The buzz this morning is about Democrats crossing over to vote in today’s GOP primary.
Of course, by doing so, those Democrats will automatically change their party registration to the GOP. The sense is that this won’t change much; most of these folks are Democrats, through and through, despite the fact that they chose to cast a ballot in a GOP primary.
Except that the choice becomes public information. So any GOP-leaning group (say, one of the SuperPACs!) could take that information and the mailing addresses and add all of today’s voters to their mailing lists.
So suppose you wanted to dissuade a Michigan Democrat from voting for Obama again… you could point out his opposition to job-creating domestic energy production like the Keystone Pipeline. You could point out how his permitting and leasing policies have slowed domestic oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, even as gas approaches $5 per gallon. You could point out how he eliminated funding for a scholarship program that allowed low-income children attend the same private school his daughter attend. You could point out how his staunchly anti-gun attorney general let guns get into the hands of the Mexican cartels, and who uses that scandal as an excuse to call for more gun control. You could point out how despite the promises, only 5 percent of the stimulus ended up being spent on repairing roads and bridges, billions of dollars were given to tax cheats and millions of dollars were spent in fictitious congressional districts like a $156,000 project in “Michigan’s 83rd Congressional District.”
Today’s crossover voters might end up hearing a lot of messages the Obama campaign doesn’t want them to hear in the coming months.
The only way a person would know about this strategy is if they read liberal blogs or are on liberal mailing lists. (Well, know about and participate - you can learn about on righty-blogs and politico and the like.)
So, yes, it's very likely that someone who is interested enough in politics to read those sites or be on their mailing lists (which, again, means being either interested or a donor), who is motivated enough to take the 10-30 minutes out of their day to vote in an primary just to "harm" the other party, will - if they get enough junk mail - flip from democrat to republican. Genius!
Partisans know their major players/candidates. They defend and vote for them warts and all. Mail isn't going to change that. These are not uninformed/persuadable independents.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOh yes, absolutely! I'm sure that Santorum robocalling Democrats to cross over & vote for him in the Republican primary is a great thing. Of course that anti-Obama mailers will send informed, angry Democrats, specifically union members, to the polls to defeat Obama. Seriously, you can not believe this disgusting Santorum tactic is beneficial to Republicans.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLet's try THIS theory, Mr Geraghty.
Suppose you wanted to (A) have the GOP pick the worst possible candidate they could to go up against President Obama and (B) as a kicker, have them end up wasting a ton of mailers sending stuff to Democrats who'll throw it immediately in the recycle bin, while the Michigan Republican Party loses vital cash?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm sorry, how do you think pointing these things out to a democrat is going to prevent them from voting Obama?
"you could point out his opposition to job-creating domestic energy production like the Keystone Pipeline."
- Hate to break it to ya, but democrats don't particularly like oil pipelines destroying the environment.
"You could point out how his permitting and leasing policies have slowed domestic oil production in the Gulf of Mexico, even as gas approaches $5 per gallon."
- Again, that's not automatically a bad thing. There are those that actually remember the BP disaster, and aren't eager to increase the odds of it happening again.
"You could point out how he eliminated funding for a scholarship program that allowed low-income children attend the same private school his daughter attend."
- I'm not sure about the details on this one, but if it's true, good point.
"You could point out how his staunchly anti-gun attorney general let guns get into the hands of the Mexican cartels, and who uses that scandal as an excuse to call for more gun control."
- Democrats are traditionally pro-gun control.
"You could point out how despite the promises, only 5 percent of the stimulus ended up being spent on repairing roads and bridges, billions of dollars were given to tax cheats and millions of dollars were spent in fictitious congressional districts like a $156,000 project in “Michigan’s 83rd Congressional District.”
- Did you really just copy paste from the republican congressional committee? One that cites Fox Freaking News? Really?
Finally, cross-over voters are going to be the liberal voters that care enough to vote in a primary. They care enough to rig the "other team's" primary. No one is going to change their minds, especially not GOP mailers. To think otherwise is foolishly naive.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThat's quite the happy tune you're whistling past the graveyard, Mr G !
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThese lefty posters doeth protest too much!
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