PORTLAND, Ore. – To drive their troops out to vote for Ron Saxton this election season, Republicans think they’ve hit on a surefire weapon: Dino Rossi.
Rossi is the Republican who would be governor of Washington, but for 133 votes that prompted a court battle and in the end, installed Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire at the state’s helm.
For Republicans in the trending blue Pacific Northwest, he is a living, breathing cautionary tale, an embodiment of what can happen if they don’t turn out every last vote. So Rossi will join Saxton, the Republican candidate for governor, to rally volunteers who will spend the weekend reaching out to voters.
Rossi said he’ll tell Oregon voters that his campaign, like Saxton’s, was behind in polls, too, before results started rolling in, ultimately resulting in one of the closest elections in U.S. history.
“People feel at times like their vote doesn’t matter,” he said. “I know how to deliver that message, that their vote does matter. You want to be sure people understand that this is attainable.”
Both sides have plunged headlong into the process of “getting out the vote” – phone banking and door-knocking mightily, sprinkled with strategic appearances by the candidates themselves, aimed at giving volunteers a jolt of energy.
Saxton, for example, will sometimes handle the phones himself, said his campaign manager, Felix Schein. However, startled voters sometimes hang up when they hear his voice, assuming it’s a recording or a prank. The candidate will call back, Schein said, to explain that it’s really him on the other end of the line.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski, for his part, pumped up volunteers at Democratic Party headquarters in Portland this week, exhorting them to “hang in there,” and promising “victory for Oregon, for all of us.”
He’s getting some help from some Democratic icons as well: Democratic voters throughout Oregon are finding recorded messages from former President Bill Clinton on their answering machines this week, calling Kulongoski, “a good man, a strong leader and the right choice for Oregon.”
Clinton continues, “Please join me in supporting Governor Ted Kulongoski for re-election. And remember to get your ballot in by November 7th.”
Early voter returns tracked by both parties show that so far, it’s the Democrats who are doing better. As of Friday, 240,000 Republicans had turned in their ballots, compared with 278,000 Democrats, according to figures tracked by the Oregon GOP.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
