Driving Votes: Kate's Blog - Archived Entry

The New York Times printed an article on the Republican Party's co-optation of Democratic grass-roots political organizing strategies. But with a mighty eerie twist.

Take a look for an in-depth look at what we are up against. Here is an excerpt:

The campaign will use this same precinct-by-precinct design in more than a dozen so-called battleground states, including such critical theaters as Missouri, Florida and Pennsylvania. (If you're lucky enough to live in a less competitive state like Massachusetts or Utah, you'll be spared all the door-knocking and toxic TV ads.) Ohio is the site of the earliest and most intense effort. Already, the campaign has begun holding training sessions for its Ohio volunteers, which are designed to introduce them to the Plan and which have the general feel of a motivational workshop. ''No one is going to walk up to you and say, 'Can I help George W. Bush?' '' Dewey Stokes, the county commissioner for Franklin County, told about 100 volunteers at one of these sessions. ''You have to ask. Why are you all here tonight? Because someone asked you. You've got friends, relatives, co-workers -- ask them to help.''

On this morning, the colonel had come, clipboard under his arm, with the goal of registering 10 new voters, which would count toward the goal of 6,450 that the campaign had set for the county. (Volunteers get points for every voter they register, and these points can be redeemed on the Bush campaign Web site for hats or mugs.) Ashenhurst said he carried the clipboard everywhere he went, and if he saw a moving van by the side of the road in a Republican-rich neighborhood, he would pull over and see if the person was moving in and wanted to register. ''Voter registration isn't just a weekend activity,'' he told me. ''It really is a way of life.''