Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

RNC memo claims 2012 ground game has already surpassed 2008
Washington Examiner ^ | 09/24/2012 | Conn Carroll

Posted on 09/24/2012 7:58:10 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Republican National Committee Political Director Rick Wiley sent out a “Ground Game Update” memo to “Interested Parties” today, claiming the RNC’s 2012 voter contact efforts have already surpassed 2008 totals.

“Overall, we have made more than 26 million voter contacts, thanks to the efforts of our 73,000 volunteers. This week, we expect to make our 30 millionth voter contact. By mid-September, we had already surpassed the 2008 operation in total volunteer voter contacts,” Wiley writes. You can read the full memo below:

MEMO
FROM: RNC Political Director Rick Wiley
TO: Interested Parties
RE: Ground Game Update

As we head into the final six weeks of this historic election, I wanted to lay out the numbers the RNC and Romney campaign ground game has posted in battleground states. Our operation is conducting the hard work, which will make the difference on Election Day and elect Mitt Romney as the 45th President of the United States.

So what is it we’re doing?

THE GROUND GAME, IN FOUR STAGES

Up to this point, our operation has focused primarily on the first GOTV stage: Voter Identification. In that process, we’ve identified more than 2.2 million swing voters since the start of the Victory voter contact program.

Swing voters are those we know are likely to vote based on their turnout records in previous elections. But they have not made up their minds on how to vote in this race, and they remain highly persuadable.

We continue to identify more swing voters, but now we are also able to do something of great significance: go back and deliver an advocacy message to those we have already located, tailored for specific issues and demographics. This is a process that continues through Election Day.

Voter identification also includes robust outreach programs in Hispanic communities across the battleground states. The Juntos con Romney coalition has spent months directly connecting with the Latino community through local events, neighborhood offices, and bilingual voter contacts.

We have also moved into the second stage of our operation: Absentee Balloting. And with more states beginning early voting, we are ramping up the third stage, Early Voting Turnout, sooner than in years past.

More Americans are expected to cast their votes early this year than in any previous election. Our ground game has been designed with this new reality in mind.

The fourth and final stage of our operation is of course Election Day Turnout. We have seen unprecedented volunteer enthusiasm and participation so far; and we expect to leverage significant momentum in those critical final days.

A RECORD-BREAKING OPERATION

By any and every measure, this year’s ground game is significantly moving the needle on the ground.

Overall, we have made more than 26 million voter contacts, thanks to the efforts of our 73,000 volunteers. This week, we expect to make our 30 millionth voter contact. By mid-September, we had already surpassed the 2008 operation in total volunteer voter contacts.

We’ve knocked on nearly 2 million more doors than in all of 2008, and we’ve made six times more phone calls than at this point four years ago. (See below for a state-by-state breakdown of the numbers.)

In addition to our volunteer voter contact program, direct voter contact through an aggressive absentee ballot, persuasion, early vote and GOTV mail and phone program in our battleground states will ensure targeted voters are contacted dozens of times through our paid effort. This coupled with our unprecedented volunteer voter contact effort adds up to the largest, most sophisticated turnout program ever put on the field in Republican politics.

As the party challenging an incumbent president, we had to build the national operation largely from scratch to remain competitive with a president who has effectively been running for reelection for the last four years. We have succeeded in that challenge, which is a testament to the enthusiasm on our side.

VOLUNTEERS: THE KEY COMPONENT

A successful ground game requires many components. Careful long-term planning must precede methodical execution. Successful fundraising is necessary to build the Victory infrastructure, and as the latest numbers show, the RNC has been shattering fundraising records. But the final component is volunteers. They man the phones, knock on the doors, place the signs and recruit their friends and neighbors.

Our volunteers aren’t in it for themselves, or even for our party. They come to the Victory Offices and give up their Saturdays for one reason: they know we need a new direction in this country for the sake of the next generation. They know we need the leadership of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

That, more than anything, will power this ground game to Victory on November 6th.

***

State-by-State Battleground Comparison to ’08

• Florida: 10 times more phone calls and 67 times more door knocks than this time in ’08.
• North Carolina: 13 times more phone calls and 130 times more door knocks than this time in ’08.
• Ohio: 4 times more phone calls and 30 times more door knocks than this time in ’08.
• Virginia: 11 times more phone calls and 12 times more door knocks than this time in ’08.
• Colorado: 3 times more phone calls and 5 times more door knocks than this time in ’08.
• Iowa: 5 times more phone calls and 16 times more door knocks than this time in ’08.
• New Hampshire: 3 times more phone calls and 8 times more door knocks than this time in ’08.
• Nevada: 4 times more phone calls and 10 times more door knocks than this time in ’08.
• Michigan: 4 times more phone calls and 18 times more door knocks than this time in ’08.
• New Mexico: 3 times more phone calls than this time in ’08.
• Pennsylvania: 6 times more phone calls and 44 times more door knocks than this time in ’08.
• Wisconsin: 5 times more phone calls and 66 times more door knocks than this time in ’08



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: republicans; rnc
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-37 next last

1 posted on 09/24/2012 7:58:17 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

We got slaughtered in 2008.


