McCain's Paid Canvassers in Florida
I just came across this youtube video at the Veracifier channel:
The McCain Campaign may not want you to see this
Following the link there, I found the story at The UpTake:
Then a quick search turned up this article at the Washington Post:
The McCain Campaign may not want you to see this
Following the link there, I found the story at The UpTake:
By Sam Mayfield
If there's one thing both the McCain and Obama campaigns agree on it's that the election will be close in Florida. The McCain campaign says it has more volunteers than the Democrats and that ultimately gives them the edge. McCain's Central Florida Campaign Manger says ACORN and the Democrats have to rely on paid workers.
However, the McCain campaign is hiring paid workers who sometimes also call themselves volunteers. The UpTake's Sam Mayfield talked to a few of them... and that's when one McCain campaign worker decided you shouldn't see what is going on and threatened to have her arrested.
Then a quick search turned up this article at the Washington Post:
McCain Hiring Paid Canvassers in Florida
By Alec MacGillis
Republicans worried about John McCain's prospects have wondered how his campaign has been spending its not-insignificant pile of money, given that McCain is being heavily outspent on the air in swing states and has invested far less in field offices and organizers than has Barack Obama. Well, here's one place at least some money is going: In Florida, McCain is now offering to pay people to do door-to-door canvassing for the campaign.
An e-mail went out over the weekend from the Republican Party in Hillsborough County, which encompasses the vote-rich Tampa area, inviting supporters to go door-to-door for the campaign for $12 per hour. "Work as many shifts per week as you want," it said. "No experience necessary, but a strong desire to make a difference and a strong work ethic are important. So is reliable transportation."
McCain's reliance on paid canvassers is another indication of the advantage Obama holds going into the final weeks of the campaign, thanks to his formidable ground organization.
...
Brian Lothrop, who has been hired by the Republican Party to oversee the canvassing efforts in one quadrant of Hillsborough County, said the party was seeking to hire about 30 canvassers for each of the county's four quadrants and that he'd already hired 15-20 after the e-mail went out to local Republican clubs and Young Republicans. He said it was not unusual for the party to hire canvassers in the final weeks of a campaign. The party has had volunteers doing "precinct walks" over the past few weeks to distribute campaign door hangers, he said, with nearly 20 turning out on Saturday to walk one precinct in his area.
But the campaign decided that it made more sense to pay canvassers for the task of making sure voters who want absentee ballots obtain them and send them in. That work entails four-hour shifts, instead of the two hour shifts that volunteers commit to, and closely following state rules on absentee ballots, he said. The party decided that was better entrusted to paid workers with that project.
"The compensation helps to make sure they're going to be there for a full four hour shift and able to handle the accountability measures we have, measuring the effectiveness of our effort," Lothrop said. "Those are the reasons we know that we're going to have to shift to a paid effort."
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