Running voters ragged in the Hawkeye State

[T_i_B]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-965334,00.html

WHEN the telephone rings, Dick Haws looks haunted. When the post thuds on to his porch each afternoon — a slew of campaign leaflets and attack ads — he shudders.

When there is a knock at the door he dreads the sight of another volunteer telling him that Howard Dean or Dick Gephardt or John Edwards or John Kerry is the only man who can defeat George Bush.

Mr Haws, a registered Democrat, has lived in Iowa for more than 20 years. He has seen the quadrennial invasion of presidential candidates of this flat midwestern expanse of corn fields and pig farms five times before. But he has never endured such an intense, aggressive and relentless bombardment as this.

“It’s got the stage where I’m not answering the phone anymore,” Mr Haws said yesterday. “And the television ads. I’ve watched thousands — thousands! — in this campaign. We get brochures every day. I don’t even open the mail anymore. We’re almost punchdrunk. I would say it’s a tenfold increase on four years ago. It just shows how high the stakes are in Iowa this year. We can hardly take any more.”

[ShaneGR]

1. Something a certain campaign missed

You can have 10 million volunteers in a state, but will the undecideds be swayed by 3 or 5 calls from one campaign or 50 calls from the "leading" campaign.

Overkill is annoying to a lot of people, and turns them off to support. When does a campaign become harrassmment? On a lighter note, I have no pity for these Iowans, they complain about being bombarded... and then fight for the right to be some sort of "Devine voters," choosing before everyone else.