THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2010


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EZ RE Tea party callers cast nationwide net to try to persuade voters tea party from A1


organizers for Americans for Prosperity, headquartered in Ar- lington, say 10,000 volunteers are making calls through the pro- gram — 400 of whom are in Oregon. The efforts are designed to be a


conservative counterweight to MoveOn.org and other liberal or- ganizations that used these sorts of tactics to great effect in 2006 and 2008. Those groups are at it again this year, with Organizing for America launching a re- vamped online calling tool last week to coincide with President Obama’s rallies nationwide. The Internet-based software


the tea party groups provide makes calling easy: Register as a volunteer, log in, and the pro- gram calls your phone number to connect you.Click again and your phone calls a voter’s home. Read the script on the screen, click again and the call is disconnect- ed. Click again and the next call is underway. All the while, the system is


logging valuable information for the national groups: who’s still undecided, which numbers are good, who’s home and who’s not. Calling all around the country


on behalf of politicians she has never met is not exactly some- thing Gagnon expected to do. But she’s a mother and she’s worried that no matter how well she raises her kids, it won’t matter much if things don’t improve. “I’ve been concerned about the


direction our country’s going starting back when President Bush was in office,” said Gagnon, who is active with the Oregon Tea Party and the Oregon 912 Project and whose husband, Jason, lost his job in February as an informa- tion-technology project manager. “Really, before that I wasn’t


paying a whole lot of attention. I was raising my family. But I started noticing the massive debt. We were accumulating wars where we aren’t there to win. The stimulus packages that he was putting together. So it kind of sparkedmy interest—you know, where is this leading? What kind of country arewegoing to be in 10 years, when my kids are grown up?”


Critical calls Gagnon spoke cheerfully into


the telephone, reading from the computer screen at a small table in her dining room while two of her children, Peter, 4, and Adam, 6, waged a Lego “Star Wars” battle in the kitchen. On this day, Gagnon was calling voters in Nevada, a critical state where conservatives are chasing what would be their biggest prize: the defeat of Senate Majority Leader HarryM. Reid (D). After asking people to vote for


Angle, Gagnon recited the talking points on her screen: “Sharron Angle is a fiscal conservative and will oppose wasteful government spending bailouts and the grow- ing national debt.Harry Reid has been the cause of government overreach, costly bailouts and the out-of-control spending for too long. Please vote Sharron Angle for Senate on November 2nd.” It was Monday afternoon, so


Gagnon was mostly leaving mes- sages for voters who weren’t home. Occasionally she reached a live person. Some hung up on her, some were outright hostile, but most simply gave anoncommittal “thank you.” Gagnon is among three or four


dozen volunteers in Oregon who call around the country for FreedomWorks.TheWashington- based libertarian organization has spent millions of dollars this year to help local tea party groups form and to coordinate their po- litical activity. National organizers say these


calls are especially critical in the more than half a dozen Senate races that hang in the balance. Polls show all of these contests to be neck and neck, meaning the final push for votes could sway the results and determine which party controls the chamber. But one of the quirks of the tea


party is that many supporters don’t like being told what to do, and some have balked at aban- doning local races just because a national organizer tells them that a candidate in another state has a better chance of winning. In Oregon, part of the argu-


ment for making calls on behalf of Dino Rossi inWashington state or John Raese inWest Virginia is that Oregon Republican Jim Huffman, who is trying to unseat Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, is widely predicted to come well short on Nov. 2. But after come-from-nowhere


victories in Massachusetts, Dela- ware and elsewhere this year, it can be hard to convince tea par- tiers that any race is out of reach. “Now, I understand the need to


pull in resources, but you know, Nevada is bigger than Oregon,” said Jack Blevins of Beaverton, who is active with the Oregon 912


Just swipe your debit card, get cash from the ATM, pay bills online or write checks. Redeem rewards for cash, travel or merchandise. Why not earn rewards for the things you do already?


Project. “It gripes me that they kind of gave up onHuffman.” Russ Walker, the western re-


gional director for Freedom- Works, was all too aware of that sentiment as he gently nudged the local coordinators during a conference call last week. He didn’t ask them to stop


working for Huffman — or for Chris Dudley, the Republican candidate for Oregon governor who is running neck and neck with Democrat John Kitzhaber.


Instead, Walker began the call


by asking everyone how FreedomWorks can help them. Sounding a little like an auction- eer, he promised 1,500 Huffman yard signs here and 2,000 door hangers there. “Randi and Heather and then


Jack: How many more do you need for Southern Oregon?” “I could go for another 2,000,” responded one. “Okay, and Jodi?” Walker asked. “How many did we say we


were going to send you?” Only then didWalker move on


towhathewasreally after: asking coordinators to sign up as many volunteers as possible to make calls to other states.


‘We’ve got 14 days left’ One of those volunteers, Kris-


tina Ribali, 37, of McMinnville, Ore., was hard at work this week trying to sway voters. “Hello, may I speak to Patri- cia?” asked Ribali, who founded,


with her husband, the Yamhill County 912 Project. Her house echoed with the repetition of the scripts from which she read: “Hi, is this Dixie?” “Hi, this is a message for Rich-


ard.” “Hi, is this Sandra?” “Hi, is this Anne? Ribali worked away in her


upstairs study, stopping occa- sionally to check on her two children, Reagan, 7, and Nick, 12, who played in the living room


below. “Hey, whose socks are on the


table?” she askednoone in partic- ular — and then she marched back up the stairs to her comput- er.


“I have only so many hours in


the day,” Ribali said. “But look, we’ve got 14 days left. I’mgoing to do what I can do to push these last races over the finish line.” So she picked up her telephone


and dialed another number. gardnera@washpost.com


A9


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