GOP: Ballot Harvest or Lose
(image credit: Arizona Capital Times https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2018/10/31/court-ballot-harvesting-ban-not-1st-amendment-violation/)
For centuries we have pushed to get people to the polls but the new model, with which the Dems are killing us, is getting the ballots to the polls. Otherwise known as Ballot Harvesting.
And we are getting killed. And if we tell the leaders that they want to poison us.
The left, Dems, unions, PPH, Sierra Club, and hundreds of other groups work closely together while the Conservatives are not even allowed to talk to the inner GOP and are ignored. Just the failure of Milwaukee County GOP to do much of anything and the GOP conceding Milwaukee County lost for us.
The Dems did not win, it was the failure of leadership of the GOP despite spending around 100 million.
We saw it in the Daniel Kelly race, but the GOP was too greedy for some and too stupid to pick it up. In the final three weeks, the Dems got 1.25 million for ballot harvesting- I told Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Dan Bice and RPW Executive Director that it was for ballot harvesting.
If the GOP had gotten it they would have just run more commissionable ads, stupid postcards.
GOP in Wisconsin is a skeleton of what it once was when I was chair, VP, and head of Tosa/West Allis from the ’60s till 2005. We were raising and spending huge amounts of money, $100 million-plus. Seeing people make millions while the rest of us use our own money and we wonder why we lose.
We should have learned the lesson from the Kelly race but the slimy characters in Mad city convinced the rookie leaders of the GOP and the Trump victory to run more ads that never moved the numbers.
In Wisconsin it is people’s power that wins, we have known that for centuries. Unless there is a Red Wave, we lose.
How does Ballot harvesting work?
First, we all know how everyone votes, so now the job is to get them to vote.
So, you pay consultants/leaders to organizes cities, wards, or precincts. That person’s job is to identify every voter who supports the candidate, make sure they have a ballot, make sure they fill out the ballot and get them to turn in their ballot. The Dems have done that, sending in incredibly talented organizers and paying them. Then you keep track of who is voting for your candidate(s). The is just the way that Tammany Hall, Daley did it for decades. When you review who has not voted, you find them and you get them to the polls. And you do this until everyone on your side votes. By putting pressure on them to vote they also vote your way.
Robin Vining put up signs this time but had the team doing doors and getting the ballots in.
We had canvassers but if you canvas in early September or October you have been forgotten, so you must follow up with other grassroots efforts. You can still advertise but it moves the numbers little, not as much as going and getting people’s ballots.
Some people think that it should be illegal, but it will not be. Watch what Ron DeSantis did in Florida and it works.
Richard Viguerie, a legend amongst Conservatives, wrote an article 3 weeks or so before the Georgia race and warned of that. The Democrats have two-person teams going to neighborhoods and campaigning, then ballot harvesting, paying people to do the work. In Wisconsin the only people paid are those doing the ads, they make millions.
Waukesha did start ballot harvesting this year, and they increased their vote totals. We planned for them to get volunteers to come and help and they did.
If the GOP had done that on the southside of Milwaukee, we would have won. The southside of Milwaukee County is blue-collar heaven. They are completely different from the north side and wealthy suburbs.
As you have seen in Georgia, the Democrats stole the election with ballot harvesting, in the votes, and in the Red areas the vote was down because they tried to push them to the polls.
Same in Wisconsin.
Dems brought the polls to the people in parks and we, GOP, just whined. The GOP leaders were completely run over by this. Some of us that tried to reason with them were labeled troublemakers and idiots, other names. We lost because the rookies running the campaign were just too damn immature, stupid, they did not know what they were doing and talk to those of us that did.
We must have leaders that want to win and will fight like the Dems. Ours win big money, win, or lose.
We have Romney wimps plus leaders like the Walker clan that are Never Trumpers like Becky Kleefisch, David Blaska, and many more that hope Trump would lose so they could run Walker for President again in 2024.
So if the GOP in Mad city tells you how neat they are, tell them: BS.
Bob Dohnal, Publisher
Wisconsin Conservative Digest
