Gallagher Begins Ground Game in GOP Gubernatorial Primary

Tom Gallagher approached Robb Mercado in Valrico, Fla. as he sat outside his house reading the newspaper Saturday and soon was involved in a long discussion about problems with the homeowners insurance market, education and other topics.

Just the day before, Mercado was undecided on whether he would support Gallagher, the state’s chief financial officer, or Attorney General Charlie Crist in the Republican gubernatorial primary next September. By the end of the conversation, he not only assured Gallagher he would support him, but also gave the candidate his telephone numbers and e-mail addresses and offered to volunteer.

It’s that type of personal voter contact that Gallagher is counting on to win the primary. He’s setting up a grass roots organization modeled after the one President Bush used in 2004 to comfortably carry Florida over Sen. John Kerry.

“What makes a difference in a campaign is personal contact to the voters and letting them know the importance of the election and the importance of who gets elected,” Gallagher told volunteers at his Hillsborough County headquarters before heading here to knock on doors. “The key to this is to start out early.”

Gallagher launched the active part of his ground game Saturday, with an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 volunteers going door-to-door in 10 counties and making calls in the other 57. The goal is for volunteers to knock on 10 doors a day for 10 days and ask for votes, survey people on issues important to them and recruit more volunteers.

The ground game will have to be important. Crist has about $2.5 million more in his campaign account than Gallagher and has led in some polls. But the Gallagher campaign believes it will have a stronger volunteer base.

“They get motivated not because of somebody is ahead in the poll and not because they have more money, they get motivated because of the issues that are important to them, they get motivated because they are comfortable with and excited about a candidate that’s going to make a difference,” Gallagher said.

Of course, the Crist campaign is also planning its grass roots organization and already has thousands of volunteers to get its message out. The campaign has also repeatedly pointed to polls and fundraising as signs of strong support.

“Maybe the fresh air will help our opponents see the facts of this race a little more clearly,” Crist spokeswoman Vivian Myrtetus said.
Democrats running for governor include state Sen. Rod Smith and U.S. Rep. Jim Davis. Gov. Jeb Bush can’t seek re-election because of term limits.

Gallagher campaign manager Brett Doster was responsible for organizing the same ground game in Florida for President Bush, and he credits the strategy with helping Bush increase his victory margin to 380,000 votes compared to the 537 votes that earned him Florida over Al Gore in 2000.

“In 2000 we learned that if you don’t have a major grass roots efforts, you might only win by 537 votes,” Gallagher told volunteers.

Part of the reason for the voter reachout more than four months ahead of the election is to test the strategy, said Doster. That’s why the campaign has invested $100,000 to pinpoint where Republicans who vote in primaries are. The choice of which door to knock on is not random.

“This is definitely a very targeted, laser focused effort that has been proven, as we did in 2004, to maximize results,” Doster said.
And Gallagher said most of the voters aren’t firmly behind either of the candidates.

“We know that at the most 18 percent of the Republicans who are going to vote have a hard position on where they’re at, so everybody’s up for grabs at this point. We want to talk to as many people as we can,” Gallagher said.

And Mercado proved that personal contact is important.

“I was sitting on the fence before I met Tom,” said Mercado, who works as a mortgage consultant. “He’s made himself accessible and he’s not afraid to handle the issues.”

Topics Florida A.J. Gallagher Politics