Dems kicking ass in Iowa early voting

The Dems superior ground operation is paying dividends in Iowa:

A Des Moines Register survey of Iowa's 10 largest counties, which account for about half of the state's 1.8 million registered voters, found that 62 percent of the 62,451 absentee ballots cast in those counties as of Wednesday came from Democrats.

That's 38,970 ballots, or more than twice the 16,933 cast by Republicans, less than two weeks before the Nov. 5 election.

While there's no guarantee these votes are for Gov. Tom Vilsack and U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, Democrats hope the early votes will give their candidates an edge in several hotly contested races.

The Iowa GOP, seeing its electoral chances go up in smoke, are crying "fraud!" and have hired a private investigator to check out the allegations.

Note that the GOP didn't enlist the state's investigative agencies or the US Justice Department, but a private dick. Looks more like a desperate PR ploy than a serious concern over the state's electoral integrity.

For the record, Iowa's two top-ticket Dems (Harkin and Vilsack) appear safe. The real battle in the state is over four endangered GOP congressional seats which could go a long way toward giving Dems control of the House.

The Dems' ground operation in Texas also appears to be kicking serious ass. The Democratic Party has discovered that dollar for dollar, spending money on GOTV efforts is more effective than the massive media buys the GOP prefers. Spending on such efforts in 2000 allowed Gore to snatch the popular vote victory, and should be even more potent this election cycle.

Posted October 24, 2002 01:34 PM | Comments (4)