OLYMPIA – A big chunk of Washington’s ballots were cast days ago, but campaigns, party operatives and assorted interest groups spent the final pre-election hours prompting their backers to vote.
Republicans, buoyed by 11th-hour national polls that showed them narrowing the gap with Democrats, were reaching out to undecided voters and previously identified GOP voters who hadn’t yet voted.
“Turnout is critical,” said state Republican Chairwoman Diane Tebelius. The party’s much-copied “72-Hour” voter-contact blitz resulted in 7 million telephone calls nationally this weekend and a record 87,000 contacts in Washington, she said. Prime beneficiaries, she said, could be embattled Rep. Dave Reichert in the 8th Congressional District and U.S. Senate challenger Mike McGavick.
“Our base is coming home,” she said.
But Democrats were even more upbeat as they put the finishing touches on their get-out-the-vote drive, with emphasis on helping Sen. Maria Cantwell and Reichert challenger Darcy Burner.
Voters appear anxious to change the course in Iraq and view the midterm congressional elections as a way to send a message, Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire said.
Republican candidates, most notably McGavick and Reichert, are wearing President Bush like an anchor around their necks, state Democratic Chairman Dwight Pelz said.
“It’s all about discontent with the war,” he said.
Like the Republicans and myriad conservative groups, Democrats and their allies were ringing doorbells, phoning neighbors and delivering the last mailers.
“We’re aggressive on the ground,” said David Groves of the Washington State Labor Council. “Our volunteers have been at it since July. We’ve sent out 800,000 pieces of mail, done our phone calls and made labor household visits. It feels good.”
Jennifer Lindenauer of the liberal Move On.org said the Web-based organization has “microtargeted” Democrats, progressive Republicans and low-turnout voters to give a pitch for Burner, Cantwell and other Democrats. The group estimated that its “Call for Change” program has resulted in 85,000 contacts in the 8th Congressional District.
Most interest groups, including environmentalists, social and religious conservatives, abortion rights groups and business interests have adopted increasingly sophisticated means of independent campaigning, strategists said. Even legislative candidates were using TV spots to boost turnout.
Cantwell noted in an interview that some of the 11th-hour campaigning will fall on deaf ears: Most of the 2006 voting is by mail, and people have been voting for more than two weeks.
“It’s a three-week Election Day,” she said.
Secretary of State Sam Reed, the elections chief, predicted a turnout of 67 percent, a modern record for a midterm election. He said about nine of 10 voters are balloting by mail, with 34 of the 39 counties using that method almost exclusively now.
The U.S. Justice Department was sending observers to King and Pierce counties, the two largest that haven’t completely switched to vote by mail.
Campaign highlights:
U.S. Senate: Cantwell, facing her first Senate re-election bid, held a comfortable poll lead over Republican challenger McGavick. A GOP poll released Monday gave her a formidable 11-point edge in a race Republicans initially thought they could take. Both candidates stumped Monday, including handshaking near a rain-swept Qwest Field outside the Seahawks-Raiders football game.
Congress: The marquee race in the 8th District in Bellevue and the Eastside suburbs was considered too close to call. The district has never elected a Democrat to Congress, but Burner, a newcomer who once worked for Microsoft Corp., was running close to Reichert, a freshman best known as the King County sheriff when the Green River Killer was caught. Burner attempted to link Reichert to Bush; Reichert played up his independence and Burner’s inexperience.
The state’s other congressional freshman, Cathy McMorris in the 5th District, had a stiff Democratic challenge. But Republican Rep. Doc Hastings, chairman of the U.S. House Ethics Committee, was favored, as were Democratic incumbents in the other six districts.
Supreme Court: Unlike the primary, where independent groups dumped several million dollars into TV ads for and against the three incumbent judges, the finale seemed almost an afterthought. Justice Susan Owens, who nearly won re-election in September, is challenged by state Sen. Steve Johnson. Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and Justice Tom Chambers appear alone on the ballot.
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