Dear Friends,
We need your help in Ohio right now. If there was ever a time to make a late-game investment, now is the time. And Ohio is the place.
We are in a dogfight at the top of the ticket - Governor Ted Strickland is slightly ahead of John Kasich, Democrats are seizing the momentum, but the GOP is flooding Ohio with special interest cash and out-of-state "volunteers" in a last-ditch effort to win (see memo below for details).
We are holding strong and staying competitive because the Ohio Democratic Party has built the largest grassroots mobilization machine of any state. This machine is working to elect candidates up and down the ticket. And we're seeing our efforts pay off in Ohio's Early Voting, which Democrats are winning.
The next 51 hours will determine who wins Ohio, who controls federal and state redistricting, who controls the US House and Senate, and whether Ohio will be there to serve as a crucial "firewall" for President Obama's re-election in 2012.
It all comes down to GOTV. We want to add more GOTV resources to make sure we put Governor Ted Strickland and other Democratic candidates over the top.
And that's why we are asking for the Progressive Community's immediate financial support.
· $5,000 allows us to rent 11 more passenger vans to drive voters to the polls.
· $10,000 feeds 2,000 of our volunteer canvassers (an Army marches on its stomach...)
· $25,000 allows us to talk to 15,000 more voters at the door.
· $50,000 allows us to call 80,000 more voters on the phone.
HOW TO CONTRIBUTE
The Ohio Democratic Party, which is running Ohio's GOTV effort, can accept unlimited non-federal contributions. If you can help our final push, checks payable to the "Ohio Democratic Party" can be sent overnight to the attention of Doug Kelly, 340 E. Fulton Street, Columbus, OH 43215.
You can also contribute securely online at https://ohiodems.org/contribute/
Please feel free to forward this to others in your network.
My best,
Doug Kelly
Executive Director
Ohio Democratic Party
340 E. Fulton Street
Columbus, OH 43215
STATE OF THE RACE MEMO
To: Interested Parties
Fr: Aaron Pickrell, Strickland for Governor; Doug Kelly, Ohio Democratic Party
RE: State of the Ohio Governor's Race
Date: October 31, 2010
With just days to go in the campaign, Ted Strickland is strongly positioned to be re-elected. Public polls now show the race at between one or two points and our internal polling has held steady for the last few weeks and at the end of this week.
We attribute this lead to a few factors:
1) An increasing recognition that Governor Strickland's investment in new industries and education are beginning to work for Ohio and a rising distrust of Congressman Kasich resulting in his unfavorable ratings now matching his favorable ratings.
2) A re-energized Democratic electorate that is rejecting going back to Wall Street values.
3) A large and robust coordinated campaign, spearheaded by the Ohio Democratic Party.
Additionally, with our superior GOTV operation and early vote efforts, we are going into Election Day in a very strong position. Our goal was to lock in 13,500 volunteer shifts. We're already at 107 percent of our goal - and continuing to add more volunteer shifts.
Democrats continue to vote early in larger numbers than Republicans.
* More Democrats than Republicans have requested ballots.
* More Democrats than Republicans have returned ballots.
* More Democrats than Republicans have voted early in person.
* By our tabulations, five times more infrequent voting Democrats - whose turnout is key to our victory - have voted early than have infrequent voting Republicans.
Democrats have increased their Early Vote lead to 12 points, both in terms of ballots requested and in terms of ballots cast.
* To date, more than 945,000 Ohio voters have requested mail-in ballots. Democrats lead in these requests, 41.4 percent to 29.4 percent.
* So far, of the ballots cast either in person or by mail, Democrats lead 44.0 percent to 32.1 percent.
* Republicans concede that they are behind in Early Vote returns. [Wall Street Journal, 10/21/10]
We continue to add capacity to our superior ground game that will carry us to victory next Tuesday.
* The Ohio Democratic Coordinated Campaign has been called the strongest in the country. [Chuck Todd, MSNBC, 10/22/10; E.J. Dionne, Washington Post, 10/21/10]
* With 300 staff and tens of thousands of volunteers, we have assembled the most robust Get-Out-the-Vote operation in Ohio mid-term election history.
* We have met or exceeded our volunteer recruitment goals across the state for Get-Out-the-Vote efforts in the final 72 hours of the campaign.