Legal Commentary

Obama's Plan for the 75,000 at Invesco Field: Get to Work

By Jeralyn

When Sen. Barack Obama accepts the Democratic Party nomination for President at Invesco Field in Denver, 75,000 will be in attendance. Who are they and what can they do for Obama? He's got it all planned out and it's very clever. If it works, the Republicans may not know what hit them in November.

The campaign recognizes that people who live in battleground states will be more effective at persuading their neighbors than the traditional advertising campaigns, which is why it's important to send the masses who will be in Denver out with instructions and training to bring in votes.

....Enter the 75,000 people who will have to come hours early for Obama's acceptance speech to get through security, most carrying cell phones. As they settle in their seats, campaign aides will be on stage asking them to text message their friends and use call sheets to get people to register. "There will be a lot of idle time. We put idle people to work," Hildebrand said.

Now consider how one gets to be one of the 75,000 in attendance, considering only 5,000 are delegates and the press accounts for another 15,000, leaving 55,000 seats. [More...]

The Democrats plan to hand out 60,000 stadium tickets to state party leaders, with instructions to distribute them in a way that helps drive up Obama's support. That might mean rewarding local organizers who are volunteering their time for voter registration, or perhaps identifying independent or Republican voters who might be persuaded by hearing Obama accept the nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

Not all states will be treated equally. Battleground states where voters are being targeted and Western states within driving distance of Denver will be given more tickets, with host Colorado getting the most. The Obama campaign sees the convention as a chance to put him on top in a state that hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992.

Maybe that's why John McCain made his fourth trip to Colorado in a month yesterday and today. And why he might pick Mitt Romney as his running mate. Romney boosts McCain's chances in the west, not to mention, Romney trounced him in the state's caucuses by 42 points. El Paso County (Colorado Springs, home to the radical right) just loves Romney. Today McCain said, "I have to win here."

But, Obama is going to out-microtarget McCain.

President Bush used microtargeting techniques effectively in 2004, but his target was regular voters who were likely to vote for him. Obama's focus is more on finding people who are not registered to vote and figuring out how to persuade them to sign up and back him.

Hildebrand said the campaign has identified 55 million unregistered voters across the country, by comparing registration lists with lists of potential voters gleaned by mining consumer databases the same way credit card companies track people's spending. They say their research estimates more than two-thirds would vote for Obama if they were registered and motivated.

In Colorado alone,

The campaign has identified more than half a million unregistered potential voters in Colorado — one-fifth of the state's eligible population.

I think the Obama campaign's "put a ticketholder to work" plan is very clever. I also think it will be successful, and once those new voters are registered as Democrats, it will help the Congressional and other down-ticket candidates immensely.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 30, 2008 (boomark / email).