Free Republic

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...

In the threadbare border towns of South Texas, one of the country’s poorest regions, enterprising locals like Candelaria Espinoza have long been paid to round up votes for candidates on Election Day. There is even a name for these electoral soldiers of fortune: politiqueras. So when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign arrived in South Texas in February seeking an edge in its uphill battle against Senator Barack Obama, Ms. Espinoza was happy to oblige, for a price. The campaign paid her and seven other members of her family $100 to $200 each to knock on doors, deliver fliers and...

DID THE MAYOR OF PHILLY MEAN TO ADMIT THIS? [KJL] From Hardball: MATTHEWS: let's talk resources. how much money are you getting to run this city operation, this get out the vote campaign? a couple million bucks? how much money is being spread around by the campaign to win philadelphia? i heard you're aiming at higher an 350, but to get that, that's a lot of street money, to use a term we're all familiar with, isn't it? STREET: that's an awful lot of money. we will distribute -- we have distributed to our party workers probably between -- between...