We're wicked busy. JackPineSavage guy just came by to pick up lit for a drop, more lit droppers are coming before 10am. Walking "turfs" with highlighting are getting cut (MB's a wiz with this, Houston, we have a product), and voters are getting ID'd. I expect I'll work like the "auntie" character in MB's favorite meteo-opera -- "Twister" -- filling cold hungrey vols and pros with flapjacks and coffee. I better go buy a cow or something during a lull.
On the Clean Elections can be Gamed front, the Maine State Employees Association dropped a grand for their DINO two weeks ago on a mailing with a Dirigo Health message. The message irony is that the MESA/SEIU members have the State of Maine's employee health plan, so Dirigo -- the plan for the rest of us without employer-provided medical benes -- is about as relevant to their membership as the price of tea in China. Next, the Maine House Democratic Campaign dropped the same dollars (carefully off by two quarters, or four dimes and two nickles) for their DINO, on a mailing with a small business message. The message irony is that the DINO hasn't worked in a small business for longer than our candidate has been alive, and to be blunt, "pro small business" is a Republican theme, and it decodes as anti-regulation (worker saftey and pollution and equal protection and ... stuff).
For more comedy, George Mitchell, who couldn't ID their DINO in a police line-up unless he was told to look for a Bill Schneider look-alike (minus any discernable intelligence, ethics, or political sense other than self-promotion), robo-called for the DINO, for about $150 HDCC dollars. Sort of a Cher-for-Rent-A-Wreck moment.
These were, ugh, "independent expenditures" that just happened to follow the late October MDP canvas that showed the Dem losing to the Green, and tailored to look as if they came from the DINO's campaign. Naturally, timing is everything. The HDCC money is dropped when any campaign that wasn't prepared couldn't get a rapid response out. We were prepared naturally, and more pieces are in the can, waiting for the HDCC to pay for them. Their own stuff is crap, so I'm personally happy with the Maine Dems ripping the Maine Clean Elections Act to shreds, and I can't wait for them to switch into attack mode.
The other shoe will drop after the elections when the Ethics Commission will surprisingly find that no violations took place, and no evidence questions exist.
Posted by EBW at October 30, 2004 09:23 AM | TrackBackNothing beats a good ground operation. My guys got started in August walking our county. We are finishing up about now. We've got most of the population centers done, and about 85-90% of the rest too. We've run into people who never seen a live Democrat or a local candidate for that matter since they've lived in the county. We need to relearn the habits of Democracy, and face to face beats cluttered ad time on TV any time.
Posted by: VJ at October 31, 2004 04:14 AM