President Kennedy noted once that there’s "no city in the United States in which I get a warmer welcome and fewer votes than Columbus, Ohio." JFK knew that sometimes there’s a disconnect between campaign hype and election night reality. The most common reason good, strong Democrats fail in competitive races is because they don’t turn out their voters.
This year, we’re not making that mistake in Ohio. We know that Governor Ted Strickland’s path to re-election depends on driving voters out to the polls.
Tomorrow -- to kick off one of the most ambitious and aggressive ground games anywhere in 2010 -- our coordinated campaign goes live with events all across Ohio. Check it out:
That’s over 120 events.
More than 2,000 people are committed to join us.
At the close of the day, we’ll have 30 offices up and running in every corner of Ohio.
This year the Ohio Democratic Party and its candidates, caucuses, and allies are working together in the largest midterm coordinated campaign in Ohio history. And we’re the first state in the nation to fully integrate our campaign with Organizing for America. Of course, there’s a reason to this madness. This past week on fivethirtyeight, OFA’s Mitch Stewart stated the importance of aggressive outreach in no uncertain terms:
Looking at the data, there were 15 million first-time voters in 2008...If you look across the country at congressional races and statewide races, these voters are viable. In Ohio, you’re talking about a little over 700,000 [of them]... And we are uniquely positioned to reach out and talk to them...
In Ohio, our coordinated election effort will let us talk to those 700,000 voters -- and hundreds of thousands of other Democratic voters who may not normally turn out in a midterm election. That work all begins tomorrow.
Those voters need to hear about Ted Strickland. They need to hear how we’re fighting for an economy that works for all families. And they need to hear how we’re fighting back against the same Wall Street values that led to the greatest global economic crisis in decades.
In Ohio, the ball starts rolling tomorrow. If you’re near the Buckeye State, we’d love for you to join us.
Aaron Pickrell
Campaign Manager
Ted Strickland for Governor
