AFL-CIO Vows To Mount Enormous Get Out The Vote Operation

[Hope And Change]

AFL-CIO Vows To Mount Enormous Get Out The Vote Operation

By Greg Sargent - October 21, 2008, 9:45AM

An AFL-CIO official sends over some detail about its planned get-out-the-vote operation, which the labor federation will be announcing a bit later this morning.

If AFL makes good on its vow, which is to mount the biggest operation in its history, it will be lending an enormous boost to Obama in the battleground states.

AFL promises to deploy an army of 250,000 volunteers in 20 states, including shifting resources to new toss-up states like North Carolina and Indiana, its spokesperson, Steve Smith, says.

AFL is also promising a new, micro-targeted approach to very specific swing constituencies, such as working class veterans, retirees and gun owners -- groups which have already been targeted by the union and will receive what the AFL official calls "intense communication" in the final stretch.

Such micro-targeting may be paying off already. Smith tells us that AFL's internal polling shows improvement among those very groups, with Obama building a sizable lead over McCain among active gun owners, veterans, and Appalachian voters in Ohio and Pennsylvania.


http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/afl-cio_vows_to_mount_enormous.php

[democrattotheend]

1. I did phonebanking to union members the other night

And I can't tell you what a difference the union program makes. I was calling middle-aged blue collar white guys in Ohio, and almost all of them said they were for Obama.

[ogneopasno]

2. Labor leading the way.

Thank you, organized labor! Solidarity!