« "I'm Not Bush" | Main | Palin Shops »
October 18, 2008
On the Ground in Colorado
I know I haven't been posting much, but we've been busy. Here's my take on Obama's ground campaign in our neighborhood in Colorado (northwest Jefferson County).
My husband and I were out canvassing again today, as we've been doing on Saturdays for several weeks now. It's been very interesting watching the campaign evolve in our neighborhood (swing district in a high-target county in a swing state).
Many Colorado offices had been open for months now, while our area had one guy working out of his car. Then the campaign sent an intern, then they opened an office — less than a month ago. Yes, Obama's campaign is still opening new offices in some places. And now, at least on weekends when we are there, the place is full of people working, canvassers going in and out. Today they had Mark Udall show up to talk (we skipped it to canvass instead), and overall they get more organized every week.
But they've also been tightly coordinated with the campaign. "This
week we're handing out health care literature", they'd say, and so
that's what we'd leave at the houses we visited. And lo and behold!
That week Obama would be running health care ads. The next week we're
handing out literature on economic security, and, just like clockwork, Obama's ads are about the economy.
In the early weeks we were trying to contact voters whose preferences were not known, weeding out McCain supporters and locating undecideds. Last week we were trying to contact our supporters (and persuadable undecideds) to make sure they've gotten their mail-in ballots. This week we did some of that, along with checking whether our supporters have sent their ballots in, and handing out sheets of information on where to turn in mail-in ballots. They're already setting up pollworkers and other volunteers for election day, too.
Watching it happen, you can see them drilling down, noting who doesn't need to be contacted again, tracking who will vote on election day, and particularly who has not yet made up their minds. It's impressive, it's detailed, and it's definitely a plan. Nothing haphazard about it, other than the inevitable mistakes that happen when you have a hundred volunteers handling data.
Posted by jnfr at October 18, 2008 05:11 PM