Dems Facing Proven GOP Turnout Machine

House Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi,, D-Calif., speaks at a news conference in Portland, Ore. Thursday, Oct. 12, 2006. Pelosi is stumping for Oregon's Democratic congressional candidates. Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., and Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore.,are seen in the background. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) (Rick Bowmer - AP)

WASHINGTON -- In the battle for control of Congress, Democrats hope enthusiasm trumps Republican efficiency.

Otherwise, they concede, they will have problems on Nov. 7 as a party still struggling to catch up with the GOP's ability to turn voters out of seeming thin air.

"Makes me green with envy," says Ellen Malcolm, the president of EMILY's List, which backs female candidates who support abortion rights. She was speaking of the Republican Party program that relies on reams of polling data, publicly available information and consumer choice records to identify likely GOP voters in even the most Democratic precincts.

Republicans most recently put their prowess on display in California, where they turned out enough conservatives in June to elect Brian Bilbray to the House, and a few months later in Rhode Island, where they motivated moderates and independents to vote for Sen. Lincoln Chafee in a primary.

Democrats hope technology is not the deciding factor in the upcoming election that will determine the majority party in the House and Senate. Democrats need to gain 15 seats in the House and six in the Senate to knock Republicans from power.

"They don't have some secret stash of voters," says Karin Johanson, executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

"If the Republicans are less enthused, the independents are breaking our way, and the Democratic base is highly enthused, then we're in very good shape," she said.

For now, at least, polls indicate Democrats have momentum on their side.

Likely voters say they have a low opinion of Congress and favor Democrats over Republicans to control the House and Senate. These voters also say they trust Democrats more than Republicans to handle the economy and the situation in Iraq, although it is unclear whether that sentiment will carry over to Election Day.

An Associated Press-Ipsos survey found 47 percent of Democrats are angry at the GOP-controlled Congress, while only 15 percent of Republicans are enthusiastic about their congressional leadership. An AP-Pew poll found that anger is driving Democrats to vote.

Getting people to vote is even more of a challenge in a midterm election year. Voting levels drop compared with presidential election years. In 2000, 59.5 percent of people in the U.S. age 18 or older voted. That fell to 46.1 percent in 2002, then climbed to 63.8 percent in 2004, a presidential election year.

As recently as the 1990s, the Democratic Party consistently won the turnout battle, relying on aggressive work by precinct captains and labor leaders in urban areas home to Democratic base voters.