No shortage of energy for this year’s election

Hang around political spots like campaign headquarters over the next nine days, and you will hear talk of “ground game.” It’s not a discussion of whether Washington State University’s running backs can run with the ball.

Rather, it’s the discussion of who has the best plan for the final days of the campaign to get their candidate’s or their party’s traditional voters to the polls and absentee voters’ ballots in the mail.

As any military tactician can explain, the air wars (in politics, the television and radio ads) only take you so far. Wars are won on the ground.

Ground game involves knocking on doors, putting up the signs that are constantly being torn down, and making phone calls. It requires things that begin with “e” – energy, excitement and electricity. Some years – 1984, 1996, 2002 – those “e’s” don’t mean much, because very little will change the status quo. Other years – 1980, 1992 and 1994 are good examples – the “e’s” determine history.

2004 is projected to be a year of heavy turnout, a big influx of new, young voters and potentially a year in which the “e’s” will be key.

One of the best indicators of how hard the ground game will be played in Spokane is the biennial Spokane Labor Rally, where union members, their spouses, kids (and sometimes grandkids) gather at an Interstate Fairgrounds building for beer or soda, burgers and dogs, beans and potato salad, and political speeches from candidates endorsed by the unions.

Not surprisingly, the candidates are mostly Democrats.

Some years, the food draws more attention than the speakers. Folks eat, visit and leave early, because, let’s face it, the message is pretty much the same:

This is a historic election. Every vote counts. Tell your family, your friends and your neighbors how important voting is, and how these candidates are going to do right by you and them. (The unions don’t have a monopoly on this message, of course. Every Republican, Democratic, business, environmental, church and social group tells its crowd the exact same thing.)

This year, a raucous crowd estimated at more than 3,000 gave big ovations to Christine Gregoire, Patty Murray and Don Barbieri, the Democrats just below the top slot on the ballot in Eastern Washington. Candidates farther down the ticket got good responses, too.

For Barbieri, there was a twist that bordered on irony. The congressional candidate, who is a past chairman of the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, was bringing union guys and gals in denim jackets to their feet. That same week, the suits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had mailed out ads saying Republican Cathy McMorris is better for business.

Long-time attendees said the labor rally had more energy than any in at least a decade. And even though they try that spin every two years, this time they were probably right.

A new icon?

Congratulations to the Boston Red Sox, who for the next week will probably replace Harry Truman as the patron saint of candidates who want to come from behind.

For those not steeped in baseball lore, no team had ever overcome a 0-3 start to win a seven-game series. So when the Red Sox took four in a row, and the American League pennant, from the New York Yankees on Wednesday, they shook not just the baseball world but the political world.

By Thursday, struggling candidates were already saying just like the Red Sox, they shouldn’t be counted out.

Most years, their last-gasp harangue involves citing Truman’s 1948 win against Thomas E. Dewey, when the polls showed he was down.

Spin Control has two basic rules about a Truman-Dewey reference: No candidate who uses it knows how polls have changed in the last 50 years. Every candidate who has used it in Spokane in the last 20 years has lost.

So the Red Sox reference is safer. At least until the World Series is over.

Catch the candidates

The candidate debates are starting to wind down, but a few other interesting events are on the schedule, thanks to the local colleges.

Tonight: 5th Congressional District candidates debate on KXLY-TV; 6 p.m. Channel 4.

Monday: Legislative candidates forum on Child Protection Legislation, sponsored by Voice of the Faithful, 7 p.m., O’Malley Hall, St. Aloysius, 330 E. Boone.

Monday: “Is God for Kerry or Bush?” sponsored by Whitworth Political Activism Club; 7 p.m., Seely Mudd Chapel

Wednesday: EWU Political Fair; 9 a.m.-4 p.m., central mall (or Pence Union Building in bad weather.) Cheney campus.

Thursday: Symposium on the elections with a film on the 2000 presidential race and discussion; film starts at 6 p.m., forum at 7 p.m., Barbieri Courtroom, GU Law School.