, information so important to U.S. citizens and the democratic process isn't well organized on the web. To solve this problem, we've released our US Voter Info site, an effort to simplify and centralize voting locations and registration information.
Are you registered to vote? What's the best way to obtain an absentee ballot? When people visit the site, answers to these questions appear. And anyone with a website can provide the same information. The US Voter Info gadget places a simple search box that expands to show a full set of voter information when someone enters an address.
We are also offering a simpler way to find out where to vote. By entering a home address, citizens across the country will be able to find their polling place for election day.
The tool is super-easy and effective. Tell your friends.
Another incredible tool comes from our friends at CREDO mobile. It's called TXT Out The Vote, and it enabled you to send targeted text messages in California opposing Prop. 4 (parental notification for abortion) and Prop. 8 (eliminating the right of same-sex couples to marry). The messages, which you can send to any friend or family member with a cell phone, will be delivered on Election Day. This kind of "personal phone banking" is one of the best ways to get out the vote. Check it out at TXT Out The Vote. Standard text messaging rates apply.
With only two weeks until Election Day, it is more critical than ever to get out and help bring Charlie to victory. For months now, the Charlie Brown campaign for Congress has been burning up the phone lines and pounding the pavement to get our positive message of "patriotism before partisanship" out to the voters of the 4th Congressional District.
You do not see Flash Report's Jon Fleischman, who represents nothing if not the internal voice of the California Yacht Party (he's the Vice Chair, after all), this concerned about a Republican-held seat. Not every day.
The Democrats have moved the 10th Assembly District near the top of their wish-list, and for good reason. First, the seat is open, which always makes for a more interesting contest. Second, a once six-point Republican partisan voter registration advantage has shrunk to just two points.
The 10th District is located in the San Joaquin Valley, split over four counties -- El Dorado, Amador, Sacramento and San Joaquin.
Compounding matters for Republican strategists, not only was there a pretty brutal GOP primary contest back in June, but this seat overlaps several U.S. House seats that will likely see action -- CD 3 where Dan Lungren is seeking re-election, CD 4 where Tom McClintock is running, and, of course, CD 11 where Dean Andal is trying to take out freshman Democrat Jerry McNerney (this is a top tier seat).
What Fleischman is correctly describing is what I would call the "Carol Shea-Porter effect." In 2006, Paul Hodes got a lot of establishment and netroots support in his Congressional race in New Hampshire, while the neighboring Carol Shea-Porter got virtually none. However, the state of New Hampshire all resides in the same media market. So Hodes' ads pummeling his opponent and Republicans in general ended up resonating on Carol Shea-Porter's side of the district. In the end, both Democrats won, with Shea-Porter's victory a major upset.
The same is true for Alyson Huber in AD-10 and her race against Yacht Party member in good standing Jack Sieglock. With contested elections throughout her area - in CA-11, CA-03 and CA-04 - Huber's message of change and fighting failed conservative values and ideas will be amplified. In addition, the GOTV programs from those candidates will snag voters for AD-10 (and Joan Buchanan in AD-15) as well. With 82% of voters seeing the budget as a major problem, this is a teachable moment for Democrats, who can tie the burdensome 2/3 requirement and Republican ideological intransigence to a state falling behind, and drive home the need for fundamental change.
Sieglock's bitter primary has given Huber a head start up here. Even his consultant agrees: "Jack is a very good candidate, but he's had a tougher road through the primary than his opponent, and that puts us behind." Add that to the more sophisticated GOTV program for Democrats this cycle, and AD-10 is well within reach. With some good bounces, we can get to a 2/3 majority.
Gladis, Carlos, and Ruben last night at the Coachella campaign office (Alejandro was working for dad, too, this is a great bunch). Met my Calitics buddy Dan last night at last, and he's hitting the streets today. I've been well-trained to fear the kaynehorah (evil eye), but not Carlos. He felt good about the work they've done last night, and he's felt happy and positive for the entire campaign. This is his first time out as a field organizer, and the 200 campaign volunteers hitting the streets today are testament to his work this past year. It's 100 degrees in the Coachella Valley today. Low turnout expected by the registrar, she estimates 30%, 31%. But not among the ID'd voters for this campaign. The walk lists have less than 50 households per, because we are rich in volunteers. Plus, the union workers are out there, and who knows what their number is.
Barack Obama's endorsement by the Grateful Dead showed the extent to which he is bringing voters out of the woodwork. Typically in campaigns, you start with 1/3 supporting your side, 1/3 supporting the other side, and 1/3 ready to be convinced. The middle is the battleground (unless you buy into the DLC playbook of pissing off the base to try and win over the other side's base, which is why no Clinton has won 50% nationwide). The other option is to not buy into the voter pool as a zero net sum game and bring in new people. To date, Barack Obama has excelled at expanding the pool and bringing in young voters and first time voters and boosting turnout.
