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In Arizona, the 'First True Test'?
Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat who defeated a Republican in 2002 despite the GOP's edge in registered voters (43 percent to the Democrats 38), said the candidates with the best field operations -- those who identify their supporters and get them to the polls -- will have the best chances of winning.
That is her advice for the eventual Democratic nominee running here against President Bush. Court Arizonans with a strong domestic agenda and then "get out the vote, get out the vote, get out the vote."
"I call that the road war instead of the air war or TV and radio ad war," she said.
Kerry, who has not run any ads here and has not campaigned here recently, has placed a strong emphasis on identifying voters and calling them to urge their vote, said Mario Diaz, state campaign director for the Massachusetts senator.
Diaz, who ran Napolitano's successful campaigns for governor and, before that, attorney general, said that staff members and volunteers have been identifying their voters for months. "We're expecting 20 people from Iowa any minute now," he said Thursday. "And the volunteers just increased tenfold since Iowa. On any given night our campaign offices have several hundred volunteers, and it's building."
Dean's campaign, which opened its Phoenix office in September, claims to have the most volunteers -- the campaign office was overflowing with them -- and has also focused on garnering the vote-by-mail voters. "We're the only campaign that has put a very strong emphasis on identifying mail-in voters and going after them," said Frank Costanza, Dean's state director. "We've made 30,000 phone calls. Right now, we have several thousand identified Dean voters. We have about 150 people volunteering from California. We have at least 1,200 volunteers throughout the state."
If recent trends in Arizona continue, up to half the voters participating in the primary will cast mail-in ballots before the polls open Feb. 3. Party officials estimate that turnout for the primary, which is restricted to registered Democrats, will be about 120,000 voters.
Lieberman's campaign, which is struggling to stay afloat in New Hampshire, is counting on Feb. 3 states to boost the senator to the top tier. It has spent months identifying mail-in voters and has sent out thousands of fliers urging voters to mail Lieberman ballots. "We've sent out more vote-by-mail requests than there are people who will be casting ballots," Pulido said.
At the house party Rebecca Lieberman attended, the hosts and guests were middle-aged and older, mostly men. Many had moved to Arizona in the past decade from New York or elsewhere on the East Coast. They voiced the same all-important criterion for their candidate that voters in the Iowa caucuses did: the ability to "beat Bush."
"Bush has to be kicked out," said Robert Lewis, a retired City University of New York professor who moved here from Manhattan six years ago. "My view of Bush is that he has absolutely no clue as to how we live. He's from a whole other segment of society."
Lewis hosted the party for Rebecca Lieberman and said he liked the Connecticut senator the best: "He has convictions and he's intelligent."
But while Lewis said he would vote for Lieberman, he had no quarrel with guests who were undecided or had chosen other candidates. "I'll support any one of them if Lieberman loses," Lewis said as several of his guests seconded the thought. |
