Just saw a comment on the very good diary by Phil in Denver.
The comment:
Why would I knock on doors if I think the resident is a republican?
In El Paso County, Colorado there are good reasons to knock on those doors:
The list below the fold:
First, let's look at past D performance in the county:
1996 - 2 of 6 State Rep races had D candidates;
1998 - 6 of 8 State Rep races had D candidates;
2000 - 6 of 8 State Rep races had D candidates - only two Ds got more than 30% of vote
2002 - 6 of 8 State Rep races had D candidates - one D won, three others broke 30%
2004 - 5 of 8 State Rep races had D candidates, one won, two other broke 30%
2006 - 7 of 8 State Rep races had D candidates, one won, two others broke 40%, two more broke 30%
In ten years, 25% of the time in El Paso County the Republican primary was the election. Anna Lord's campaign has found door knocking in places where Republicans have run uncontested uncovers a lot of "I'm not really a Republican but I registered to vote in the primary. Thanks for knocking - I didn't know a Democrat was running." This gives them one more reason to turn out and contacts a potential Obama voter
That's the first reason to knock on R doors.
Reason Two:
In very Republican districts the Republicans don't work to get votes. Anna's opponent has walked - we estimate - fewer than 100 doors this year. He goes only to Republican functions. Every measure we have shows the incumbent has lower name recognition than Anna.
These voters are starved for contact. I can't count the number of "this is the first time a campaign has ever knocked on my door" comments we get. These are voters who will turn their vote if you ask them.
And let's not forget - you don't need all of them. In Anna's case, she only needs to convince 1 in 20 to close the 2006 gap - if you door knock 60 doors in a day, that means you only need 3 good doors to win.
Yes, most of those doors are losers - so what. Panning for gold is boring, dirty and frustrating. But over time you build up a winning stake.
So knock on Republican doors - they can win you an election.