Test Run for DNC Machine

The Obama administration, concerned that November is heading for a major political blowout, has invested millions in re-applying and tuning up the 2008 voter ID and turnout machine. The operation has $50 million and Obama’s top campaign operator, David Plouffe, managing it. The whipping Michael Bennet gave Andrew Romanoff’s campaign in the August 2010 primary was the machine’s first successful outing. An expected close race became a 28,000-vote, 8 percentage point blow-out that Channel 9 KUSA was able to call by 8:30 pm.

The DNC voting machine helped beat Romanoff in nearly all large counties and crushed him in many small counties where mail-in ballot chasing techniques can be most economically and effectively applied. Bennet beat Romanoff by 60 percent or more in Alamosa, Archuleta, Conejos, Costilla, Delta, Garfield, Las Plata, Montezuma, Phillips, Rio Grande, Sedgwick and Washington counties.

Of course, Bennet’s spending and efforts were substantial, but the campaign was in panic the last two weeks until the DNC resources begun to bear fruit with high rates of turnout of new primary voters, often in Colorado’s isolated small communities.

U.S. Senator Mark Udall’s help was also evident in many of the mountain areas where his environmental credentials are strong. Bennet won, for example, San Miguel (Telluride) – 65%, Pitkin (Aspen) – 74% and Eagle (Vail) – 63%.

Expect to see the DNC machine this fall. Republicans may have enthusiasm and issues, but they still do not appear to have caught up with the Obama campaign’s technical sophistication.