2 posted on 09/24/2012 8:00:03 PM PDT by JohnBrowdie (http://forum.stink-eye.net)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JohnBrowdie

Have you forgotten the most recent elections?


3 posted on 09/24/2012 8:02:03 PM PDT by SeekAndFind (bOTRT)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: JohnBrowdie

And what does that mean in relation to this article?


4 posted on 09/24/2012 8:05:46 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
I was contacted 8 times this month by the FL GOP via phone and twice at two Winter park shopping centers.
They are out in full force in 2012.
5 posted on 09/24/2012 8:05:56 PM PDT by ncalburt (Axelrod Psych OPS has gone to 24/7 non stop - "The election is over " status until Nov)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The article didn’t mention 2010, it only referenced the last presidential election in 2008, and we got wiped out that year.

So, the point, if I just have to spell it out, is, “why is it so thrilling that our ground game is better than it was last time we lost”?


6 posted on 09/24/2012 8:06:50 PM PDT by JohnBrowdie (http://forum.stink-eye.net)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Not to mention this is September - so if our ground game has already exceeded what it was by November of 2008, that is a significant increase in effort. Not sure what the point is of coming in with the comment “we got slaughtered in 2008” - makes no sense.

Being adequately funded with competent leadership also makes a difference. The ground game was severely hampered in 2010 - fortunately more of our voters were self motivated to make for it...imagine the seats that could have been won had the ground effort also been in full force.


7 posted on 09/24/2012 8:08:35 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: All

Don’t know whether it is or not but we need to throw the kitchen sink.


8 posted on 09/24/2012 8:11:39 PM PDT by BrianE ("Dead at 25 buried at 65 the average American" - Benjamin Franklin 1776)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Republican Wildcat

ROmney is an excellent manager of large scale operations. If he beats the prince it will be with his ground game and I believe Romney is equipped to do just that.


9 posted on 09/24/2012 8:13:24 PM PDT by jwalsh07 (.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

In 2008 Rasmussen had the partisan split as D+5.7.
Obama won 7 points.

This month Rasmussen has the partisan split as R+4.6 (highest ever recorded) - a 10+ turnaround.

Do the math.


10 posted on 09/24/2012 8:20:11 PM PDT by nhwingut (Sarah Palin 12... No One Else)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jwalsh07

Maybe that is why he chose to allow most of the campaign money to be housed with the RNC...hate or love what they have done in the past, they are the chief funders and organizers of the GOTV effort.


11 posted on 09/24/2012 8:23:41 PM PDT by Republican Wildcat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

McCain took the public matching, so he COULDN’T afford that kind of ground game.


12 posted on 09/24/2012 8:25:05 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("I have a new zest for life!"--Calvin from Las Vegas)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JohnBrowdie

2008 was such an unusual election that Jesus, Himself, could have run and still lost big.

I think most Republicans are very much determined to make up for what happened. They will not get fooled again.


13 posted on 09/24/2012 8:31:25 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: jwalsh07

I trust Romney as to his organizational skills and his management skills.

I think if he loses the election, it won’t be because he didn’t have a good organization or didn’t manage it well.


14 posted on 09/24/2012 8:53:10 PM PDT by Persevero (Homeschooling for Excellence since 1992)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

???? 2008? Kidding?


15 posted on 09/24/2012 8:53:37 PM PDT by sickoflibs (Romney is still a liberal. Just watch him. (Obama-ney Care ))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

It probably isn’t much of a claim to surpass the voter contact in 2008, but regardless, I get the sense that the RR campaign is much more focussed, coherent, and professional.

Romney kicked the ass of every other contender, and did it without taking OPEC money — more than one can say for Obama, plus an alleged Republican one could mention.

Thanks SeekAndFind.


16 posted on 09/24/2012 9:00:32 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

This can’t be true. The media says Romney is a horrible candidate, Bill Kristol says Romney is stupid and arrogant, Joe Scarborough can’t find one thing positive about Romney’s campaign, David Brooks can’t see a crease in Romney’s slacks, Peggy Noonan thinks Romney talks when he should shut up, and the list goes on and on and on.....


17 posted on 09/24/2012 9:04:27 PM PDT by dupree
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

Question: Is this just the RNC/GOP or are they also counting the efforts of Freedom Works, American Majority, AFP and countless Tea Parties?

If it’s just the RNC/GOP, and if you add the above-mentioned entities (also individual/small groups), it could even be higher.

Like a football team, having a good “ground game” is fundamental (not mention opening up the passing routes)!

THREE YARDS AND A CLOUD OF DIRT....SMASH-MOUTH FOOTBALL AT IT’S FINEST!!! Come fourth quarter, you tired out the opposing side!!!!


18 posted on 09/24/2012 9:29:59 PM PDT by Kolath
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: nhwingut
Do you have a source for these data?


19 posted on 09/24/2012 9:39:05 PM PDT by nathanbedford ("Attack, repeat, attack!" Bull Halsey)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

No doubt the ground game is way better this year in CO than at any time since I have been involved in GOTV. That goes back to 2002.


20 posted on 09/24/2012 9:42:29 PM PDT by ModelBreaker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-37 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson