Rallying for a final push, Onondaga County Republican Party will be campaigning until the last possible minute on Election Day.
“We’re focusing on getting people out to vote,” said Carole Marsh, executive administrative assistant of the Onondaga County Republican Committee, “whether it be phone calls or interest in the community.”
This time, the county GOP is facing some disadvantages. In the 2004 presidential election, Republicans had nearly 7,500 more registered voters than Democrats in Onondaga County. But now, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in the county by more than 8,000 people, according to The Post-Standard.
Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) leads Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) by 36 percentage points in New York state, according to an Oct. 21-22 report on RealClearPolitics.com. And Democrat Dan Maffei leads Republican Dale Sweetland by 18 points in the race for New York’s 25th Congressional seat, according to The Post-Standard. Maffei, Sweetland and Green Populist candidate Howie Hawkins are competing for the seat left vacant by 20-year incumbent Republican Jim Walsh, who announced his retirement in January.
The margin of error of both polls was about 4 percent.
But the numbers haven’t deterred the county Republican Party’s efforts, say GOP members. The organization is focusing on the whole county, executive administrative assistant Marsh said in a telephone interview, whether each Republican candidate has a chance of winning or not.
Demand is up for yard signs promoting the presidential ticket of McCain and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, Marsh said.
“We’re very optimistic,” Marsh said. She added, “And they’re also very enthusiastic about Dale Sweetland.”
She couldn’t estimate how many people are volunteering on Tuesday Nov. 4, Election Day, Marsh said. Each campaign has its own set of volunteers. But, she said, people will be holding signs on street corners, making telephone calls and going door-to-door.
One of the main projects on Election Day, Marsh said, will be transporting voters to the polls. “People call ahead of time and say if they need a ride,” she said. “We have drivers here to take them at the time they want to go.”
The county Republicans’ day will culminate in what they hope will be a “victory party.” Supporters will gather in the ballroom at Doubletree Hotel, 6301 State Route 298, in East Syracuse, to watch the election results come in. It starts at 8:30 p.m. and ends at 11 p.m.
Last year’s victory party at the Liverpool Holiday Inn hosted a “raucous, chanting crowd,” according to a November 2007 Democracywise article. The group expects a similar crowd this year, Marsh said, and all of the local Republican politicians usually stop by.
(Megan Saucke is a junior newspaper journalism and political science major.)
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