Gripes of a GOP Grunt

Canada Free Press ^ | November 20, 2012 | by Clayton Spann

[US Navy Vet]

During the presidential campaign I served as a lowly foot soldier for Romney. In the battleground of Northern Virginia I knocked on doors, made telephone calls, handed out literature. Election Day I participated in the fiasco named Project ORCA. Gripe 1.

ORCA sounded great. In real time GOP poll watchers would inform Romney headquarters who had voted in a precinct—and who had not. As the day wore on HQ would contact the laggards and urge they get to the polls.

If poll watchers owned a smart phone then real time was possible. If like me they owned a dumb phone, real time didn’t happen. I fell hours behind. Obviously none of the geniuses at HQ had dry run the second way of reporting.

[US Navy Vet]

A GREAT READ!

[DLfromthedesert]

http://protectourelections.org/index.php?q=node%2F1107

This is a link from a Facebook page called “Audit AZ”.. these people believe that Karl Rove stole the 2004 election in Ohio and that GOP stole the Walker recall election because the exit polls were correct and the machines were manipulated by Rove.

I’ve posted links to “True the Vote” articles about illegal voters; they deny there is any proof of that...these liberals are delusional.... I wonder if Karl Rove is aware of these allegations.

[DLfromthedesert]

I still don’t understand how the debate moderators are chosen...Fahrenkopf, one of the members of the Consortium, is supposed to be a Republican... we have to get a REAL Republican on that consortium and get moderators who are truly fair.

NO MORE CANDY CROWLEYS!!!!

[yellowdoghunter]

It is a great read....I have shared it with several people. We must find our lee Atwater.

[ExNewsExSpook]

I’d offer the same advice to Mr. Spann that I’ve given to other Republican volunteers: in the future, the GOP cannot rely solely on unpaid activists to handle the GOTV effort. The Dims never left places like Ohio, Virginia and other swing states in 2008. They left professional staff in place; that gave them four years to identify known/likely Democratic voters and develop a plan for getting them to the polls, during early voting or on election day.

Like it or not, the Democrats knew where their votes were months in advance, and targeted them very effectively. By comparison, we were playing catch-up throughout the campaign. ORCA was just the last in a string of disasters that left us at a serious disadvantage.

The big “take-aways” from this year’s election:

- The ultimate metric for GOTV is voters delivered to the polls, not contacts made by volunteers

- Go negative from the git-go on your Democratic opponent and never let up.

- Run more candidates like Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton and fewer like George Allen and Todd Akin

- Run to (and not away from) conservatism

- Hold the nominating convention in June, not August or September; that brings more ad money into play much, much earlier.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

(bump)

[yellowdoghunter]

All excellent points...I agree with each one. Since we are the so called party of the rich we should have the best software and be able to pay people to gotv.

[TADSLOS]

...like a lowly French foot soldier standing ready to fight the Germans on the Maginot Line in 1940 while his generals amused themselves with the solid belief that nothing could get by them.

[Agamemnon]

The Dims never left places like Ohio, Virginia and other swing states in 2008.

Imagine what (R)'s could have done with an equal amount of Federal Stimulus money.

Hey, a ground game like that costs money. Question is, how much stimulus money do the corrupt unions have left from 2008 for underwriting this GOTV stuff in 2014 and 2016?

FReegards!

[sickoflibs]

RE :” Election Day I participated in the fiasco named Project ORCA. Gripe 1.
ORCA sounded great. In real time GOP poll watchers would inform Romney headquarters who had voted in a precinct—and who had not. As the day wore on HQ would contact the laggards and urge they get to the polls.
If poll watchers owned a smart phone then real time was possible. If like me they owned a dumb phone, real time didn’t happen. I fell hours behind. Obviously none of the geniuses at HQ had dry run the second way of reporting.
Nor had the geniuses performed stress testing. On the small scale a system may work perfectly. On the grand scale, it can easily overload. Around 4 p.m. on game day ORCA crashed and burned, with three critical hours left before the polls closed.
Crash or not, the ORCA method of getting out the vote is fatally flawed. During early voting as I handed out sample ballots, a Democrat counterpart declared that Project ORCA wouldn’t work. The method was reactive, he said, not proactive like theirs. He was right. His side did not wait until afternoon of game day to identify and get out laggards.”

Romney campaign wasted their donors money ping!

Dis-functional R party.