Democratic Party launching efforts to register, turn out voters for midterm elections
By APThursday, June 17, 2010
Dems launch voter drive in midterm election year
WASHINGTON — Watch out loyal Democrats. The national party is coming after your vote.
Facing a stiff political headwind, the Democratic National Committee on Thursday announced a voter registration and mobilization campaign to ensure they can count on crucial Democratic constituencies to turn out in November.
The party launched a new website for the “Raise Your Vote” campaign to target groups like Hispanics, blacks, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, young voters and single women.
“In order to be successful in November, we’re going to need as many votes from all those different pieces of the pie as possible,” said Organizing for America Director Mitch Stewart. “We’re carrying on the practices that we learned from our 2008 efforts.”
The registration drive is part of the DNC’s $20 million effort for the fall campaign. Party officials called the registration effort an unprecedented online and offline campaign, and the most ambitious program by Democrats to register voters.
Typically, there’s a big drop off in voters from presidential election years to midterm elections.
And Democrats fear that the legions of new voters President Barack Obama attracted in 2008 — when he specifically targeted minorities and first-time voters — will stay home this fall. That could hurt Democratic candidates across the country, particularly in close races.
Democrats also are mindful that in a political environment that favors Republicans, anything can help.
(This version CORRECTS Adds details; corrects dollar figure to $20 million)
Tags: Barack Obama, Campaigns, Mid-term Elections, North America, Political Organizations, Political Parties, United States, Washington
