Busy Signals at an Ohio Last-Chance Call Center

McCain Volunteer Dials for Voters Right Up to the End

PARMA, Ohio, Nov. 4 -- The walls are pale gray. The carpeting is Dilbert drab. Insulation seeps from a collapsed corner of the drop ceiling. So, okay: If you came to find the metaphorical epicenter of a fading Midwestern city, it's here in the strip-mall office that serves as the local command post for the McCain-Palin ground war.

But today the sun bathed this industrial community south of Cleveland with improbable warmth. And here comes Heather Tenney, the self-described "mom of the office," her blond-brown ponytail bouncing as she sweeps past other volunteers hammering out calls to get out the vote. When her own pink cellphone rings, she answers: "Parma Victory Center."

Tenney, 29, stops to grab a cruller from the Dunkin' Donuts bag on the desk of some college Republicans from George Washington University, deployed here by the national party.

"There's nobody home," a young man sighs.

She shakes her pastry at him: "Keep calling."

Throughout the campaign the GOP faithful were downcast -- "realistic" was the preferred euphemism -- about making much of a dent for their candidates in economically battered, largely Democratic Cuyahoga County. Ohio as a whole might yet deliver for McCain, and possibly Parma, although it's smack in the middle of ultra-liberal Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich's district.

Tenney arrived on the first night the phone bank opened, in late July, and now is known as the volunteer who came and never left. "I don't actually sleep here," she demurs. "I do go home."

Working every day, sometimes for 12 hours, she has placed thousands of calls, reading from GOP-approved scripts like the one in front of her now, on this last day to make a difference:

"Hello, my name is Heather and I'm a volunteer and fellow Ohioan calling on behalf of the Ohio Republican Party. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and their liberal allies in Congress cannot wait to start taxing and spending the dollars of hard-working Ohioans. They have a radical left-wing redistribution of wealth plan that will move this country towards socialism. To combat their left-wing agenda, we need strong leadership in Washington and Columbus. . . ."

On one call she reaches a noncommittal woman named Grace, who may not vote at all. "Consider casting a ballot," Tenney cajoles. "We'd really appreciate it."

The Republican ticket embodies her positions: strong on national defense, against big government and for lower taxes, even for huge corporations like Exxon Mobil. "I don't have a problem with companies making a profit," she says. "The biggest earners are the biggest employers. It doesn't seem right to me to tax at a higher rate the very people who are hiring people and making sure people work."

Her husband, Robert, 33, a home remodeler, is unemployed. He's in the office, too, wearing a "Veterans for McCain" cap, working the phones.