NetRoots Night at the DPO--Do Something

It's all down to turnout at this point, and in Oregon turnout starts now...last Friday, in fact. Encouraging early return of ballots has all kinds of salutory effects. It cuts the pool of ballots left to return. It locks in votes before they potentially change by events or unknowns. And it provides momentum for further turnout when the story becomes high early returns. But now is the very best time to get people to think ahead, because the ballot has just arrived and people are at least recently reminded of it. The longer the time goes for the intermittent voter, the weaker the impulse to dig out the ballot becomes--and if their house is like mine for even some important mail, it can get lost.

So as part of the firm belief among the netroots that being an actual force for change means being an active political participant, the Democratic Party of Oregon has sponsored a special evening where bloggers like Loaded Orygun, readers, admirers, stalkers, FBI agents and savvy media can get their bank on. If you look over to your right, there's an ad in the sidebar you can click on for convenience, but here's the info if you want it now, now now! This Wednesday October 25, 5 to 9 pm at DPO Headquarters, 232 NE 9th Ave., Portland. Call 503-239-8646 or just show up.

Typically they seed the banks with relatively friendly respondents; you end up hoping for the odd crank after a while just to spice things up. But it does work. Contact is an important and effective tool, so if you can participate in any part of the process that will have the most immediate effect this election, work on voter contact. And if you can, think about spending a vacation (or sick!) day on November 7th, and work on scrounging up all the procrastinators.

And don't forget the intrepid challengers who can still make late buys and build their GOTV organization. LoadedO's (partial) slate of endorsees is here, and the Blue Northwest page, with primarily federal candidates from the tri-state area but also some Oregon legislative candidates, is ready to break through the $2,000 barrier in just a couple of weeks.

If you're going to do anything, do something.