Republicans hoping to excite the base
With only 31 days remaining before the general election, Chadds Ford Republicans held their annual meeting with one foremost thought in mind: Get out the vote.
“We want to get people excited to work for the party in November,” said Chadds Ford GOP leader Mary Kot. “We want to [help] win Pennsylvania for Romney.”
Part of that process, she said, was to educate voters on all the statewide Republican candidates.
Several dozen local Republicans met at McKenzies on Oct. 6 to hear from the likes of Andy Reilly, former Delaware County Council member and current chairman of the county Republican Party. Also speaking were Valerie Dowling, from the Romney campaign and state Rep. Stephen Barrar, who is running unopposed for re-election in the 160th Legislative District.
Dowling, the Pennsylvania Coalition’s director for the Romney team, said she was gratified to see so many Republicans out at an event on a Saturday morning. The goal, she said, is to get the base and the new voters out to the polls.
“We’re going to deliver [Pennsylvania’s] 20 electoral votes for Gov. Romney and Congressman Ryan, but we need your help to do that,” she said. “Everyone we talk to will know that Pennsylvania is in play and that we’re not just going to cede this election to the president.”
Reilly said local Republicans must to push hard to get people to the polls on Nov. 6.
“We need to get a higher turnout in western Delaware County,” Reilly said.
He cited the first debate between President Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as the first chance people had been able to see Romney without the filter of the press.
“You saw the result. We need to get the message out. Now it’s time to get a big vote out of Chadds Ford because the Obama forces will be working very hard,” Reilly said.
Reilly also said the Democrats were being aggressive in registering people to vote, people who have just moved into their respective voting districts. In some cases, he said, the people weren’t citizens.
While saying the Republican registration is higher than that of the Democrats in the county, Delaware County is still a “battleground,” and that he and other Republican leaders are looking for ways to increase Republican turnout at the polls.
He added that the entire Republican ticket was “spectacular.”
Reilly specifically praised state Sen. Dominic Pileggi, who’s running for re-election. Reilly said it was Pileggi who slowed down what Reilly called, extreme spending by former Gov. Ed Rendell.
Also speaking was Betsy Grosskopf who has been working the phone banks in Springfield for Romney. She told the crowd of party loyalists that she campaigns even while buying gasoline.
She always pays cash, she said, and she goes to pay she says loud enough for everyone in earshot to hear, ”Forty dollars for gas? I’m voting for Romney.”
Paul Koch, the Republican committeeman for the Northeast voting precinct in Chadds Ford, urged the crowd to talk to their friends and neighbors to get them to vote.
“We need to get the right folks in office. Knock on doors, talk to your friends to get not only Romney elected, but all the Republicans on the ticket,” said Koch.
He added that winning the presidency, but not taking control of both the House and Senate would be “one step forward, one step back.”
In addition to Romney, Pileggi and Barrar, Republicans on the statewide ballot include Tom Smith for U.S. Senate, David Freed for attorney general, John Maher for auditor general and Diana Irey Vaughn for treasurer.
Rob Porter, chairman of the township Democratic Party, said in a telephone interview that his party had no plans for any public event before the election.
About Rich Schwartzman
Rich Schwartzman has been reporting on events in the greater Chadds Ford area since September 2001 when he became the founding editor of The Chadds Ford Post. In April 2009 he became managing editor of ChaddsFordLive. He is also an award-winning photographer.
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