It's called the ground game: Volunteers phone potential voters or mail them cards in a personalized effort to secure victory
By Shea Andersen
Tribune Reporter
In the University Area, a Democrat receives a handwritten postcard from John Kerry's staff.
In the Northeast Heights, an undecided Republican answers a phone call from a friendly Bush-Cheney volunteer.
In another part of the city, a woman who hasn't voted much in the last few years gets a phone call and a funny postcard from NARAL Pro-Choice New Mexico.
It's not just Albuquerque. All across New Mexico, campaigns are reaching out to people.
They call it the ground game: mobilizing voters, finding those who are on the fence, moving them to one side and getting people to the polls. Whoever plays it better, organizers say, will win New Mexico's vote.
Forget television. You can mute that chatter, campaign staffers said. But there's nothing like the personal touch.
Which is why Republicans love people like Heather Maguire.
Maguire is an eager volunteer for the Bush campaign in New Mexico. An ardent anti-abortion Republican, she signed up to help the campaign seek out undecided voters who agree with her stance on abortion and nudge them into President Bush's camp.
"This is the first presidential campaign I've volunteered for," said Maguire, who is 35.
But when Bush lost New Mexico by 366 votes in 2000, Maguire was shocked.
"I took it for granted that New Mexicans would know how to vote," Maguire said. "We're not going to let that happen again."
Indeed, the Bush campaign in New Mexico has become obsessive about not taking anything for granted.
In campaign events, organizers make sure only Bush supporters are allowed in to cheer for the candidate and the cameras.
In TV advertising, they make sure no Democratic message goes uncountered.
Now they say they've found about 3,000 undecided voters in New Mexico. They uncovered them in barrages of phone calls made back in June. Over the summer they went through the names, put them into categories - veterans, abortion foes - and lined up volunteers who share those interests and backgrounds to call them.
"This is the most efficient targeting," said Scott Jennings, executive director of the New Mexico Bush-Cheney campaign. "This is where we believe we're going to lock down that remaining percentage."
As he spoke, several dozen volunteers worked telephones in their offices on Osuna Road Northeast. A barbecue grill smoked outside with free food. Coolers with sodas and bottled water were also handy. The walls of the open, airy office were peppered with news clippings, pro-Bush paraphernalia and stickers. A sign read: "The beatings will stop when morale improves."
Unlike most offices filled of phones, however, few were ringing. In this office, the calls went out. And most of the phones were busy.
Jennings said the campaign has a list of about 11,500 volunteers ready to make calls across New Mexico.
A similar scenario plays out in Nob Hill, at the campaign headquarters of the Kerry-Edwards campaign.
There, the Democrats' secret weapon is a man named Tony Allitto.
Allitto is a 63-year-old registered independent who came to the Kerry campaign because, he said: "I feel so strongly that we've got to get Bush out of Washington."
Allitto, who is retired, makes about 200 calls per day, six days a week for Kerry's campaign. He has been at it for six weeks, along with dozens of other volunteers. They all scurry about the airy, buzzing Kerry offices on Central Avenue Northeast.
Allitto said he didn't plan to be a phone volunteer. Now, he's obsessed. He carries a copy of the "9/11 Commission Final Report," the best-selling book by the federal commission investigating the terrorist attack of 2001. He also carries a sheaf of papers about Kerry's policies, so he can explain the health care plan at the drop of a hat to an undecided voter.
Mostly, however, he's calling Democrats. The list of numbers he has is provided by the party.
"It's not rocket science," said Matt Farrauto, spokesman for the New Mexico Democratic Party.
Instead, it's sheer political math.
Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in New Mexico. According to the Secretary of State's Office, there are 529,478 Democrats to 334,571 Republicans.
To get Kerry over the top in New Mexico, Farrauto said, all the Democratic Party needs to do is have its members mail in an absentee ballot or get to the polls Nov. 2.
Allitto, who by now has talked with thousands of New Mexico Democrats, is predicting a very busy Election Day.
"People tell me, 'I haven't voted in years, but I'm voting this time,' " Allitto said. "I really think the turnout is going to be higher."
In 2000, about 63 percent of registered voters in New Mexico went to the polls.
Plenty of those were women, according to the findings of NARAL Pro-Choice New Mexico, an abortion rights group. But it wasn't enough, they figured. So this year, organizers are targeting women who haven't voted much in the last few elections.
They found that, in New Mexico, 82,000 more women than men are registered to vote. But of the 380,000 women registered to vote in 2000, just over half cast their ballot.
So, every weeknight, volunteers at the NARAL Pro-Choice New Mexico offices call a list that includes about 15,000 women.
"We are looking at those women and saying, 'Let's make sure they get out to vote,' " said Giovanna Rossi, executive director of the agency. "It's a pretty intense program."
The effort has three stages, she said.
First, a call goes out to those voters, asking them to vote by mail. Anyone who says "OK," gets an application for an absentee ballot.
If they say "no" or "maybe" to that request, they'll get more calls and information on how to vote early.
It is a nonpartisan effort, Rossi said. Callers quiz voters about their feelings on issues like abortion, the environment and other key topics.
"It's not just on choice, and it's not at all about a candidate," Rossi said. "It's whether or not you feel strongly about a number of issues. If they feel strongly about two issues, they're likely to vote."
Last but not least, those women whom Rossi's group deems likely to vote get a postcard. As might be expected, women with strong anti-abortion opinions don't get one.
On the front of the postcard, two women share coffee and a frank chat. One says to the other: "I haven't done it in a while, but I think I'm ready."
The other replies, "Yeah, you should do it. It feels so good."
On the back of the card, below a picture of a woman's feet in heels standing in a voting booth, are the words, "Voting. It feels good."
