by Erika Boggs
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Our voter outreach program for the November election campaign was a major success. With a departure from traditional voter outreach strategy, an increase in full-time staff, and the help of hundreds of volunteers, Multnomah Democratss far surpassed the voter outreach goals set for them by the statewide campaign. Governor Kulongoski's victory in what pre-election polls predicted would be a close race, along with better-than-expected voter turnout, indicate small changes in the Multnomah Dems' tactics are working for the increasingly professional democratic organization.

The Party departed from traditional wisdom, which directs voter contact toward party members who vote in every election. Recently completed analysis of voter statistics shows the Party's newly employed strategy of targeting those voters who do not vote in every election meant higher voter turnout for Democrats in the county. According to Jesse M. Bontecou, Regional Field Organizer for the Democratic Party of Oregon, the county's Democrats produced a 7.68% improvement in Democratic performance over similar races in 2002. Other strategic changes included a decision by the county Party's Executive Committee to commit extraordinary resources to the campaign, an increase from two half-time to three full-time staff during the height of the campaign, and a shift in focus from fundraising and long-term party building to recruiting and directing campaign volunteers. As a result of this increased commitment, the party is now renewing its fundraising efforts to refill its coffers, but this campaign report shows the party's leadership made the right decisions. This view on campaign spending is shared by former Governor Barbara Roberts, who said, "I think Democrats don't want to wake up the morning after the election with money in the bank and a Republican Governor."

With more than 500 volunteers working to remind the county's registered democrats and independents to cast their ballots, the Multnomah Dems achieved 160% of the voter contact goal set for them by the statewide campaign. In the 67 days preceding the election, volunteers made over 131,877 voter contact attempts resulting in personal conversations with over 17,760 voters. Phone bank challenge nights added a bit of intra-party competition as groups of volunteers worked to set daily records for number of voter contacts and attempts. In addition to phone banks, the Multnomah Dems coordinated daily neighborhood canvassing efforts with volunteers knocking on voters' doors to encourage their participation.

Historically, voter turnout for midterm elections is lower than for presidential elections, making November's campaign success that much sweeter for the county Democratic organization. Statewide voter turnout in the November general election was 70.8%, and in Multnomah county the voter turn out was 69.06%. Governor Kulongoski defeated Ron Saxton by a margin of 68.44% to 25.21% of the vote in Multnomah county, which is 1.5% higher than John Kerry's margin over George Bush in the county two years ago. Speaking with renewed hope for the future of the party, Chair Gavin White said, "We have a strong leadership team and we're glad to be working with Democrats in public office to meet the long-neglected needs of the people of Oregon."

Erika Boggs has an MFA in writing and is currently employed at Miller Nash, LLP.


2006 Campaign Report
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• Multnomah County recruited over 500 volunteers.
• Multnomah County filled over 2203 Volunteers shifts over 67 days.
• Multnomah volunteers did over 131,877 voter contact attempts.
• Multnomah volunteers did over 6609 hours of work over 67 days, or 98.5 hours of work a day for 67 straight days, or the work of 12 people working 8 hours a day for 67 straight days. ÂÂ
• Multnomah volunteers on average made 20 voter contact attempts per hour.
• Multnomah volunteers made over 17760 Voter contacts.
• Multnomah volunteer voter contact rate was 15%.
• Multnomah achieved 160% of its voter goals.
• Kulongoski won Multnomah county by 112309 votes or 46.16%, which is 1.5% better than John Kerry did, and 7.68% better than Kulongoski did in 2002.
• Of Multnomah's 55,194 tier 1&2 voters 27,235 or 49.34% voted.
• Multnomah county's best volunteer recruitment night was October 22nd we recruited 94 people.
• Multnomah County's best Phone bank night was Monday Nov 6th with 15848 calls voter attempts made.
• All told between Nov 5th and November 7th Multnomah County made 39354 voter attempts.
• October 17th was our student challenge night when we made 3374 voter attempts the second best day at that point.
• October 24th was our first women's challenge night when we made 4135 voter attempts, running entirely out of phone lines.
• November 2nd was our second Women's challenge night when we made 5328 voter contact attempts the second best day at that point.
• October 14th was our GLBT and Labor rally and canvass which made over 5405 voter attempts, which was our best day until November 4th.
• Multnomah County had 20 phone lines to do voter outreach with.
• Multnomah county ran canvasses every Saturday and Sunday.

Statistics compiled by Jesse Bontecou, Democratic Party of Oregon