New York Times
By Leslie Wayne
In Ohio, the target is single women voters over
the age of 50. For Wisconsin, it is rural conservative voters concerned
about hunting and fishing, while in Pennsylvania, more than a
half-million “union friendly” households are the desired demographic.
As independent groups gear
up in the closing weeks of the presidential campaign, the ground wars
have begun. Advocacy groups supporting the Democratic ticket have
started a robust grass-roots effort to confront what many acknowledge
has been a more sophisticated Republican ground effort.
Read more.
CNN
A new Government Accountability Office report on
voting system testing finds that the Election Assistance Commission has
not notified election officials across the country about electronic
voting machine failures.
A line of voters cast their ballots in the primary March 4 in Columbus, Ohio.
And a new study by Common Cause and the Century Foundation finds that
10 very vital swing states have significant voting problems that have
not been addressed since the last election.
Those 10 states,
according to Common Cause, are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan,
Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Read more.
TPM Election Central
By Greg
Sargent
In a sign of just how nervous senior Democrats are about Barack Obama's
situation, top Democratic Party operatives are privately urging the party's
major donors to get serious about putting big money into outside groups looking
to attack John McCain in key battleground states.
Several senior Democratic strategists unaffiliated with Obama's campaign
convened a private conference call late last week with at least four dozen of
the party's most prolific donors to progressive causes and outside groups -- a
call designed to instill a sense among donors that things are "pretty damn
urgent" right now, one of the organizers of the call tells me.
Read more.
New York Times
By Jim Rutenberg and Michael Luo
WASHINGTON — After largely staying on the sidelines, the types of independent
groups that so affected the 2004 presidential campaign are flooding back as
players in the final sprint to the election this fall, financing provocative
messages on television, in mailboxes and through the Internet.
MoveOn,
a progressive group started a decade ago, says it will double its advertising
budget to $7 million and start a campaign this week that ties the Republican
presidential nominee, Senator John
McCain of Arizona, to lobbyists.
The Service
Employees International Union has begun a $2.1 million advertising campaign
that criticizes Mr. McCain’s economic record, while a smattering of smaller
liberal groups are testing out more limited television campaigns, including one
by two groups — Brave New PAC and Democracy for America — that asserts his
experience as a prisoner of war “is not a good prerequisite” to be
president.
Read more.
Politico
By Ben Smith
A
set of Democratic independent groups are set to release a 72-minute
documentary making the case that John McCain represents George W.
Bush's third term.
"Third Term," from Progressive Accountability, which is now a project of Media Matters Action Network, and the Center for American Progress Action Fund,
aims "to counter the millions conservatives will invest in books, ads
and movies this year to vilify progressive leaders and policies," said
a spokesman for Progressive Accountability, Eddie Vale.
Paul Begala narrates the documentary, which feature Democratic
luminaries arguing that McCain will continue Bush's policies. The film
score is, maybe fittingly, by Grammy-award winning producer/composer
Art Hodge, who did the music for "Fight Club."
Vale said the film would be"distributed across multiple media
platforms and by many progressive organizations," but wouldn't go into
detail about the distribution.
Read more.
The Atlantic
By Marc Ambinder
09 Sep 2008 07:41 am
There's been a spurt of 527 activity on behalf of Sen. John McCain, but
Barack Obama campaign has suddenly gone silent on the subject.
That's
because, after of year of telling donors not to contribute to 527
groups, of encouraging strategists not to form them and of suggesting
that outside messaging efforts would not be welcome in Obama's
Democratic Party, Obama's strategists have changed their approach.
An
Obama adviser privy to the campaign's internal thinking on the matter
says that,with less than two months before the election and with the
realization that Republicans have achieved financial parity with
Democrats, they hope that Democratic allies -- what another campaign
aide termed "the cavalry" -- with come to Obama's aid.
The
Obama campaign can't ask donors to form outside groups; it can only
communicate, through the public and the media, with body language,
tells and hints.
The upshot: Obama's campaign will no longer
object to independent efforts that hammer John McCain, just as, in
their mind, the McCain campaign has not objected to those efforts
targeted at Obama. "I assume with their 527s stirring, some
[Democratic] ones will as well," another senior campaign official said.
Read more.
Washington Post
By Alec MacGillis
With time running out on its push to register thousands of new voters
in Virginia, the Obama campaign is picking up the pace. State election
officials told the campaign Friday that 49,000 new voters signed up in
August, a sharp increase from the 36,500 who signed up in July and the
28,000 who registered in June.
The campaign had predicted that its August numbers could lag given the
difficulty of reaching residents during vacation season. But the August
gain puts the Obama campaign very much on track toward its goal of
signing up 150,000 new voters by the early October voter registration
deadline, on top of the 142,000 new voters who registered during
primary season.
Read more.
CNN, July 29, 2008
A new AFL-CIO mailer seeks to dispel continued false rumors about Obama.
(CNN) — The nation's largest labor conglomerate
says it's set to launch a major effort Tuesday to dispel ongoing rumors
surrounding Barack Obama that continue to percolate more than 18 months
after the Illinois senator launched his White House bid.
The organization is set to send out mailers to more than 600,000
union homes in crucial battleground states — including Ohio, Michigan,
Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — that directly address the false rumors
that he is not a Christian, refuses to wear a flag pin on his lapel,
and was not sworn into the Senate on the Bible.
Read more.
Former Texas congressman leads coalition looking to reap progressive gains
beyond presidential race.
By Bob Deans
WASHINGTON
BUREAU
Statesman.com
Sunday, July 20, 2008
WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas, is the president of
America Votes, a coalition of 48 activist groups out to increase voter turnout
this year for progressive causes, from organized labor and expansion of minority
rights to the protection of the environment and gun control.
As a nonpartisan organization, America Votes doesn't endorse specific
candidates. Its interest groups, though, and the 35 million people they
represent, are hoping to swing independent voters over to the positions largely
represented by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama.
Read more.
Politico
By Ben Smith,
7-16-08
Planned Parenthood Action Fund is launching a
televised campaign against Senator John McCain on cable in some swing states
today.
The ad uses McCain's evident discomfort with a question about whether it's
"unfair" that some insurance companies cover Viagra but not birth control to
raise doubts about the candidate with women voters.
Read more.
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