RNC's Mehlman doing "GOTV" in Ohio

[OzarkDem]

and other key states this election cycle. GOP GOTV = purging voter registration lists and suppressing the Dem vote...


"Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, proved himself in 2004 when he managed the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign. He'll coordinate the GOP's 72-hour get-out-the-vote campaign in November in key states, says Tom Reynolds, the New York congressman who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Mehlman is knowledgeable about not only voting patterns but, also, about living patterns. He held detailed discussions with reporters during Bush's last campaign about where in Ohio Republicans lived, where Democrats lived, new voter registrations in counties that at first glance appeared to favor Democrats, and county-by-county migration patterns that he insisted foreshadowed the strength of the GOP in Ohio's exurbs.

Ohio Republican Party political director Jason Mauk says that this year, the state GOP will coordinate get-out-the-vote efforts, or GOTV, with Mehlman and his aides, utilizing technology that worked in 2000 and 2004. Ohio was a model of the GOTV effort's effectiveness, Mauk says, and utilized a neighbor-to-neighbor approach rather than importing volunteers.

http://www.cleveland.com/weblogs/openers/

[partylessinOhio]

1. We need a strong Democratic Party in Ohio to stop this crap!

But we don't have one so you know what that means.

[rucky]

3. OYD is more organized than the state party.

and even then...

I'm working with ACORN in Dayton.

[blm]

5. The collapse of the Ohio infrastructure has been known since 1997 - why

Clinton and MacAuliffe kept it in that weakened condition after 2000 so it would collapse further by 2004 is just a mystery to me.

[AndyA]

2. They're flaunting it in our faces.

Ohio Republican Party political director Jason Mauk says that this year, the state GOP will coordinate get-out-the-vote efforts, or GOTV, with Mehlman and his aides, utilizing technology that worked in 2000 and 2004.

In short, they plan on stealing the vote again. These people MUST be stopped!

Edit: Added bold emphasis.

[OzarkDem]

4. My thought, too

Ohio Dem leaders had meetings with RFK, Jr. and others recently and they're vowing they have a plan to deal with this "pre-emptively" IOW before the GOP gets a chance.

Dems will have attorneys in every county and hopefully, every polling place and I understand they also will have some retired judges on standby.

They're already backing court challenges to Blackwell's onerous changes from the HB 3 bill.

We all have to be vigilant and keep bugging our Ohio Dem leaders to stay on top of the situation.

[longship]

6. The problem with GOTV.

Get Out The Vote does not always work as intended. I'll give you an example of when it can work against intentions.

It's 1994 and the House banking scandal is in full press on the media. I was treasurer of the county Democratic Party and a district delegate. We were heavily involved in doing a GOTV campaign to nullify Rep. Dan Glickman being named in that scandal. It was tough going. The people's temperment was *foul* and Glickman's opponent, Todd Tiahrt, was making lots of hay about it. But one of our brighter and older activists put together this GOTV program. We had all our ducks in line to pull things off. Regardless, on election night nine term veteran Glickman lost to the rapture right lunatic Tiahrt.

We wondered what happened. I wasn't in on the post mortem analysis but this is how it was explained to me by my good friend, a Poli Sci professor. When you do GOTV, you're going to target precincts that should support your candidate. Unfortunately, when there's something else (like a scandal) skewing the electorate, getting out the vote in those targetted precincts can actually bring out more people in opposition to your candidate. We found out the hard way that when the electorate's mood is fouled, GOTV doesn't work. We likely would have had better luck if we had suppressed the vote. For then, the hard core Glickman supporters, who would have voted anyway, would have had a higher percentage of the vote. Of course, this is something which we never would do. But by bringing new voters to the polls, even in our target precincts, we actually helped Tiahrt.

So, I'm inclined to be encouraged if Repugs are doing GOTV. What the Dems should do this year is to help out and do their own GOTV. People are pissed and, unlike in 1994, GOTV can only help the Dems.

Just something to chew on.

[Generic Brad]

7. Sounds more like "Get Out" than "Get Out the Vote"

And if the law of unintended consequences works against the Republicans this fall I will be very happy indeed.

[longship]

8. That's what I'm thinking, too.

GOTV is controversial at best. The whole premise is that the electorate is going to act like it has in the past. Extrapolation is dangerous because it takes you beyond the domain for which you have data. We found out in 1994 that GOTV wasn't necessarily a valid technique.

[OzarkDem]

9. Its more likely

Mehlman will be suppressing Dem votes than turning out GOP voters. But I guess they have to call it something.