Posted on 10/22/2008 7:08:37 AM PDT by Prov1322
When the Philadelphia Democratic Party's faithful gathered for their pre-election fundraiser last night, conversation among many anxious ward leaders kept coming back to the same question: Would Barack Obama come up with street money?
Street money, typically between $100 and $300 per voting division, is used to pay expenses such as meals and transportation and sometimes pay election workers for their day's work.
Many thought Obama had changed his mind and would provide street money for the general election, but ward leaders said last night that they still hadn't heard of a commitment from the campaign.
"Honestly, they'd be crazy not to do it," said Lou Agre, leader of the 21st Ward in Roxborough and Manayunk. "We're the ones who can get those last five, six hundred people [in a ward] who haven't voted, and that's a big difference for the campaign."
City Democratic chairman U.S. Rep. Bob Brady said he's confident the Obama campaign will come up with the money.
But several ward leaders said Brady had told them he'd gotten no commitment from the Obama campaign, and Gov. Rendell said he didn't know what to expect.
"Who knows?" Rendell said when asked by a reporter. "I've recommended and Bob's recommended it, but we have no word, no word."
When he rose to address the crowd of several hundred at the sheet-metal workers union hall, Rendell led them in a bit of lobbying for the benefit of Obama's Pennsylvania political director, Kevin Washo, who was in attendance.
"The single most important thing you can do to get elected is to have street money!" Rendell shouted, adding, "There are people from the Obama campaign here, so let's all say it again. The most important thing you can do to get elected is have street money!"
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
Paying for votes?
Gimmee, Gimmee, Gimmee, Gimmee, Gimmee, Gimmee, Gimmee, Gimmee, ..........
Obama plans to do even better than street money- free chunks of government cheese.
How Voter Fraud in Philadelphia Affect Us All
By 2banana
According to CNN, Bush lost Pennsylvania to Kerry by 144,248 votes (out of more than 5.7 million cast - a razor thin margin that was even closer than the “too close to call” Ohio vote).
Also according to CNN, Kerry received about 542,000 votes and Bush received about 130,000 votes in Philadelphia (or a ratio of 4.16 for Kerry).
Now, for the really interesting numbers. According to the recent US Census, the Population of Philadelphia that is of voting age is 1,105,066. This number includes people who by law can not vote (non-American citizens, felons, out of state college students, etc.). In 2004, there were 1,035,395 registered voters in Philadelphia, up 34,000 from 2001.
So, what does this mean?
First, even as Philadelphia looses population, the number of registered voters continues to increase, year after year. Today, in Philadelphia, nearly 100% of every person of voting age must registered to vote (as compared to a national average of 60% by the Census Bureau). Consider, since 1995, Philadelphia’s voter rolls have jumped 24 percent while at the same time that the city’s population has declined by 13 percent.
Second, the total lopsidedness of the 4.16 ratio is an absolutely astounding number - even heavily democratic Broward Country, FL (one of the only places Gore wanted recounted in 2000) only went for Kerry 2:1 and Cook County, IL (Chicago - THE definition of the democrat voting machine) only went for Kerry 2.5:1.
Either Philadelphia has the most engaged and civic population in the history of the World, or there is massive voter fraud.
And the amount of fraud easily exceeds the margin of loss of President Bush. For instance, if the registration was above average and if Philadelphia was just your “average-democrat-rustbelt-city-union-stronghold with a 50 year democrat political machine,” the vote for Kerry in Philadelphia would have been just over 350,000. The voter fraud in Philadelphia is worth about 150,000 votes - a deficit that any Republican running for statewide office must overcome with real votes.
But is this “real” fraud or is it one of the easily predicted “unintended consequences” of the Clinton Motor-Voter Law? A few nights before the 2004 presidential election, Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman, Andrea Mitchell and the Mayor of Philadelphia (John Street) were on Hardball. They were all laughing away about how the election was great for the economy of Philadelphia, and suggesting that there would plenty of “street money” around to “get out the vote.” And these are the same people who are going to stop or report any kind of voter fraud?
I find it ironic that a country like Afghanistan (where I had combat tour of duty), with no history of democracy, has a country wide and nearly fraud free election under the oversight of us - Americans. But we instituted a few rules like - you had to prove you are an Afghan, you had to get a voter ID, show the voter ID when you voted, your name had to match the voter roll, and you had to get your thumb stamped by permanent ink so you couldn’t vote twice.
Maybe, one day, in Philadelphia, we will have free and fair elections with a minimum of fraud on the level of the recent vote in Afghanistan.
Oh no! They would never do that. This is just for administrative expenses of the campaign workers. (/s)
LOL, in that area of the country, money like that will never see the “street.”
The only people who need to be paid off are those counting the votes.
People don’t need to show up in Philadelphia to have their votes ‘counted’.
The Obama campaign has decided to give out ‘street pie’ instead.
I can’t believe there is any ‘sweating’ going on.
You have to be worried or concerned or even NERVOUS to sweat (unless you are working out), and dems have none of those feelings when they cheat, steal and buy votes and even elections.
The title is stupid.
Rendell's not an O insider, so he doesn't understand the new paradigm: the money goes to permanent, paid organizers, such as ACORN. Temporary hustlers, thugs and street hoods are too damn disorganized to be cost effective, per the Obama model.
Street money from the street Hustler. Do 50% of Americans really want a Con Man running the Nation? It’s bizarro-world out there, but I still think McCain is gonna win.
“street money” = “walkin’ around $$$”. Buys lots of cigs, bottles of Thunderbird, etc...
In essence, Rendell and this union is saying that Obama must buy their votes and their cooperation. That’s how Obama operates so it will probably happen.
Hey, why don’t we all bring pie to the polling places and leave it at the Dem tables. That way they can have their pie!
Tom Bradley’s campaign called it “Walkin’’round money” because it went straight into the recruited voters’ pockets, usually handed out as they got in the van on the way to the polls.
Democrats have a simple phrase that sums up their voter-turnout effort: "knock and drag." A crew of paid workers storms through predominantly black neighborhoods and coaxes, cajoles, or browbeats every registered voter to the polls. It's a form of political activity that was well-known in the big-city, white-ethnic machines of the past but has only recently emerged as a key to black turnout. In 1989, the late Ron Brown, then the newly appointed chairman of the Democratic National Committee, introduced a revolutionary way to conduct Democratic campaigns, which he called the "coordinated campaign." It required all the candidates on the Democratic ticket in each state to pool a portion of their resources for a joint effort to turn out Democratic voters. In 1989 test races in New Jersey and Virginia, the plan was a startling success, and it became the model used to elect Bill Clinton and Al Gore in 1992. After the 1994 Republican landslide, when the Democratic base stayed home, the party refined the concept, dispatching a team of consultants to New Jersey to poll and conduct focus groups with black voters. "The reason that we came to New Jersey is that New Jersey's African American voters have a reputation for being historically one of the toughest African American electorates in the country," says Ron Lester, a black pollster and Corzine consultant. In 1996, Thomas put the model to work for Democratic Representative Robert Torricelli, who was locked in a dead-heat Senate race with Republican Richard Zimmer. But on Election Day Torricelli won by ten points. His margin came almost entirely from black voters. New Jersey Democrats had found the key to electoral victory.The vulnerability of the technique is that it needs cash. LOTS of cash. The "knockers and draggers" mostly do not work for free. They need vans, and the vans need gas. And it's nice if there's at least doughnuts and coffee waiting for people after they've been dragged to the polls.
If the cash isn't there, I'm thinking a bunch of people will stay home.
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