Guess What: They Don't Like You

The DNC and the DCCC have announced that they will marshall volunteers into Ohio-2 to help Paul Hackett's insurgent campaign. We can only hope they give these out-of-staters orange hats.

Here's a secret: no likes out-of-staters. The letters from Guardian readers to American voters didn't help. The deluge of Dean volunteers in Iowa didn't help. Sending New Yorkers into OH-2 isn't going to help. Because, guess what, all politics is local. The Republican Party realizes this and has been building a neighbor-to-neighbor program across the country. Instead, we try to nationalize a Congressional race that is competitive because of localized ethics issues. Now if they want to send in out-of-state folks to run support for the local volunteers, great. But it's about time that we start focusing on building a real grassroots operation, so that we have Ohioans contacting other Ohioans.

Because here's another thought: if you can't marshall enough volunteers in your own district, do we really have any reason to think that you'll really be able to marshall the votes?

--Matt Singer

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