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Often, even when hard-core Republicans answer their doors, they turn out to have issues on their mind that run right up the Democratic alley. “There’s so many people that really don’t realize the relationship between elections and whether or not they’re going to be able to get their drugs,” Tilson says, “or how expensive gas is.” While new canvassers often brace themselves for a barrage of questions about abortion and gay marriage, that’s not foremost on most folks’ minds. “They’re thinking about whether they’ll have heat this winter,” she says. “How they’re going to get themselves to the grocery store and work.”http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070813/moser
What did people call the 50-state strategy 2 years ago when it started?
Well, first the D.C. consultants and (anti-Dean) Clintonistas called it “The Howard Dean 50-State Strategy”. They wanted to frame it around him so that if it failed it would hurt Dean’s reputation.
They also called it “controversial”.
Wait. “Controversial?” That they should spend less than 10% of the DNC budget on old-fashion hard work and talking directly to voters? That’s controversial? Isn’t that like saying that counting calories is a “controversial” way of losing weight? Or that exercise is a “controversial” way of getting into shape?
I guess the controversial part was that it was a “long term” strategy.
a study of the fifty-state strategy’s impact on the 2006 midterm results by Elaine Kamarck. While the project had not been designed to win elections in the short run, Kamarck found that it had done just that, “increasing the Democratic vote share beyond the bounce of a national tide favoring Democrats.” Comparing Democratic results in ‘06 with those of the ‘02 midterms, she found that the average Democratic vote went up by nearly 5 percent in 2006. But in the thirty-five Congressional districts where fifty-state staffers had worked on the campaigns, Democratic votes had soared by an average of nearly 10 percent.
Yeah, “controversial”. Right. Check out this article about how well it is going.