Live from the Fighting First

6:27 PM: We have now finished our GOTV operation for all intents and purposes. We are still making a few last calls here and there but we are mostly done. I just heard from Noah Seligman (UDFL President) and he says that turnout for the Superblock precinct has surpassed 2004 numbers and that there are huge lines at U precincts. There has been a bit of a kerfuffle with voting with U cards, you can read about that in the columns here. Things are looking good and results are starting to roll in on the East Coast. Nothing too surprising so far, but some unfortunate news for the DFL and its emerging House majority is here. I'm about to go give rides to the polls but I will begin a new post after I finish and set up at the victory party.

5:09 PM: We just got doorknocked by a pair of Walz volunteers and apparently one of them was Tim's sister-in-law.

4:51 PM: I just got back from checking some more turnout, and it varies quite a bit precinct-by-precinct but it seems to be high all around. I just dropped off my brother and sister across town and as I was driving back I saw an SUV with "Vote Walts" written everywhere. That was pretty exciting despite the misspelling, I'm sure that it's a person who doesn't follow politics very closely but wants Gil Gutknecht gone. Three hours until the polls close!

3:31 PM: We have finished a couple of rounds of GOTV here. People are hanging up on us frequently and answering even less frequently, but we see that as a sign that people are getting tons of GOTV coverage. I myself have gotten a number of calls from several different organizations. As a party and as a progressive movement, I think we can be very proud today of our GOTV activities.

2:16 PM: Secondhand reports from Tim Walz volunteers suggest that Walz is doing tremendously well. He has a small army of people on the ground, and our own volunteers have come across them more than once. By the way, the weather here is just about perfect, this morning it started out chilly, damp, and overcast but has warmed up to about 60 degrees and mostly sunny, though it's clouding over again.

1:45 PM: Oh, I've also been in frequent contact with our GOTV operation at the U, for those off-campus readers. Turnout at Coffman was about 250 about 45 minutes ago, and that seems high to me because college students don't vote at the same times as older people and I would expect to see those numbers rising quickly around right now and a little later in the afternoon. I have no doubts about our GOTV work and we will turn out University of Minnesota students in large numbers, even if we won't know it until later tonight.

1:39 PM: I just checked out three crucial polling places in HD30A. Two of those precincts are on pace for very high turnout, while one is surprisingly low. These numbers won't mean anything for most, I'm sure, but anybody familiar with Rochester might find these useful. We are well on pace to far exceed 2002 turnout but I haven't compared these numbers to 2004 turnout.
2002:
Edison 2-2: 1271
Shorewood 2-3: 763
History Center 2-4: 1751
2006:
Edison 2-2 (1:13 P.M.): 582 (704 including absentee)
Shorewood 2-3 (1:05 P.M.): 376 (No absentee numbers)
Autumn Ridge 2-4 (12:57 P.M.): 940 (No absentee numbers)


12:41 PM: Welcome to those linking in from the excellent Bluestem Prairie and Minnesota Monitor. I've just come back from working in a "pull team," my sister and myself driving around knocking on the doors of late-identified or ticket-splitting Liebling supporters. Those who are home have voted, and many of the people I've seen just walking around are wearing the "I Voted" stickers. My house is currently hosting three volunteers making hundreds of GOTV phone calls to the people whose doors we will not be able to reach. I am now leaving to check on three or four precincts and I will give you all an idea of the turnout as soon as I'm back.


8:15 A.M.: This is UDFL Treasurer David Liebow reporting LIVE from Rochester in Minnesota's "Fighting First", one of the most important battlegrounds in the state today. I've been down here since Thursday night, phone-calling and doorknocking for our DFL slate of candidates, one of the best in decades. Rochester's an area that has usually been solid red territory, but in 2004 we scored two big wins for the state house locally. This year, we have a chance to sweep all four state house races, win one of the two state senate races, and biggest of all beat six-term incumbent Congressman Gil Gutknecht, who is violating his 1994 Contract with America pledge to only serve six terms. While you guys up at the U are playing the turnout game, we've got close races to win at every level.

I just went and voted, and at about 7:45 A.M. there had been 139 votes in my precinct. I'm hearing reports of very high turnout this morning, both in Rochester and across the state. This could be a very good day for us.

I'll be posting throughout the day with updates from down here.

- DLL