Are you anything like me when you watch these debates? Do you watch Sen. Obama put a nice, eloquent spin on tired, old, liberal ideas of re-distributing wealth and punishing success in America and just want to yell at the TV screen? Well, I do. I want to ask you to do something more useful with your energy. WE NEED YOU!
We have many opportunities to make a difference in these final 3 weeks. Ohio can help Sen. McCain win this election and Hamilton County is crucial to helping any Republican win Ohio. WHAT WE DO HERE CAN HELP CHANGE THE COURSE OF HISTORY!
First, let me explain something on this blog that I find myself explaining to many friends and supporters of the Party and of Sen. McCain. Signs will not win this election for Sen. McCain. The outcry for more yard signs and the obsession is understandable. I understand the frustration many of you feel about the number of yard signs you see for Obama. We saw that frustration in 2004 with Kerry/Edwards junk everywhere. Our office fields more calls about yard signs by nearly a 3 to 1 margin than about anything else. We never have enough and we can't get them out fast enough. We work very hard to get them out when we have them. To date, Hamilton County has distributed well over 25,000 yard signs. This incredible support of Sen. McCain is overwhelming and positive. But, the Party has a limited ability to buy yard signs for federal candidates because spending money to support federal candidates is difficult for local political parties under the current status of the law. We rely, largely, on the Ohio Republican Party and the McCain campaign to provide these signs. We will never satisfy people's desire to have yard signs. This is something not new to the 2008 campaign.
Yard signs are used in politics to raise the name identification of candidates. We want people to be familiar with a name when they go to the polls to vote. It has worked well for local candidates in this county for a generation. But, McCain and Obama have nearly universal name identification. We know their names and we know something about them.
However, signs are a show of support for a candidate that certainly makes us feel good. Will you change your vote based on the number of yard signs you see for Barack Obama or John McCain? Doubtful. Yard signs are important, but they are not likely to change votes.
What will change votes? Our grassroots efforts to reach out to targeted voters. And, we need your help.
The role of the Hamilton County Republican Party in a presidential campaign is to recruit volunteers to execute on a campaign plan that is given to us through the national campaign in Columbus, Ohio. The high, mighty, and important Party Chairman (me, yeah right) becomes, essentially, a volunteer coordinator. And, I'm happy to be that. I have confidence in the highly scientific and proven methodology used by this campaign to get-out-the-vote. I have seen it work first-hand in 2004 and I have confidence that it will get our voters out on Election Day (and before) in 2008.
In these final 20 days, it is more crucial than ever that we execute on this plan.
We need your help in two areas: phone banks and door-to-door activities. These are the focus of the campaign and we need YOUR help to get this critical work done. Through our phone banks and door-to-door efforts, we contact voters that have been scientifically targeted using a proven system of identifying key voters that can change this election. These voters are not random, but are identified through a micro-targeting process that tells us that they will change this election if they are persuaded to vote and vote for our candidates.
I was recently at a Women's Republican Club event where a woman angrily told me that the Obama people had come to her house twice and that no McCain person had. Exactly. The McCain campaign is not knocking on the door of or dropping literature to the house of a strong Republican that shows up at a Women's Republican Club meeting on a random Tuesday night in October. She is very likely not a targeted swing voter. She is one of us already! Likewise, Sen. Obama's campaign has wasted its energy going to her home--not once, but twice. We have a scientifically tested list of 2.5 million voters across Ohio that will change this election. Come help us contact them!
From the Party's perspective, we will continue to work hard on the yard sign effort. We know this is important to our supporters and it is important to me! But, get involved with our grassroots efforts to help us win on Election Day by volunteering to go door-to-door or cover a phone bank!
What else can you do? Let me provide a short list:
1. Volunteer to come to Headquarters for a few hours and help us answer the phones, deal with walk-ups, put together signs, stuff envelopes, and make calls. This time of year, we need lots of volunteer help on the ground at the office.
2. Volunteer to be an outside pollworker on Election Day and get out our sample ballots to voters in key precincts.
3. Volunteer to be a poll observer on Election Day. We need people to sign-up NOW to serve as poll observers to do the critical role of watching to assure fairness in the election process. This is especially crucial in this era of ACORN and some of their shenanigans.
4. Finally, SIGN UP FOR A PHONE BANK OR GO DOOR-TO-DOOR!
Email Patrick Maloney or Maggie Nafziger RIGHT NOW to get involved to help us win!
