More on that Bush grassroots juggernaut

Reader Alice Marshal passes on some interesting thoughts regarding the recent Washington Post story about the alleged Bush grassroots campaign

Dear Chris - This is the note I sent to members of the Fairfax county Democratic Committee. I have no doubt that Dean has scared the GOP. But, at the risk of bragging, I think it is Fairfax Democrats who have put the fear of God in them. All Dean's emphasis on grass roots would not have made a difference except that they just witnessed several of their candidates defeated by Democrats with less money but better organization.

It is just further proof of what I said in my primer you so kindly published last July.

Subject: power of precinct operations

Dear Fellow Democrat-

Anyone who doubts the power of precinct operations to change the country need only glance at today's WPost.

Can there be any doubt that this is motivated by Gerry Connolly's victory? We were out spent, but we had the volunteers and the organization. What we have done is unilateral campaign finance reform, we have found a way to get our message out which does not require a gazillion dollars.

Think how many political consultants, White House Staffers, Congressional Staffers and political camp followers reside in Fairfax county. We did this right under their nose and finally the great and powerful have acknowledged the obvious, precinct operations win.

we won

we won something much more important that control of the county board (as important as that is) we beat the machine that created the GOP hate machine. And we can do it again.

Election Is Now for Bush Campaign
Early Efforts Aim To Amass Voters

By Dan Balz and Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 30, 2003; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20936-2003Nov29.html

President Bush's reelection team, anticipating another close election, has begun to assemble one of the largest grass-roots organizations of any modern presidential campaign, using enormous financial resources and lack of primary opposition to seize an early advantage over the Democrats in the battle to mobilize voters in 2004.

This is the money paragraph-

Both parties have rediscovered the importance of communicating personally with people, rather than assuming that television ads or direct-mail brochures will motivate someone to vote. From their analysis of previous contests, including this month's gubernatorial elections in Mississippi and Kentucky, GOP officials said someone who votes only infrequently is four times more likely to go to the polls after having a face-to-face conversation with a campaign volunteer about a candidate than after receiving a phone call or direct-mail brochure.

NOTE- it seems the reporters just took dictation and did not bother to confirm what their Republican case officers, er, sources, told them about web statistics. Note what Alexa records about hits to campaign web sites:

http://pages.alexa.com/features/candidates.html