Democrats Push to Counter G.O.P. in Turnout Race

[RedEarth]

October 29, 2006
Democrats Push to Counter G.O.P. in Turnout Race
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
VINITA PARK, Mo., Oct. 28 — Democrats are pushing into high gear this weekend a sharply expanded campaign to get their voters to the polls, even as some party leaders expressed anxiety that Republicans would again out-organize them in the approximately 20 House and 3 Senate races that both sides agree will determine the outcome of the midterm elections.

After two national elections in which Republicans’ sophisticated get-out-the-vote operation helped them triumph over their opponents, Democrats have invested heavily in catching up.

The success of that effort could be crucial to their hopes on Nov. 7. Notwithstanding polls that show broad Democratic strength, control of Congress appears to rest on a relatively few races in which the candidates are separated by razor-thin margins. Those are precisely the kinds of races where turnout efforts can make a difference, and the Republicans’ track record on getting their supporters to the polls in districts they focus on is a primary reason that the White House continues to express confidence that it can at least limit Democratic gains this year.

Howard Dean, the Democratic national chairman, said Friday that he was confident that a swell of enthusiasm among Democratic voters, combined with what he characterized as despondency among Republicans, would push Democrats to victory, an assessment that even some Republican strategists said they shared. But in an interview, Mr. Dean said that Republicans continued to have a clear superiority in identifying voters they can persuade to vote for their candidates and then getting them to cast ballots.

“I think we’ve closed the gap, but I don’t think we are there yet,” Mr. Dean said. “It’s going to take some time. I think we could match them in 2008, if everything goes right, in voter turnout.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/29/us/politics/29vote.html?ei=5094&en=a10daf65c6a667f0&hp=&ex=1162094400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

[blm]

1. Nagourney spinning favorably to GOPs - - YET AGAIN. I hope Chairman Dean

is prepared with videocameras at every precinct during vote counting. This article smells like yet another corpmedia distraction for GOP squeaking another victory out of "ground game" that intends to cover up the truth about GOP vote STEALING.

[JudyM]

2. What exactly is the rethug GOTV strategy, besides church sermons?

[BattyDem]

3. There is no strategy

It's just the "cover story" for Diebold.

[Skip Intro]

5. Good ol' "christian" values - like destruction, greed, and mass murder

"the devil is at the door, like evil gays that want to invade your home and redecorate, or something...will you let them in? vote grand oil party, we love the flag and the bible - now lets kill some brown people..."

[GOPBasher]

7. I don't think anyone can say it better than you just did. :-) n/t

[bluestateguy]

4. Oh. It's Adam Nagourney.

:eyes:

[Rose Siding]

6. WOO HOO Brendan - Welcome home! You look GREAT in print

:patriot:

snip>
For two cold and rainy hours the other night, Brendan Fahey, 27, a two-time Iraq war veteran, led a team of three Democratic workers on a door-knocking mission through a trim, middle-class neighborhood of two-family brick homes in this city northwest of St. Louis. They careened from house to house — holding street maps and a computer-generated list of likely supporters gleaned from two years of market research, telephone calls and earlier visits — as they executed the final stages of a plan began when Democratic Party strategists opened offices here 15 months ago.


"Careened", huh AdNags? :eyes: