Candidates pull out all stops to get voters to polls

By Anjeanette Damon, Karoun Demirjian, Delen Goldberg, David McGrath Schwartz

Sunday, Oct. 17, 2010 | 2 a.m.

A few Democrats gathered in the parking lot of a Reno shopping center Saturday morning to organize their attack on the crucial first day of early voting. The candidates outnumbered the volunteers recruited to walk neighborhoods in search of supporters.

To the gathered few, a state Senate candidate issued an urgent plea:

“Make sure every last Democrat, for God’s sakes, please get them to vote,” Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie said, barely getting the words out before the shopping center manager interrupted to ask the group to leave.

The scene appeared to be an example of the Democrats’ so-called enthusiasm gap, as they take on a Republican Party animated by the Tea Party movement and voters’ seemingly cyclical desire to oust the party in power.

Indeed, without any urging, four members of the Paez family, all Republicans, woke early Saturday and headed to Henderson’s Galleria at Sunset mall to be among the first to cast votes for U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle and other Republicans.

Their motivation: “Get out Harry,” Amanda Paez said.

“We didn’t want health care (reform), we didn’t want the stimulus,” said Wendy Paez, Amanda’s mother, who along with her husband and another daughter, voted. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has “turned into a professional politician and he’s not in touch with the people of Nevada.“

According to polls in the U.S. Senate race, either Angle or Reid could win. The horse race numbers show a statistical dead heat.

“I won that election in 1998 by 428 votes,” Reid told supporters at a Saturday afternoon rally. “I don’t know if I can stand another one like that.”

Reid understands this: After all the negative TV ads, mailboxes stuffed with fliers and rallies led by presidents, current and former, this is a contest to see who can get their voters to the polls. If Republicans flood the polls, Angle wins; Democrats do it, and Reid gets six more years.

So which will it be?

Were all things equal, and each party had matching turnout machines, the answer would be easy. But they are not.

Democrats are apathetic, depressed even, but have spent years and millions of dollars (much of it from Reid and friends) building an organization to get out the vote, largely for this moment.

Republicans are fired up, but have very little organization to channel that energy.

Put another way, Angle is driving a hooptie fueled by high-octane voter enthusiasm. Reid’s got a high-performance Corvette in danger of breaking down with vapor lock.

Republicans gathered at the Alexis Park Hotel in Las Vegas Saturday at an organizing rally spearheaded by the party. GOP officials brought in California Rep. Buck McKeon and 110 of his constituents to go door to door for Angle and 3rd Congressional District candidate Joe Heck.

The group slathered on sunscreen, got instructions and piled into vans, heading out to canvass neighborhoods close to early voting sites.

The goal: Energize the Republican base and try to persuade independent voters to cast ballots for GOP candidates.

Some of the volunteers had no idea who Heck was.

•••

Under Reid’s guidance, Democrats have worked for years to build a formidable turnout operation, carefully mapping the state for voters who support him.

Even though the party has lost voters since 2008, Democrats still retain an edge in voter registration of about 104,000.

The party’s methodical approach to victory has three steps: absentee ballots, early voting and Election Day.

Republicans traditionally dominate in the absentee effort. But Reid’s campaign has made a strong push to match or even best his challenger in that category.

So far, Democrats have outperformed Republicans in the number of absentee ballots requested in Clark and Washoe counties, but Republican voters have a slight edge in returning those ballots.

Democratic campaigns will carefully monitor lists of who has and has not voted. At the end of the two weeks of early voting, they’ll know exactly who’s left to get to the polls on Election Day.

And despite the narrative that Democrats are unmotivated to vote, Reid’s still got a strong base in the state.

“I’m energized,” said Democrat Jim Hill, dismissing the notion that Democrats won’t vote. “We finally got something started in 2008, and we need to continue that.”

But it’s not a universal sentiment.

Democratic volunteers said they encounter a lot of anxiety among voters.

“People are pissed off, whether it’s Harry Reid, Sharron Angle, the unemployment or their underwater house,” one activist said.

Some Las Vegans casting ballots for Reid on Saturday were more motivated by Angle’s controversial statements than Reid’s track record.

“One of the candidates said rather cruel things about autistic kids, and I’ve got one,” said McKinzie Weiss, who headed to the polls at Galleria.

“I wanted to be one of the first in line to vote against her,” she said, her 5-year-old son, Joey, standing next to her.

