Bradley in DC
Member
- Joined
- May 18, 2007
- Messages
- 12,279
Can one of our supporters from California confirm that the official campaign has sent them mailings, etc., in response to the sending out of the absentee ballots there?
(please tell me they can at least do that, please, throw me a bone here)
Mail-In Ballots Go Out in California
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Vote-by-mail ballots go out this week in the nation's most populous state, forcing presidential campaigns to consider using scarce dollars to lure early California voters while contests unfold in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
More than half the total votes in California's Feb. 5 primary could be mailed in, and many of those ballots will be cast long before Election Day in a state that has seen scant evidence of the 2008 presidential campaign.
California isn't alone. Residents of 11 states - Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Carolina and Utah - have been able to vote by mail for their favorite candidates since December.
The first was Michigan, where absentee ballots were made available Dec. 1 for the Jan. 15 primary...
In 2000, about one-fourth of the ballots cast in the presidential election came by mail. That grew to 33 percent in 2004. This year, analysts and campaign officials say it could be more than half.
Some 4 million voters in the state are enrolled as "permanent absentee voters," meaning early ballots for the primaries will automatically go to their homes.
Only better-funded campaigns have been able to assemble significant organizations aimed at influencing voters.
Volunteers for Democrats Barack Obama and Clinton, for example, have made hundreds of thousands of phone calls to potential supporters. Republican Rudy Giuliani has a paid staff of about 20 in California, directing its volunteers and phone banks, while Mitt Romney has a paid staff of four.
The state primary could be especially important for Giuliani, who has largely bypassed early contests in Iowa and New Hampshire in favor of a strategy that concentrates on delegate-rich states like California.
"Candidates who win the early races will get some benefit out of that, some momentum," campaign manager Mike DuHaime said. But "we've got a strong enough organization to withstand any momentum that anyone gets."
(please tell me they can at least do that, please, throw me a bone here)
Mail-In Ballots Go Out in California
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Vote-by-mail ballots go out this week in the nation's most populous state, forcing presidential campaigns to consider using scarce dollars to lure early California voters while contests unfold in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
More than half the total votes in California's Feb. 5 primary could be mailed in, and many of those ballots will be cast long before Election Day in a state that has seen scant evidence of the 2008 presidential campaign.
California isn't alone. Residents of 11 states - Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, South Carolina and Utah - have been able to vote by mail for their favorite candidates since December.
The first was Michigan, where absentee ballots were made available Dec. 1 for the Jan. 15 primary...
In 2000, about one-fourth of the ballots cast in the presidential election came by mail. That grew to 33 percent in 2004. This year, analysts and campaign officials say it could be more than half.
Some 4 million voters in the state are enrolled as "permanent absentee voters," meaning early ballots for the primaries will automatically go to their homes.
Only better-funded campaigns have been able to assemble significant organizations aimed at influencing voters.
Volunteers for Democrats Barack Obama and Clinton, for example, have made hundreds of thousands of phone calls to potential supporters. Republican Rudy Giuliani has a paid staff of about 20 in California, directing its volunteers and phone banks, while Mitt Romney has a paid staff of four.
The state primary could be especially important for Giuliani, who has largely bypassed early contests in Iowa and New Hampshire in favor of a strategy that concentrates on delegate-rich states like California.
"Candidates who win the early races will get some benefit out of that, some momentum," campaign manager Mike DuHaime said. But "we've got a strong enough organization to withstand any momentum that anyone gets."
