Republicans seek to erase Democratic ground game advantage in Wisconsin recall

(Workers' Voice via Politico)

With the final outcome of the Wisconsin recall hinging on turnout, allies of both Gov. Scott Walker and his Democratic challenger, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, are turning their resources toward turning voters out on Tuesday. Democrats traditionally have an on the ground advantage, while Republicans dominate the airwaves. In Wisconsin, Democrats and especially their allies in unions are looking to maximize that advantage, while Republicans, led by the Republican Governors Association and Koch brothers front group Americans for Prosperity, are trying to erase it.

The Republican Governors Association is spending $1.5 million on GOTV on top of the $8 million it has spent on television advertising supporting Walker.

[President of Americans for Prosperity Tim] Phillips ' speaking in between stops on a four-day, 10-city bus tour across the state ' has brought in more than 65 AFP field staffers from 16 states for the home stretch. The conservative group already had six full-time staffers in Wisconsin.

The RGA ' which can legally work in conjunction with AFP ' has paid for 16 separate mail drops to more than 3.3 million voters.

The Democratic Governors Association just doesn't have the money the RGA does, but has given $110,000 specifically for GOTV as part of an overall $3.2 million contribution to the recall effort.

Unions have obviously been central to recall on the Democratic side, and the AFL-CIO's Worker's Voice Super PAC is shifting the focus of its online advertising from recruiting volunteers to directly getting out the vote:

The ads are designed to remind people to vote in the recall election this Tuesday and will allow them to click through and find their nearby polling place. Workers' Voice is targeting individuals who have signed recall petitions as well as Democrats who are less likely to turn out to vote, according to results from the super-PAC's field program.

A Workers' Voice spokesman estimated the online ad buy would end up somewhere between $50,000 and $60,000.

Those ads are in concert with a major effort to contact voters in person and on the phone. Another key part of the Workers' Voice GOTV campaign is the Friends and Neighbors tool, which puts users in touch with Wisconsin voters they've already connected with online.

Please, click here to help turn out voters to defeat Scott Walker by signing up for Friends and Neighbors. You can sign up either by using your Facebook log-in or by filling out a short form.