In Illinois, politics is war. And the months of propaganda floated in speeches and glib TV ads have been but a prelude to this weekend’s final assault by partisan ground troops knocking on doors and dialing phones to prod voters to the polls Tuesday.
“It is important we go out to see everyone we might have missed, talk to anyone who might be undecided,” Chicago Ald. Ray Suarez (31st) said Saturday morning to more than 100 precinct workers over eggs, rice, beans and tortillas at a Humboldt Park restaurant.
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Polls show an ever-tightening race for governor between Democrat Rod Blagojevich and Republican Jim Ryan. But polls measure only how people say they’ll vote–not whether they actually will. Blagojevich, Ryan and campaign organizations across the state are working overtime in the final days to maximize turnout.
This is the point in the election season where the old-style boiler-room operations are fired up: Political workers armed with lists of names call and remind voters to show up Tuesday. And sidewalks are filled with canvassers who go door to door to solicit the votes, then tally up who’s voting for whom.
Across the nation, slick marketers and strategists have taken over campaigns and hawk their candidates like household detergent. That goes on here as well. But in Illinois, candidates also know that old-fashioned shoe leather and front-stoop arm-twisting are still the best way to seal the deal.
`Get out there and work hard’
For the most part, that depends on volunteers. But the Blagojevich campaign, drowning in record amounts of cash, as well as the state Democratic Party, have dangled offers of $50 to $75 a head to entice people to spend this weekend dialing phones or knocking on doors.
“I want you to get out there and work hard,” Blagojevich told members of Ald. Thomas Murphy’s 18th Ward organization as he made the rounds of Democratic strongholds Saturday. “If nobody goes to the polls, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Ryan used a helicopter to travel throughout the Republican suburbs, telling rallygoers that “winning and losing will depend in large measure on you, not on me.” He also said he was counting on suburban school referendum measures to help get voters to the ballot box.
Working to spur supporters to the polls, Democrats and Republicans were trotting out some big names this weekend.
On Saturday, former Vice President Al Gore appeared with members of the Democratic ticket at a packed union hall filled with members of John Daley’s 11th Ward organization. On Sunday, President Bush will lead a rally in Springfield on behalf of the Republican slate.
“There is no better person than the person standing next to me to tell you about the importance of getting out every single vote,” North Side state Sen. Lisa Madigan, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, said in introducing Gore at another event. Gore won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote in the 2000 presidential race.
Madigan’s Republican opponent, DuPage County State’s Atty. Joe Birkett, was already looking toward Election Day duties when he met at a Near West Side sports bar with 20 volunteers who agreed to serve as his election poll watchers.
“We’ve targeted precincts to watch where we’re concerned,” he said in a reference to the influence of his rival’s father, House Speaker Michael Madigan, a powerful Southwest Side lawmaker who also is state Democratic chairman.
Republicans are fearful of the Democrats’ organizational potential for Election Day. The GOP lacks a cohesive turnout program, which could spell the difference between winning and losing for some candidates.
Already wounded by the licenses-for-bribes scandal that is forcing Republican Gov. George Ryan into retirement, the GOP also has been split by infighting.
With GOP candidates treating George Ryan as toxic, U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Yorkville has stepped in to help coordinate strategy and fundraising. Hastert helped produce mailings to registered Republicans that feature either him or other Illinois Republican congressmen touting the party’s slate of candidates.
In addition, Republicans have focused their spending on phone banks and voter turnout activities in select counties–including Kane, Lake and Will–where there are tight races.
Fears of an election boycott
Still, former Gov. Jim Edgar said there is residual concern about Republicans turning sour on the party and boycotting the election.
“The George Ryan factor hurts all the candidates,” Edgar said. “Republicans are really upset, and if they stay home that will hurt all Republicans. We have to get across that George Ryan’s problems are George Ryan’s problems.”
In DuPage County, traditionally the state’s strongest Republican county and home to both Jim Ryan and Birkett, officials fear the GOP vote could weaken by as much as 15 percent. To counter that, DuPage Republicans are handing out fliers on behalf of Jim Ryan and Birkett that say: “You’re mad at George Ryan. We don’t blame you. We are, too…. But don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.”
Some Democrats concede privately they also have concerns about low turnout among African-American voters in the city. Blagojevich is the son-in-law of Chicago Ald. Richard Mell (33rd), whom many blacks remember for obstructing the administration of the late Harold Washington, the city’s first African-American mayor.
But Mell also commands a strong precinct organization that can whip up a lot of votes in ethnic neighborhoods. And that is why several Democratic contenders including Lisa Madigan and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin showed up at a bingo game he traditionally throws before elections for hundreds of elderly Northwest Side residents.
Party leaders dismissed any notion that minorities may be less than thrilled with Mell’s growing influence in the party.
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“We’re fighting apathy and not division,” said Durbin, who is running against Republican state legislator Jim Durkin.
The Democrats’ coordinated campaign is spending $150,000 on advertisements on radio stations with predominantly African-American or Latino listeners, a Durbin aide said.
Republicans in close-pitched battles are concerned about turning out their base as well.
Asked what he was doing to assure that his voters cast ballots, Birkett smiled and said one word: “Prayer.”