Weiss was referring to remarks Angle made during a 2009 Tea Party rally in which she appeared to mock a Nevada mandate that insurance carriers cover autism. Angle has since said she thinks that autism is a real medical condition.

“I’m an independent, but a lot of the Republican candidates this year are really extreme,” Weiss said, noting that she voted for Democrats up and down the ticket.

•••

Republicans have national resources in the final weeks of the campaign, flooding the state with staff and money for a drive to get out supporters they’ve been targeting for months with phone calls and mail.

It’s important because the Nevada Republican Party has suffered from a lack of organization, staff and money since 2004, and has little infrastructure for candidates to rely on.

At Washoe County GOP headquarters Saturday morning, 25 volunteers got a pep talk from Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval before going out to canvass precincts.

Volunteers had been eager to sign up in the months leading up to the election, said Ralph McMullen, chairman of the county Republican Party.

“It’s a big difference from two years ago,” he said, comparing it to when Barack Obama had fired up the Democrats and Republicans were ho-hum about GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain.

But McMullen acknowledged they couldn’t always take advantage of all the enthusiasm. With no full-time staff, no help from the state Republican Party, “we didn’t always know what to do with all the volunteers.”

“We’re pretty much on our own. We’d love to have paid staff. Our ultimate goal is to have an executive director,” he said.

Only one volunteer sat among a bank of 15 new-looking phones, sent and — at least theoretically — staffed by the national GOP.

•••

Republicans aren’t the only ones relying on national help. Organizing for America, the successor organization to Obama’s 2008 campaign, was working Saturday to get Hispanics in Las Vegas and other key Democratic voters across the state to the polls.

Get out the vote efforts come down to a complicated logic problem.

The political party generally conducts a coordinated program to target those voters who will cast a straight ticket, or at least vote for the three or so candidates at the top of the ticket.

Then each individual campaign must run a concurrent operation to get its supporters out, regardless of whether those voters would support, say the Democratic Senate candidate, but not the Democratic gubernatorial candidate.

That dynamic creates some awkward cross purposes. Take, for example, the fact that Sandoval is polling with 16 percent of the Democratic vote in the governor’s race. Inevitably, some of those voters will vote for Harry Reid.

With the margin of victory in the Senate race expected to be razor thin, Reid will need to turn out every single supporter he can. That means his turnout operation will be driving voters to the polls who will be voting against his son Rory Reid in the governor’s race.

In this respect it’s every candidate for himself.

Bonnie Barber, a volunteer for Rory Reid, made clear that they were knocking on doors for Rory Reid. They wouldn’t bring up his father unless voters asked. “Then it’s ‘Go Harry.’ ”

Outside of Harry Reid’s Reno office, a lone Rory Reid sign was posted in the grass.

•••

Both parties are battling an electorate angry at incumbents.

“I’m going to vote, and I’m going to vote Democrat all the way, but only because it is the least of two very, very, very, evil evils,” James Reed, 54, said, shaking his head, while talking to Democratic volunteers at his Henderson home.

A former Culinary Union member and now a small-business owner, he is disappointed with both parties — mostly over their handling of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and for bowing to lobbyists.

That has only added to the perpetual voter apathy. Historically, only 60 percent of voters have turned out in nonpresidential elections.

In an older neighborhood in Reno, at Barber’s house, about 15 volunteers for Rory Reid listened as one of Reid’s field organizers, Matt Shaw, gave instructions: Go to supporters and encourage them to vote. If a voter is undecided, try to sway them.

“Strong schools mean a strong economy,” he said, repeating the gubernatorial candidate’s talking points. “Rory has a plan. His experience on the Clark County Commission. And tell them why you’re supporting him.”

Later, Barber, a retired educator, knocked on the door of Brian Vodehnal and asked if he was going to vote for Rory Reid.

“No, I don’t think I am,” he said.

“What about your wife, Jen,” Barber said checking her list.

“Jen, are you going to vote for Reid, Rory?” Vodehnal shouted in his wife’s direction.

“I don’t know,” came the response from somewhere in the house.

Barber handed Vodehnal a pamphlet.

“I really haven’t made up my mind,” he said. “I’m just starting to pay attention.”

As Barber left the home she said: “That’s why this can be super important. Some of us will always vote, always care about it. Others are just living their lives. That’s why canvassing is important.”