When it comes to the Grateful Dead, it is almost a joke when it comes to getting Deadheads to care about politics. It might be the least friendly demographic for increasing participation in electoral politics. The Dead didn't step up against Nixon or any other major threat to America since. But they have been inspired by Barack Obama to come together for a reunion concert to Get Out The Vote. I'm proud to be there and will be updating below the fold, you can listen to a Live stream here (beginning at 7:30 pacific + Dead time).
For weeks now here at Calitics we have been discussing the puzzle of Decline to State voters. They make up the only growing part of our electorate at 19.3% (about 3 million voters), but they greatly underperformed during the 2004 primaries (only 8% vote for a presidential candidate). These voters should be ripe for the picking, but are hard to target. They include true independents and both regular Democratic and Republican voters. DTS voters have three choices in this election 1) just vote on the initiatives 2) vote in the American Independent party primary or 3) vote in the Democratic party primary. Unfortunately not many of them know they have to be proactive about requesting a Democratic primary ballot or risk having a blank spot at the top of their ballot instead of candidate's names.
The Courage Campaign has launched a campaign to help educate DTS voters and make sure they know how to participate in the Democratic primary. We are calling and emailing 300,000 registered DTS voters with the simple message: Yes, you can vote for president, just ask for a Democratic ballot.
The NYT covered DTS voters and our "yes you can vote" campaign today. (quotes and more on the flip)
So I live in the South Bay area, around San Jose. And with the election coming up, I've been trying to figure out how to get involved. I think this next election is going to be really important, and I think almost the most important part is going to be the primary-- the Democrats are in a really good position coming in this time, so it seems to me the most important thing is that the person chosen to represent the Democrats in the Presidential election is the best person for the job and the person that Democratic voters can be the most enthusiastic about.
I personally think the best way to do that is if we nominate Barack Obama-- and I've been thinking I'd like to do whatever I can to help make that happen, even if it isn't much. I'm particularly interested in volunteering to help register new and young voters for the primary-- both because I think that will tend to help Obama in the primary, and also because voter registration is something that has real positive benefit even if none of the people signing up agree with me that Obama is the best candidate. However, I'm not sure how to go about volunteering, either to help register new voters or in any other way.
So, I was wondering if I could tap the impressive organizational resources of Calitics to ask: What resources are there for a young person in the San Jose/South Bay area to volunteer for progressive causes, especially if it would involve voter registration or the Barack Obama campaign?
I signed up for some kind of "Walk for Obama" thing this weekend, and the particular sub-event I'm going to is being run by a group named "San Jose Obama Voter Registration/Tabling" that actually seems to be exactly what I was looking for, so I will probably wind up getting involved with that group. However I was wondering if there were other options in this area as well.
(Wow, I couldn't have said it better! : ) - promoted by atdleft)
First category of responses that really pisses me off is typified by an aquaintance of mine, currently interning in Sacramento, let's call him CHET, who writes, "Let's just say it's dead on arrival. The odds of that resolution getting through the committee and to the convention floor are pretty slim. With all the presidentials in town, they're not going to want anything too controversial distracting the press/delegates, and making the CA Dems look any less unified than they already appear."
A lot of other responses we've had here, rather than debate the merits of what this resolution aims to accomplish, focus solely on how "the party won't let us do it."
For distasteful, dysfunctional-family analogies, follow me to the flip.
So now, with the election over, it's time for our favorite unemployed journalist to say this:
A get out the vote operation is effective only on the margins. If you are in a close race, it can make the difference. This is why Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger raised $20 million for it, anticipating at the beginning of this year that he would be in a close race against a Democratic candidate. Which of course did not happen. The point is, unless a candidate is right there in the ballpark in a close race, GOTV doesn't make much difference. Aside from Schwarzenegger and new Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, the moderate Silicon Valley entrepreneur, California Republicans simply don't have many good candidates.
This, of course, comes two months after Bradley's long and glowing post about that same GOTV operation, called "Schwarzenegger's Secret Weapon," which couldn't be more fawning about the super-duper high-tech facility (complete with video evidence!) that will "turn out a vote not only for Schwarzenegger, but also for his ticket mates." This blowjob of an article practically gives the whole state to Republicans, and glorifies Arnold's campaign manager Steve Schmidt as the architect of the surefire GOP statewide resurgence. Now, suddenly, when it fails, it wasn't that important to begin with.
I'm telling you, there's no bigger tool in politics than this guy.
Barack Obama's endorsement by the Grateful Dead showed the extent to which he is bringing voters out of the woodwork. Typically in campaigns, you start with 1/3 supporting your side, 1/3 supporting the other side, and 1/3 ready to be convinced. The middle is the battleground (unless you buy into the DLC playbook of pissing off the base to try and win over the other side's base, which is why no Clinton has won 50% nationwide). The other option is to not buy into the voter pool as a zero net sum game and bring in new people. To date, Barack Obama has excelled at expanding the pool and bringing in young voters and first time voters and boosting turnout.