Reflecting on Sen. Lincoln Chafee's (R-RI) primary victory yesterday, The Hotline says the race shows how the Republican political machine can gear up to win elections.
"Behind the curtain, Chafeeís campaign spent $500,000 to squeeze out every conceivable voter from neighborhoods across the state. They searched for independents who voted Democrat in municipal elections but who had once upon a time voted for a Republican for president or governor or senator. There were a few of those. They looked for non-affiliated voters in Republican neighborhoods. Using microtargeting techniques, they even tried to figure out which committed Democrats might be tempted to vote for Chafee."
"By the end of the summer, Chafeeís campaign had identified 42,000 potential supporters. Then the second part of the program kicked in. Message, here, is a verb. The campaign 'messaged' these voters, often individually. Chafee himself called more than 100 of them who were identified as being capable of swinging the votes of colleagues and friends. The standard complement of robocalls, mailings and personal visits were employed. In the twelve days of September, Chafee, the RNC and NRSC made more than 198,000 phone calls to the voters on their list. Many voters received one every two days."
September 13, 2006
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