Field of Dreams

Field of Dreams
By Mike Lux
9/17/2004
© Copyright 2004, American Family Voices
http://www.americanfamilyvoices.org/projects/DailyRealityCheck.asp?ID=233

As part of our ongoing effort to keep you fully informed of current political events and their consequences, The Daily Reality Check is featuring a weekly political analysis column by political strategist Mike Lux that will appear each Friday.
Overlooked by all the hue and cry of the ups and downs in the national horse race numbers is the remarkable story of what is going on state by state in the field. On the ground is the most remarkable person-to-person political organizing effort in modern history.
Look for a moment at the numbers of names that have been entered into American Families United central database on all the voters registered by progressive non-profit groups:
* Florida: 296,640
* Pennsylvania: 163,024
* Missouri: 73,241
* Oregon: 46,026
* Arizona: 117,886
* Ohio: 200,270
* Michigan: 103,005
* Wisconsin: 72,380
* Minnesota: 35,015
* Nevada: 38,755

These numbers, which are understated due to the current backlog on names that have actually been entered, are unheard of - way beyond the usual numbers these groups have produced in years past.
The organizations involved - including Project Vote, ACORN, People for the America Way, USAction, NAACP, Center for Community Change, and Women's Voices Women Vote - are doing the best job they've ever done in registering African Americans, Latinos, unmarried women, and low-income voters.
And that's just the non-profit groups' voter registration work. In addition to these non-partisan voter registration efforts, more door-to-door canvassers carrying information educating voters about Kerry's and Bush's positions on the issues than in any presidential election in history. Americans Coming Together has by far the biggest operation on the ground, with field offices in 16 states, and hundreds of paid canvassers going door-to-door every day. But they are far from the only ones:

* I just got a report that the League of Conservation Voters' canvassers have knocked on 372,000 doors in PA, OR, NM, FL and WI, and expect to knock on 1,000,000 by November 2.
* Voices for Working Families have teamed with the AFL-CIO to have big door knocking operations in AZ, FL, GA, LA, MI, NV, NY, and NC.
* Planned Parenthood Action Fund is targeting unmarried women voters with door to door campaigns in OR, WA, WI, PA, IA, NH, and FL.
* 21st Century Democrats has put serious numbers of field staff into MI, MN, OR, and OH to organize door knocking and young voter recruitment.
* Progressive Majority has been recruiting and training local candidates, and teaching their campaigns how to do effective grassroots organizing in PA, WI, and WA, with plans to expand into new states. Both Progressive Majority and 21st Century Democrats have partnered with Howard Dean's new group, Democracy for America, to recruit more volunteers.

In addition to all these great efforts, another incredibly important grassroots effort focused on Election Day is election protection. The Election Protection voter empowerment program launched by the People for the American Way Foundation and its coalition partner organizations is the most ambitious and coordinated undertaking to address the systemic neglect and/or obstruction of voting rights in African American and Latino communities in the modern civil rights era.
George W. Bush may not have brought America together, but he sure has brought together and motivated the progressive movement. These unprecedented grassroots efforts will result in millions of brand new voters and infrequent voters going to the polls. And that's a damn good thing for our democracy, even if it turns out to be a bad thing for George W. Bush.