Iowa straw poll and political organizing

“The former Minnesota governor has a platoon of smart political operatives in his corner and is thought to have the best ground game in the state. But despite planting an early flag in Iowa and improving his performance on the stump in recent weeks, the Midwesterner remains stuck in single-digits in state polls.” CNN article
http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/08/13/iowa.straw.poll/index.html

“In case I hadn’t sent this information to you, here is the specific information for our straw poll bus. I apologize for the time I’m sending this, but I sat down with my computer a few hours ago, and almost immediately fell asleep!!” excerpt from an email sent by the Pawlenty organizer at 1:30 am Saturday morning.

The Republican’s held their straw poll today in Ames to raise money. I was tempted to go, especially after the Pawlenty people called and offered me a free bus ride and a ticket (worth $30) to get into the event. But we start school Monday and I had some other things planned for the day, plus it would have ticked off the wife.

The line from the CNN article about the Pawlenty organization having “the best ground game in the state” made me chuckle. When I went to see him in Washington, there were less than 25 people present to hear him. Even Dennis Kucinich had more people than that show up to his events four years ago. At the event they asked if I wanted to go to the straw poll, to which I said “I hadn’t made up my mind yet.” This morning I got an email from one of his workers who make up “the best ground game in the state.” Frankly it was too late, but the offer of a Pawlenty t-shirt made me think twice.

Santorum was no better, with only 18 people present. That included the camera women and a newspaper reporter. I talked to his volunteer after the event who said he had driven over from Des Moines. I asked if they had anyone local and he wasn’t sure. He said one of the volunteers was originally from Keota but he was working out of Des Moines. Someone from Bachmann’s campaign called to ask if I would support her in the straw poll. I asked if she was going to be in Washington County any time soon because I would like to see her first He said, “I think she is going to be in Cedar Falls tomorrow. That should be close. Unfortunately it would be at least a two hour drive from Washington County so I told him she would have to do better.

All of these guys have made fun of President Obama and his experience as a community organizer. He certainly hasn’t been a perfect President, but at least he knew how to run a campaign. The people he had working for him locally in the last election were impressive and they made sure they knew the state well. They targeted high school government teachers and developed some creative class room activities to help students understand the caucus system. They kept it “non-partisan” but it certainly didn’t hurt that they were cute, handsome, articulate, very engaging, and they just happened to have campaign giveaways to hand out, if anybody wanted them. If Pawlenty has the best ground game in the state, I hate to imagine how bad some of the other campaigns are organized.