[promoted by BooMan]
2004 – 72% to 28%
2002 – 74% to 26%
2000 – 74% to 23%
1998 – 76% to 24%
In fact, only one Democrat has received more than 30% of the vote in over 20 years. With less than one week to go, this race is within 5 points. And not only is it within five points, but Jean Schmidt is tanking. And no, I am not sitting in my hotel room with a .pdf file in-front of me. Here is what I am hearing, so take it fwiw…
(Cross-Post from Swing State Project)
The NRCC conducted a poll earlier this week (there is another poll in the field, but no idea by who), that showed the poor numbers. The numbers were leaked by a Republican who is part of a group that doesn’t see eye to eye with Schmidt on certain issues.
In response, the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has just dumped $285,000 into an astounding 1800+ point ad buy that will start running Friday through Tuesday. This is public record.
Now Jean Schmidt is scurrying to round up to volunteers from her primary opposition in a last ditch effort to counter Paul Hackett’s overwhelming advantage on-the-ground. To the shock of the GOP, Hackett is also going toe-to-toe on television as well in terms of dollars. The free press because of Paul’s service has been huge as well. I overheard the campaign manager (I believe) of Schmidt’s campaign say to a Hackett staffer, “I have no idea how the hell you guys are raising this much money.” They are worried.
I don’t know what to say, other than this is a grassroots takeover. Whatever Paul Hackett accomplishes in this race will be because of us. The work done on the blogs, the volunteer and fundraising support of DFA, and Howard Dean’s pledge to fight it out in all 50 states; if MoveOn were to jump in, the future of the Democratic Party will be completely represented in overcoming the most insurmountable of odds. When the ballots were cast on November 2nd, this is the moment we all looked towards. When Howard Dean was elected DNC Chair, this was the moment we all looked towards. In the first federal election since the fiasco in 2004, the grassroots of the party banding together, taking on the most dauting of tasks, and winning. Who would have thought we had such an opportunity, so soon.
While Jean Schmidt and her allies run a slash-and-burn campaign, attempting to “Swift Boat” Paul Hackett, the message is simple, if we can win here, we can win anywhere.
Down the stretch we go.
Voluteer: volunteer@hackettforcongress.com — they have housing available
Call Cincinnati Talk Radio All Week (LINK – Scroll Down for List of Shows & Numbers)
UPDATE:: Some guy has been walking down the street outside Hackett HQ a few hours ago, taking down everyones license plates and making phones calls while walking in and out of Republican HQ across the street.
We also got a strange visit from a Representative of President Bush that I will have more on later. It was pretty funny, cause it was basically an idle threat that I can’t say anything else about right now.