Ohio Thoughts
I'm an Ohio native, and made it back to the State frequently prior to 11/02/2004. My impressions of life and activities in the battleground state of the 2004 Presidential Election vary, but they add some validation to the course material.
In one of the most complex and consequential Get Out The Vote efforts in the history of electoral politics, the poor citizens of the state of Ohio drank from a fire hose of campaign activity. There were ads, and the ads were inescapable. On your radio, in your mailbox, several times during each television commercial break. And when the mail man had come and gone, and you sat in silence, the telephone calls would begin. I always wondered who these "undecideds" were that were supposed to be the difference. You could not help but decide when bombarded like that, even if it were based simply upon who bothered you less.
In Columbus, ACT was everywhere. "Volunteers", mostly plucked from campus for an attractive hourly wage, were visible at most busy street corners. I don't know who they were persuading, though. It all seemed kind of aimless, and it was mostly anti-Bush rather than having anything to do with John Kerry.
I spent the week before the election in Southeastern Ohio, straddling the Republican-leaning rural communities and the staunchly Democratic decaying industrial cities on the Ohio river. There, as part of the Bush campaign, I saw the organization of local volunteers that was marshaled and deployed in the final push ahead of the election. There was no downtime. Call lists needed completed, door knocking started at 9am, and there was always literature to be dropped. ACT was there too, but they were outnumbered. The Bush campaign focused on the appeals most likely to resonate with the culturally conservative segments of the population, highlighting in particular the 2nd Amendment, gay marriage, and abortion.
The Bush campaign in SE Ohio was in frequent contact with headquarters, providing information upstream and reassessing targets and duties based on quality feedback.
With all the rhetorical energy from the defeat-Bush camp, I was surprised to read the accounts of outright incompetence. A little aimless and disjointed was the impression that I got. With the resources poured into the state, there should not have been an opportunity for gross incompetence on either side.
In one of the most complex and consequential Get Out The Vote efforts in the history of electoral politics, the poor citizens of the state of Ohio drank from a fire hose of campaign activity. There were ads, and the ads were inescapable. On your radio, in your mailbox, several times during each television commercial break. And when the mail man had come and gone, and you sat in silence, the telephone calls would begin. I always wondered who these "undecideds" were that were supposed to be the difference. You could not help but decide when bombarded like that, even if it were based simply upon who bothered you less.
In Columbus, ACT was everywhere. "Volunteers", mostly plucked from campus for an attractive hourly wage, were visible at most busy street corners. I don't know who they were persuading, though. It all seemed kind of aimless, and it was mostly anti-Bush rather than having anything to do with John Kerry.
I spent the week before the election in Southeastern Ohio, straddling the Republican-leaning rural communities and the staunchly Democratic decaying industrial cities on the Ohio river. There, as part of the Bush campaign, I saw the organization of local volunteers that was marshaled and deployed in the final push ahead of the election. There was no downtime. Call lists needed completed, door knocking started at 9am, and there was always literature to be dropped. ACT was there too, but they were outnumbered. The Bush campaign focused on the appeals most likely to resonate with the culturally conservative segments of the population, highlighting in particular the 2nd Amendment, gay marriage, and abortion.
The Bush campaign in SE Ohio was in frequent contact with headquarters, providing information upstream and reassessing targets and duties based on quality feedback.
With all the rhetorical energy from the defeat-Bush camp, I was surprised to read the accounts of outright incompetence. A little aimless and disjointed was the impression that I got. With the resources poured into the state, there should not have been an opportunity for gross incompetence on either side.
posted by Capitol Hill Rentals @ 9:11 PM
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