I canvassed recently for the Democratic Party and noticed something unusual. On a voter’s door, I found a homemade photocopy of a typed-up Republican candidate list left by the local GOP precinct committee person.
In contrast, the Democratic team sent me out with glossy, full-color campaign literature printed on heavy stock paper. I was working from a carefully selected list of addresses of independent and Republican voters.
It was like comparing black-and-white TV with color TV.
The only other evidence of the Republican ground game was vandalism of political signs. There isn’t even a Trump Vance campaign office in Tucson or Pima County (home of 655,000 active registered voters.)
As an afterthought, the bankrupt Pima County Republican Party website lists a “get involved” notice for “Trump Force 47” at the very bottom. The Pima GOP finances are in the red after spending $137,155 as of their July 2024 Campaign Finance Report – but raising only $120,012.
In contrast, hundreds of Democrats packed the Harris Walz Tucson headquarters opening in July. Two additional Tucson offices have also opened, all sending scores of canvassers and phone banks to reach voters.
Elon Musk’s bogus canvassing outfit
Trump’s campaign may fail to reach thousands of voters they hope to turn out in Arizona, with roughly a quarter of door-knocks done by Elon Musk’s America Pac flagged by its canvassing app as potentially fraudulent, according to leaked data and people familiar with the matter.
The potentially fake door-knocks – when canvassers falsely claim to have visited a home – could present a serious setback for Trump as he and Kamala Harris remain even in the polls with fewer than 20 days until an election.
Earlier this year, the Trump campaign outsourced the bulk of its ground game to America Pac, betting that spending millions to turn out Trump supporters, especially those who don’t typically vote, would boost returns.
However, leaked America Pac data obtained by the Guardian shows that roughly 24% of the door knocks in Arizona and 25% of the door knocks in Nevada this week were flagged under “unusual survey logs” by the Campaign Sidekick canvassing app.
GOP hires extremists
Trump is also relying on untested groups like Turning Point, a militant right-wing event-planning company, to get out the vote.
Turning Point hosts glitzy events, cultivates hard-right influencers and raises money while enriching the group’s leaders. They’ve had far less success helping Republicans win, especially in their adopted home state of Arizona.
Now, Turning Point wants to remake the GOP’s get-out-the-vote effort based on the theory that thousands of Trump supporters who rarely vote but could be persuaded to in this year’s election. And they are pitching their widely-denounced mobile app as vital to the effort’s success.
“Their strategy is bad. They know how to talk MAGA. They know how to message the base,” said Tyler Montague, a Republican strategist from Arizona and a longtime Turning Point critic. “But they literally don’t know what to say to a swing voter. They alienate these people.”
Experts in voting patterns are doubtful Turning Point’s efforts to mobilize infrequent Trump-inclined voters will do much to affect the election. Democrats, meanwhile, are targeting their base, plus independent voters and even disenchanted Republicans.
So, my message to anxious Democrats is to ignore the polls, which are conflicting and unreliable. Instead, look at the ground game of the two parties and take heart.
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Ground games are not measurable. If PCs are scrambling all over, how can you measure such non-monetary activities. All this talk of who has a better ground game is meaningless.
Speaking of the ground game, this is AZ Republic columnist Laurie Roberts’s take:
“Alarm bells aren’t yet ringing wildly over at Arizona’s Democratic HQ.
But they certainly should be tuning up.
In a battleground state where the vast majority of people vote early, Arizona Democrats haven’t yet made their way back out to the mailbox.
As of Tuesday, 42% of early ballots returned in Arizona have come from Republican voters, according to an analysis by Democratic strategist Sam Almy.
Democrats, meanwhile, account for 36% of the voters who already have cast ballots, while independents stand at just 22%.
Four years ago, the percentages were flipped for the two major parties.”
Funny, there was an article on the GOP’s lack of anything game in AZ just recently, but no comment from our local trollboy on that one.
Maybe MAGAts burning mailboxes will help your team, John Who Feeds Himself with Government Money While Bitching About People Living Off Government Money Kavanagh.
FFS, you are just one big ole’ moochie hypocrite, ain’t ya’?
The person who burned the mailbox was not political. He was a homeless person who just wanted to go back to jail. You really should read the newspapers.
Well okay then, I’m a day late on reading the “newspapers”.
But the main point of my comment was your cherry picking.
Which you’ve proven by cherry picking what you respond to in my comment.
Thanks for starting my Sunday with a good laugh.
Funny from someone who often responds to my comments with ad hominem attacks.
In what way is me reminding readers here that you are a democracy and capitalism hating racist who often fails to think things through and lives off government money while hypocriticaly whining about people getting government money?
FYI seems I’m psychic. I’m sure you’ve read the “newspapers” and seen the MAGAs burning mailboxes in the pacific northwest.
If you can’t win in the court of public opinion just lie and cheat seems to be all your party has left.
Either Johnny Boy and his ilk’s mothers never bothered to tell them that if you have to cheat to win you’re a loser. Or if they did Johnny Boy never bothered to listen.
So, the plan seems to be “when the truth of the underlying post can’t be refuted, don’t try to do so. Just attempt to distract with something irrelevant to the post”.
At least you’re following the plan.
The facts are the facts. While the Dems may have a great ground game, it’s not putting them ahead.
Well, it’s a purple state, John Who Lives Off Taxpayer Money, having a ground game would seem to be even more important if it’s a close race.
And that the point of the original story was that your party seems to be lacking in some pretty important areas.
Ever notice how “reading comprehension” keeps coming up whenever you comment here?