Conservative groups reaching new levels of sophistication in mobilizing voters

[flamingdem]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/conservative-groups-reaching-new-levels-of-sophistication-in-mobilizing-voters/2012/09/20/3c3cd8e8-026c-11e2-91e7-2962c74e7738_story.html

President Obama’s reelection prospects look better in recent polls, but organizers from both parties report growing evidence that new voter-outreach programs funded by conservative groups could give Republican nominee Mitt Romney an edge if the race is close.

In the key battleground states, Obama’s celebrated network of organizing experts and neighborhood captains is being challenged by a conservative coalition that includes the National Rifle Association, billionaire-backed Americans for Prosperity and a newly muscular College Republicans organization with a $16 million budget

The conservative groups “are fully funded and ready for hand-to-hand combat,” said Steve Rosenthal, a Democratic organizer.

Rosenthal co-founded the Atlas Project, which is tracking voter statistics and other data to guide Democratic groups as they design precinct-level voter-outreach strategies. He describes the Obama operation as “second to none,” but in reviewing data in recent weeks, he has grown alarmed by what he views as a successful years-long campaign on the right that could alter the landscape.

In Florida, for example, Republican legislation, since overturned in the courts, effectively dampened pro-Democratic voter registration efforts during critical months in 2011 and 2012, resulting in registration gains for Republicans in the crucial Tampa Bay area since the 2008 election.

In Ohio, the evangelical group behind a successful anti-same-sex-marriage amendment that helped mobilize conservative voters in 2004 says it has a network of 10,000 churches and a database of millions of rural voters who will be targeted with in-person visits and voter guides. And in Wisconsin, a traditionally Democratic state, conservatives have built a house-by-house turnout machine already tested in the successful campaign to fight a union-backed recall of GOP Gov. Scott Walker in June. MORE AT LINK

[BlueToTheBone]

1. However, the registration rate is over 2 Democrats to 1 republican in Floriday

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1045469

[flamingdem]

3. Yes I have to wonder if this is just concern wapo

as in lowering expectations about the efficiency and enthusiasm for Democrats

[struggle4progress]

5. But they don't count if they don't actually go vote

[porphyrian]

2. I thought they used pray-dar and Paul Ryan's telepathic gaze of Objectivism. n/t

[earthside]

4. It is true.

How I got on their telephone list I do not know.

But I/we received an automated call this evening from Americans for Prosperity asking me/us to join them for a major door-to-door effort in Colorado this Saturday.

[blogslut]

6. A love letter to big money, disguised as a trend piece

Written by two GOP shills.

[Populist_Prole]

7. I agree. What a crock of shit article.

Oooooohhhhh! I'm sooo scared!

What did those shills actually think they would accomplish? Like some voter is going to think to themselves: "Whoa, big push behind this movement: I should align myself with them otherwise I'm on the wrong side of this issue"

Pffftttt! Yer toast Rmoney, but do keep throwing away good money after bad.