Viewing the Wynn-Edwards GOTV Operations

Yesterday both sides in the Wynn-Edwards race had their weekend rallies. Seeing the campaigns organized on the Saturday before gives you an excellent look at the strength of each campaign.

The Edwards campaign had two bus caravans that when from their respective HQs in MoCo and PG to a central meeting at the New Carrolton Metro. Here is a report from Progressive Democrats of America web site. Since the blogging community would probably not cover the same for Al Wynn, I went to see how his operation was running.

He has a well organized operation -- better than it has been in the past. Bags were picked and volunteers assembled. At the Electrical Workers site in Lanham in the morning, over a hundred people were there. I covered the MoCo afternoon event. Politicker MD did a nice job of covering the who said what and the latest from Wynn's camp on the robo calls about Donna Edwards' tax liens. The best defense of Donna's response was written at FSP by Eric Luedtke.

The Only Poll in the Race
Donna's camp is giddy with the prospect of unseating the eight term incumbent. Her internal poll has her up by 8 points. Wynn's campaign manager dismisses it without elaboration. This means that it is: a) true and she can't say it publicly; b) not true but she does not want to reveal what her side has on seen with daily tracking polls; or c) she is bluffing.

I have a video of Wynn's speech at the Rockville rally at MCEA and once I figure out how to upload onto YouTube then I will embed it here. Wynn talks about his robo calls are "Very encouraging". The unsaid message is -- the Donna Edwards' tax lien robo call is cutting into her lead.



Comparing Field Operations
Wynn has a strong field operation; but I think Donna's stronger. I witnessed Edwards' field operation on Sunday. I see more boots on the ground for Donna. The Wynn campaign will tell you Edwards workers are out-of-towners. Maybe but Wynn's campaign manager and I were on the same successful Chris Van Hollen race of 2002 that relied on out of district folks that were combined with several local activists. Edwards field campaign looks exactly like Van Hollen in 2002. Still a close example -- at least from the MoCo perspective is the Ida Reuben vs. Jamie Raskin race of 2006.

Donna Edwards has the feel of a winning campaign. She has that buzz. The "it" you need to get over the top.

I see strength on Al's campaign but it lacks the same intensity as hers. I have also been on a campaign similar to Wynn's (that is an incumbent who has had to ask his dwindling core supporters to get him over the top another time). There are only so many times you can call on people before they stop coming. I am not saying that is the case with Wynn's field operations. But freshness in a campaign is critical in a close campaign. I don't get that feel with his campaign. And winning campaigns don't release robo calls that attack your opponent personally in the final weekend of the campaign.

Still, two of the biggest names in MoCo Politics were at Wynn's rally in Rockville. Al Wynn has Ike. Doug Duncan, more casual than I have seen him in several post-Executive appearances, was also there. In addition, Sen. Forehand, whose district is outside of CD4, was there. So was his Women for Wynn co-chair, Loretta Knight, who is Clerk of Court. Delegate Reznik, whose district is about half in CD4 and half in CD8, came late from another event.