The Bannock Street Project is the code name for the massive Democratic operation to get out the vote in November. Back in February, we learned from The New York Times that it would be "the largest and most data-driven ground game yet, relying on an aggressive combination of voter registration, get-out-the-vote and persuasion efforts." And that it would focus on 10 states: Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Michigan, Montana and West Virginia.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
MSNBC confirmed yesterday:
Simply put: While both sides are flooding the airwaves with ads, Democrats are also investing serious money in a ground game of unprecedented strength. And that could make the difference.
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The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is spending $60 million on the Bannock Street Project, a turbo-charged, data-driven ground operation that aims to ensure the 2014 electorate looks more like 2012—which saw massive turnout from minorities and young people—than the Republican wave election of 2010. Named for the Denver street where the 2010 campaign of DSCC chair Michael Bennet was located, Bannock Street has said it’s hiring 4,000 paid staff to get out the vote. Republicans have nothing comparable.
“We are investing far more in turnout than the Republicans,” Justin Barasky, a spokesman for the DSCC, told msnbc. “Bannock Street is the largest most sophisticated turnout operation in the history of Senate races.” Barasky’s boss, DSCC executive director Guy Cecil, said in a statement Monday that Bannock Street “is already paying dividends for campaigns across the country as we head towards GOTV.”
http://www.msnbc.com/...
p.s. The 4,000 paid staff members are overseeing 60,000 volunteers. (!)
The DSCC posted these updates on Oct. 3 (a week and a half ago - around the time the GOP started freaking out):
BANNOCK STREET PROJECT GIVING DEMOCRATS AN EDGE, DWARFING GOP GROUND GAME. The New York Times reports this week that in key Senate races across the country including Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, and North Carolina, “Democrats are making much greater investments in the ground game than Republicans.… The Democrats’ spending advantage is greatest in states where they’ve had time to organize and plan for competitive races, and they are using that edge to register new voters; publicize absentee and early voting options; and, of course, make sure supporters actually go to the polls on Election Day…. Democrats have invested several million dollars in both North Carolina and Colorado for this ground game…. That edge extends to Alaska, where the Democratic incumbent Mark Begich faces Dan Sullivan. Combined, Democratic independent groups, party committees and Mr. Begich’s campaign have already spent nearly 10 times more than Republicans on wages and expenses for local staffers; get-out-the-vote efforts; and other field operations…. In Iowa, the state Democratic Party has spent more than $872,000 in ground operations, part of a substantial advantage that Democrats have over Republicans in that state…. Outside groups working on behalf of Democratic candidates have extended the advantage. Super PACs, environmental organizations and abortion rights groups have spent more than $4.8 million on ground activity in Senate races in Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan and North Carolina. Republican-leaning groups have kicked in only $369,000.”
DSCC’S INVESTMENT IN THE BANNOCK STREET PROJECT “APPEARS TO BE PAYING OFF.” Michael McDonald, the preeminent academic expert on US voter participation, writes in the Huffington Post that the DSCC’s investment in the Bannock Street Project “appears to be paying off” as Democrats continue to have a clear edge in early voting. “Election officials in these states release early voting data that provide clues as to which party currently has an edge. (I track these statistics here.) The $60 million voter mobilization 'Bannock Street project' is a key component of the DSCC's strategy to expand the electorate just enough in the most closely contested states to lift the Democrats' candidates over the top. The fingerprints of these efforts can be seen in these data, as well. The DSCC's investment appears to be paying off. There are signs Republicans are not going to cede early voting, but their efforts are being swamped by the Democrats' mobilization drives.”
http://www.dscc.org/...
The BSP has already been so effective in some states that the GOP are responding with panic. For example, in Georgia, incumbent Republicans claim they lost some 40,000 voter registration forms submitted by Democrats. Oopsies!
And in Alaska, last week, The Washngton Post described the BSP as "Begich's Secret Weapon":
an expensive, sophisticated political field operation that reaches into tiny villages along rivers and in mountain ranges throughout the vast Last Frontier. The Begich ground game — which the senator and his campaign detailed for the first time to The Washington Post — is on a scale far beyond anything that has been tried here before.
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...Begich believes his ground game can help him withstand the unfavorable political climate. He is not alone: In competitive Senate races nationwide, Democratic candidates have invested heavily in surgical turnout operations to drive people who traditionally vote only in presidential elections to the polls in November.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
It's going to be close, folks, so we can't take this news as reason to be even slightly complacent. But if, over the next 3 weeks, we work as hard as we possibly can, we'll have a good shot at holding the Senate. Cheers.
Update 1: ACTION!
Here is a MoveOn.org link to volunteer for phone canvassing:
http://pol.moveon.org/...
They are focusing on these races:
Michigan/Gary Peters.
South Dakota/Rick Weiland.
Colorado/Mark Udall.
North Carolina/Kay Hagan.
Iowa/Bruce Braley.
Kentucky/Alison Grimes
(You can take part regardless of where you live in the U.S.)
Update 2: From the comments, iowacaucus reports on the Bannock Street Project in Iowa:
Ground game in Iowa
The ground game in Iowa is truly unbelievable. I was a Team Leader for the Obama campaign, and I was quite surprised when I started volunteering a couple of weeks ago that the exact same ground game structure is in place. Basically, the Iowa Democratic Party has just picked up where we left off in the 2012 presidential campaign. I've worked on midterm elections before in Iowa (including 2010 when we retained all three Democratic congressmen) and I've never seen anything like this. As in 2012, we are picking up so many of the unlikely voters with the early voting push. This seems particularly true for the younger voters. They aren't very clued into the election, but they're interested to learn more about Joni Ernst and happy to sign up to vote by mail. I remain optimistic at this stage of the game, considering that the race is basically tied and the Democratic ground game is clearly superior.