Campaigns intensify their Maine efforts Local ‘ground game’ mobilizes rank-and-file to get out vote

BANGOR – The television airwaves in Maine have been flooded with messages from President Bush and John Kerry for months. But in the campaign’s final 72 hours, their most effective messengers might be people like Mia Dow and C.J. Polyot.

It’s called the “ground game,” a campaign’s ability to mobilize its voters with door-to-door visits or telephone calls and, most importantly, make sure they reach the polls on Election Day.

For volunteers like Dow, who considers herself one of the “hard-core kids” at Bush state headquarters in Bangor, the waning days of the contest between Bush and Kerry take place in one of the most critical elections in the history of the country.

“It’s crunch time,” Dow, a 22-year-old fine arts major at the University of Maine, said over the chatter of volunteers working the phone banks in a small room at the campaign’s Stillwater Avenue office. Callers here read from different scripts depending on whether a person or an answering machine picked up the call.

It’s a small part of standard operating procedure in getting out the vote, or GOTV, as it’s called in political circles.

This year, with polls showing the race too close to call in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, mobilizing one’s base will be of particular importance, analysts say.

“There’s not a lot of daylight between the candidates,” said Richard Powell, a University of Maine political scientist. “This year, it’s all about convincing voters why this election has consequences for them.”

This year, both parties boast “unprecedented” ground games with thousands of volunteers.

Maine Democrats, who traditionally have held an advantage in that regard, reluctantly acknowledge that Republicans have made significant strides in their efforts.

But Democrats are conceding nothing this year, and at the party’s headquarters in Bangor Friday afternoon, dozens of volunteers readied for a Saturday rally featuring vice presidential nominee John Edwards. The event will begin at 12:30 p.m. on the Bangor waterfront.

But first, the group had to prepare for a visit from Vanessa Kerry, the presidential candidate’s youngest daughter. Such visits are valuable in a close contest, said Kerry volunteer C.J. Polyot, as he tiptoed around freshly painted signs for the Edwards event.

“It makes every voter, and every volunteer here, feel they’re part of it,” said Polyot, 82, before Kerry’s daughter arrived. “It gives them a little spirit.”

Vanessa Kerry breezed into the downtown headquarters shortly after 4 p.m. just as the telephone rang.

“Answer that, please,” she said, smiling as she began her remarks – part thank-you to the volunteers and part reminder of the importance of Tuesday’s election. “If someone is calling this campaign, answer that phone.”

For all the sound bites and campaign ads, it’s the human element that can matter most in the last days, Dow said.

“People tend to think campaigns are bigger than they are, but it’s people like us, people sitting in this room,” Dow said, amid the clatter of phones and volunteers, who breezed in and out of the small campaign office. “People want to see it’s not bigger than them.”

Every contact with a potential voter could prove valuable in the state’s northern district, which can award its own Electoral College vote.

Maine awards four Electoral College votes. Two are given to the statewide winner and each of the state’s two congressional districts awards one vote to its winner.

Neither campaign is taking the area for granted, with each sending up top-level surrogates in the final days.

Besides the Edwards visit -his third to the district – the Democrats are sending U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., to Maine on Monday. Kennedy will lead rallies in Portland and Lewiston. Gephardt will appear in Bangor and Waterville to support Kerry.

For the GOP, New York Gov. George Pataki will come to the northern congressional district on Sunday. Pataki, who will visit Auburn, comes three days after the campaign’s top surrogate, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, stumped for Bush at a town hall event in Brewer.