KDP pitches ‘Neighbor-to-Neighbor’ program to activists

LOUISVILLE -- As part of the national Democratic Party's effort to expand their operations to all fifty states, the Kentucky Democratic Party (KDP) is aiming to implement a new get-out-the-vote effort in Kentucky that enlists party activists to campaign in their own neighborhoods. On Wednesday evening, KDP Chair Jennifer Moore told a meeting of the Metro Democratic Club in Louisville of the ‘Neighbor-to-Neighbor' program and the logic behind it.

"How would you rather hear from - a stranger or someone that you know?" Moore asked the crowd. "We are the best people to go and talk to our neighbors and tell our neighbors why we are a Democrat, why they should be a Democrat, and - most importantly - why they should vote a straight Democratic ticket in the fall."

"They are going to talk to you because they know you," added Moore. "That is a world of difference from a paid walker or a volunteer who doesn't live in that neighborhood going to that door."

Moore called the program the "pet project" of Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean.

"It is his belief that if we do this in every state across the United States, we are going to activate a volunteer program that is unstoppable come November," said Moore.

The program will be funded by the DNC and utilize some staffers provided to the state party by its national counterpart.

Volunteers participating in the program - still tentatively entitled "Neighbor-to-Neighbor" - will be asked to talk to voters in their area three times before the November general election. Participants will be able to log in to a secure website maintained by the party that will provide them with a list of 25 voters in walking distance from a volunteer's home.

The program's website will also furnish volunteers with so-called "scripts" - used for initiating conversation with voters - as well as customizable flyers for distribution.

The flyers can be altered to center on different issues or demographics, given the constitution of an area.

Feedback from the voter contacts will be input into a nationwide computer system called the "Voter Activation Network to facilitate future contacts and input voter preferences.

Moore told the Metro Dems the voter contact was an effort to "educate your neighbors" about Democratic candidates and policy. She cited the Democratic message in the presidential race between presumptive nominees Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

"It's up to us. Think about the presidential race and John McCain. People think he is an independent person. He voted along the lines of Bush 95 percent of the time in the last few years. He is not the same guy who came and ran in 2000 and said that he was a big independent. That's not him anymore," said Moore. "Barack Obama cannot go to all 4,300 precincts in Kentucky and tell these people that. It's our job to do that. It's our responsibility - our duty - to make sure our neighbors know that we don't want a third Bush term."

Ideally for Moore and the KDP, the program will boost turnout in a state where Democrats enjoy a decided registration advantage yet still struggle.

Republicans hold four of the six Congressional seats in the state, despite a registration advantage favoring Democrats in each.

For Moore, the solution to this is driving up turnout.

"We outnumber the Republicans 1.6 to 1 million in the state. When we turnout - when people actually vote democrat - we win. That's the end of the story," said Moore to the Metro Dems.

Moore later told PolitickerKY.com that turnout goal should be bolstered by the "education" effort implicit in the new program, which, according to her, would encourage more Democratic votes.

"If you don't have the turnout, nothing else matters," Moore said. "In addition to that, you have to make sure that you educate voters as to why they should vote straight Democrat. You don't want to just have people just blindly follow. You need to explain ‘this is why I'm a Democrat.'"

"When you talk to people and go door-to-door and have direct voter contact and you talk about the issues and why you are voting Democrat and ask them to vote Democrat, then I think we are going to see a huge turnout," Moore added.

According to Wednesday's presentation, the program will largely focus on voters already inclined to vote Democratic.

"Some of them will be independents, if we expect them to vote Democratic this year," said Amanda Flannery, the KDP's field coordinator. "Some may be Republicans, if they voted Democrat last year or in 2006. But the majority are going to be Democrats - people that will vote for us."

For some at the Metro Dems meeting, the program and the approach were overdue.

"We have wanted for a long time to see Democrats do a better job of working together, managing their data, managing their work, and getting together and working in their space and not just talking," said Bruce Maples, president of the Metro Dems.

"We are trying to be as scientific as possible about this problem. The Republican Party has done it for years and that is one of the reasons we are falling behind," Moore later added.