Ehrlich, O'Malley Focus on Turnout As Election Nears

"You saw in 2004 what it can do," Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) says of George Bush's successful turnout effort. (Chris Gardner - AP)

The hallways were decorated with the green and white of Martin O'Malley's campaign, but more important was what was happening inside the Prince George's County ballroom: thunderous applause from a thousand supporters, most of them African American women.

The Baltimore mayor converted the rostrum into a pulpit.

"Turn to your neighbor and say, 'There's a lot of power in this room,' " O'Malley preached.

" There's a lot of power in this room ," the women cried out.

Four years ago, Democrats headed into the final stretch of a heated governor's race without much of a message to get their supporters to the polls, and there was a pointed lack of enthusiasm from black voters, the party's most loyal supporters. The Democrats got clobbered.

"We didn't really do our job in '02, and we saw what happened," said Donna Edwards, a Democratic Party activist and former congressional candidate who attended the rally.

Democrats are determined to make this year different, said Edwards and others supporting O'Malley's bid to retake the governor's office from Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. This time, both Ehrlich and O'Malley have elaborate plans, in the works for more than a year, to maximize turnout that are the centerpiece of a two-week sprint to Election Day.

For O'Malley, the focus is on what campaign manager Josh White calls "drop-off voters," those who turn out when presidential candidates are on the ballot but stay home in intervening years.

"We're, in a sense, trying to expand our base," White said. "These are people who need a push out the door. But once they get there, we know they'll be with us."

For Republicans, the task is more complicated. Because Democrats hold a nearly 2 to 1 edge on voter rolls, Ehrlich can't afford to merely try to drive more people to the polls. He needs to motivate his supporters to show up Nov. 7 while doing nothing to energize those backing his opponent.

To accomplish this, his aides said they have been brewing their own turnout recipe -- one that depends on the science of "microtargeting" and on many of the same formulas that helped propel George W. Bush to victory in 2004. Information about every potential Ehrlich voter, down to the magazines they read and the church they attend, will drive the strategy for lighting a spark under them on Election Day.

"Every race is about turnout, but this one especially so for Ehrlich," said one of the governor's top aides, who discussed internal campaign strategy on the condition that he not be named. "Last time, we won partly because I think we had a superior air game -- television ads, radio ads, direct mail. This time, in my opinion, we win by having a better ground game."