Out-of-staters descended on Massachusetts this weekend, flooding the Bay State with money and manpower in the final days of the special election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
In a bit of a shift from other big elections, activists in both parties are dialing in to help as the race is down-to-the-wire and closer than either party would like.
Administration staffers and Capitol Hill types flocked to phone banks in D.C. to dial in for attorney general Martha Coakley (D) while Republicans across the country rallied to help state Sen. Scott Brown (R).
Former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove told his nearly 100,000 followers yesterday, “#RETWEETTHISIF You want to help Scott Brown but don’t live in MA.” He sent out a link to the Brown campaign’s Web site allowing for supporters to “call from home.”
Arkansas Democrats asked their supporters to “Help Win the Massachusetts Senate Seat,” blasting out a link to the DNC’s Organizing for America phone banking site which also says Democrats can “make calls from home.”
Similar efforts are happening in Louisiana and across the country, as OFA directs the 13 million-plus people on its email list to use the “neighbor-to-neighbor” program for Coakley.
A Democratic source told TPMDC the party is on “offense” and that activists are “galvanized” by the influx of the tea party crowed into the state.
On Saturday, OFA and the Coakley campaign had 3,500 volunteers who made 575,000 voter contacts in person and via phone. That outreach led to a 15 percent uptick in the likely Democratic participation among Massachusetts voters, the source said.
As we reported last week, a Tea Party Nation group from Rhode Island was helping Brown organize.
The separate Tea Party Express group asks supporters to “bring others to the polls as well to vote for Brown.”
“The Tea Party Express has over 350,000 members and supporters nationwide. If each of us can help get 2 voters to go to the polls in Massachusetts it will have a huge impact,” the group says, asking members to “[c]ontact them via email, Twitter, phone call, Facebook or carrier pigeon.”
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) is in Boston now, according to his Twitter feed.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) tweeted today: “MA election day is tomorrow – let’s support Scott Brown. Make calls, donate, get involved!”
