DES MOINES, Iowa -Here, playing out on 57th Street, there is an intense miniature version of the nationwide effort by President Bush and Sen. John Kerry to find friendly voters and get them to the polls on Nov. 2.
Located on the city's west side, just a sand wedge away from a popular city golf course, this working class neighborhood has a mix of Republicans, Democrats and independents that roughly reflects the party split in this battleground state. That makes Precinct 52 a target for special attention.
The 67 registered Democrats, 62 Republicans and 33 independent voters who live along a four-block stretch of 57th Street are deluged with mailed pleas, telephone calls and door-knockers looking to lure them to the polls. Like it or not, these Iowans on a street of brick and wood-frame homes dating from World War II are part of the most sophisticated get-out-the-vote effort ever undertaken.
It's just enough to be irritating
Kathy Hunt said.
After investing millions of dollars in state-of-the art technology, both campaigns use Census and other data to track voters down to the household level in dozens of ways -from their voting habits to their magazine subscriptions, their church affiliations, race, age, marital status, number of children, hobbies and political issues of interest.
Democrats and affiliated groups are using hundreds of paid canvassers and volunteers to reach out, and Republicans are relying on a network of volunteers to make more than 38,000 voter contacts each week just in Iowa.
We've ratcheted it up said Ed Failor, who runs the GOP field effort. I've never seen anything so enormous so organized.
That's not lost on the folks along 57th Street. Precinct 52 had an 82 percent turnout in 2000, so they're an attentive political audience. Democrat Al Gore got 52 percent of the precinct's votes four years ago.
Bridget Briel, 42, is a Republican. She is buried in direct mail but said, All of the junk mail goes in a pile and at the end of the week
I throw it out.
Her pile on a recent day included a message from Bush warning that Kerry was playing politics with national security and another from the state Democratic Party warning the nation could not afford four more years of Bush's health care policy.
She has not decided how she will vote but is leaning toward Kerry.
I just don't like Bush
never have
she said.
Down the street, 74-year-old Aurora Lumandue handles phone calls simply -when she figures out it is a political call she hangs up. I don't even listen to them anymore
she said. She has not decided how she will vote.
Here is how the campaign's personal contacts work: Canvassers hit the streets armed with voter registration information that provides the name, age and party affiliation of each registered voter on the block. They knock on doors, questioning folks about candidates and issues. They store the information on hand-held computers.
At the end of the day, those canvassers merge their day's work with a central database, where the handhelds and the central computers update each other. The next time the campaign reaches out to the same voters, it is armed with a wealth of information that drives decisions on things like which direct mail piece to use, or what to pitch in a phone call.
We look at demographic information we've developed
said Failor. a Republican. We could use terror
education
health care
whatever fits.
Back on 57th Street, Vanessa Minick is a 33-year-old teacher with young children. She has made clear her view that schools are getting the short end of the stick.
Not long ago, she opened a mail piece from Kerry warning when it comes to public education
