50-State Turnout: An Oregon Story
This weekend's 50-State Turnout events kicked off a month-long Get Out the Vote effort by Democratic campaigns across the country. In coordination with their State Parties and local campaigns, Democrats in all 50 states spent Saturday doing the hard work it takes to win elections. Governor Dean joined in via conference call to thank everyone for their hard work so far and to offer some words of encouragement as we move into the final stretch of the campaign season.
On those conference calls we also heard from local activists, like Mary Jane LaBelle, from Curry County, Orgeon, who shared her story:
As you know, Oregon is a completely mail-ballot state, and as such, enjoys a higher voter turnout than most other states. Our ballots will be mailed out October 20, so one of our phone strategies will be to encourage the voter to return their ballot quickly.The state of Oregon in a rural state compared to many others. The election 2 years ago showed that we were blue, but not a strong blue. Our cities are blue; our rural areas tend to be red. Our goal is to turn Oregon into a solidly blue state. We have noticed a lot of negative campaigning from the Republican candidates. This was expected — it is clearly the only strategy open to them when they have such a huge need to shift focus away from their embarrassing leadership. Since the beginning of the year, the Democratic Party of Oregon has been organizing the counties for this effort through the field staff, supplied partly by the DNC.
I am from Curry County, a rural south coast County. As with many rural areas, we were red last election and are working hard (with the help of Governor Dean’s 50-State Strategy) to become blue this election. Our strategy includes a lot of visibility — headquarters placed in trafficked areas, pins, bumper stickers, as well as meetings and letter writing campaigns. Our GOTV effort in this county is centered around phone banking this year. We are calling our drop-off and newly registered Democrats, with focus on Governor Kulongoski’s campaign. We are showing free movies, like “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Iraq for Sale”.
Throughout all this work and focus, we also realize that we are setting the foundation for a new Democratic party. That is the big picture. It may not happen this election, but each effort by those in the streets today is like a stone in the foundation for a better world tomorrow. That is our commitment and dream.
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