LD-26: Model Ground Game

If you want to see how to maximize your chances of beating the odds, go to the Northwest Dem HQ at Ina and Shannon and watch how Arizona's 26th gets it done.

For weeks, dozens of people have been walking every Saturday, knocking on doors of Independents and Democrats who aren't guaranteed voters and phoning all week to remind people to sign up for Vote by Mail, then to vote for our candidates — and from now through Tuesday, to go to the polls.

This Saturday at 9am, 50-75 people showed up to walk, so many they ran out of walking packets. They scrambled to get enough packets ready for the 1pm walk, when another big crowd came in.

The same thing Sunday morning. Every walking packet was gone, then another crowd poured into the office at 1pm to pick up more hastily prepared walking packets. The afternoon crowd included 5 students from Mountain View High. They had put in some time earlier to get credit for an assignment in their Government Class. This time they were there, no credit, just because they wanted to pitch in. It gladdened this old high school teacher's heart.

Next door, there must have been 15-20 people with their ears to the phone all day, working in 3 hour shifts. And there were two other locations filled with phoners, probably 8-10 phones each, also packed.

LD-26 is hungry not only to keep the two seats it picked up in 2006 (they were all Republican legislators before that) but to add the third seat to complete the win. It's a Republican district, but we have four things going for us: unbelievably good candidates, Cheryl Cage, Nancy Young Wright and Don Jorgensen; weak opposition, with two extreme right wingers and one semi-credible "Tell me what you want to hear" moderate-conservative; the Independent voters, who tend to be moderate and can trend Democratic; and an incredible ground game that to get out as many voters as possible and remind them to vote for our candidates, including both Dems running for the House.

The fifth thing we have going for us, which can't be ignored: Adam and Ashley, two paid coordinators who have kept the place lively and fun for the last few months. I get "When are you coming in again?" calls from them on a regular basis, and whenever I sign up for a shift, I get a call reminding me to get there. They always make me and everyone else feel like the most important people in the place. They've spent weeks going down lists of possible supporters to line up the walkers and phoners for the final push. Volunteers can't do that. You need paid staff. Young, dedicated, smart paid staff.

We'll know Wednesday how well it all worked. But I don't think the Democratic ground game could have gone much better.