Posted on 11/19/2004 6:25:33 AM PST by harpu
I believe it was the paid Bush Campaign staffers and George W. Bush himself who made the real difference. Think about how the President handled his campaign. Everywhere he went, the local volunteers who did the grunt work were given the best seats in the house. It was the volunteers who George and Laura Bush came down to personally greet, thank, and shake hands after each campaign event. The VIPs at a campaign event were the people who volunteered time and effort in the campaign. Not the people who donated the big bucks.
The dedication of the paid staff just amazed me. Most people don't realize how small the Bush paid staff was in Ohio. Mike Komaschka all of south eastern Ohio to co-ordinate. If Mike wanted help, he had to get volunteers to help. There were paid lawyers but no real staff.
Mike's wife has to be a saint. She gave Mike nothing but support. Mike worked 16 hour days seven days a week for over six months and his wife supported him in that effort. He could not have done it with out her. And the pay was not all that great..either. The Bush campaign was about rewarding families. I don't know but I bet the campaign staff AND THEIR spouses are getting rewarded big time.
One story blows my mind. George Bush had gotten a bit over 13,000 votes in Ross county in 2000. For a week day afternoon rally in Chillicothe, Rove and crew set a goal of 14,000 people. We later learned that they were hoping for 12,000. They figured if they set OUR goal at 14,000 the turn out would likely be 12,000. Mike and his volunteer staff did all they could. The crowd turned out to be 16,500. Bush drew twenty five hundred above goal and 4,500 more than the Bush Campaign had expected.
One local man named Bill, had worked his rump off getting that turn out. Bill had volunteered hundreds of hours over several months before the campaign visit, he worked 16 hour days the week of the visit. He had earned the right to a personal and private meeting with the President. Bill's wife would have given anything for a personal meeting. So Bill gave up his place to his wife. Bill had them announce that his wife had been selected as the official greeter. Bill knew his wife would not let him give up his place for her. So he had the local people told that his wife had been selected as the official greeter.
When the President arrived at the Chillicthe Rally, Mike got on the campaign bus and told the President what Bill had done. The President sent a staffer and secret service guy to go get Bill. The look on Bills face when the secret service guy told Bill, "Come with me sir... The President wants to thank you, sir" was priceless.
Once Bill and his wife and other greeters were standing outside the campaign bus the President stepped out. The first thing he did was head for Bill. He shook Bill's hand gave him a hug and thanked Bill profusely for all he had done. The President called his photographer over to shoot a picture with Bill. Then he turned to Bill's Wife talked to her a moment and had his picture taken with her. Then the president called Bill back chatted with both a moment and then had his picture made with both of them.
Bill and his wife got introduced to Karl Rove and Zell Miller and all the staff on the bus. Bill and Ellie got treated like they were the big shots.
What is significant to me is that Mike knew what the President would do when told what Bill had done for his wife. Mike knew the President would want to know about it.. He was pretty sure what the president would do in response.
Guess how hard it will be for Mike to get Bill and his wife to help him on the next campaign?
Mike had several thousand volunteers organized. After the election we each got an email and most of us got a phone call of thanks from Mike.
Mike was one of the staffers that the president stopped in Columbus Ohio to thank on his way back to the White House on election day.
Guess which state's Bush staffers got a personal thank you call from the President on the day after the election!
The former Ohio Bush campaign staffers, are now going to be full time Republican party staffers here in Ohio. I asked Mike if he was going to Washington now. He said no. Right now he said he would be a little fish in a very big pond. But if he and his fellow Ohio staffers can build a much stronger Republican party in Ohio over the next 4 years, they will be in line to go national as much larger fish with a national reputation in that very large pond.
Young men and woman, like Mike and others I have met, are being groomed to create a grass roots effort for the Republican party that will last for a generation at least.
It took people like Mike to build the grass roots organization that won Ohio for the President. And that Bush grass roots organization is being transformed in to a Republican party grass roots organization. It will be fully funded and staffed by the people that won this election.
What Mike told me about his future, rings true. He can't climb the ladder if he is in Washington D.C. But if he can be a major factor in building a permanent grass roots organization that wins a large number of future Ohio races, he can get recognized. It will take a track record to get the offers that will take him to Washington to run a national campaign.
It is the dozens of men and woman like Mike that can and will change the political landscape for a generation. I am convinced that these young staffers will be the real legacy of the Bush administration. They will be the ones that consolidate and increase the conservative victories in this nation.
You may not see these young peoples names on the ballots but they certainly will effect the results when the ballots are counted. They may very well determine the direction of this nation for a generation to come.
I completely agree that the Bush paid staff in Ohio was outstanding!
Our man, Dan Halm, was remarkable. He worked like crazy, was very easy to work with, and generous with his time and compliments.
When I thanked him for what he had done for this area, he turned the compliment around on US.
Things were done in this campaign that haven't been done by Republicans for 30 years........only with technology this time, and FAR more effective.
As I have said before, it was an HONOR to be a part of it. Thanks for your work in the south!
Marvelous story, CT. I volunteered for duty in Philly, but since I'm not a lawyer I was told my services weren't needed. What that means is not that they didn't need me -- they had so many people already volunteering that they didn't need an extra, miscellaneous hand to drive vans, fold letters, or whatever. That is, the ground was covered. Even in Philadelphia the volunteers were out!
My best buddy from here in DC, a political appointee, worked Cleveland over the last week of the campaign. Oh, the stories he has told!
So, I know what you guys all did. Fantastic.
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