Turnout key in governor's race

Both parties are focusing on get-out-the vote efforts.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- This fall's election for governor could ride on whose side gets more voters to the polls.
Democrat Ted Strickland and Republican Kenneth Blackwell will be able to count on their parties' get-out-the-vote teams networks. However, both candidates should attract help from the outside as well.
Liberal groups such as MoveOn.org and conservative organizations such as the Rev. Rod Parsley's Center for Moral Clarity played a key role in getting voters to the polls in 2004. Such groups are active again this year, although not in such great numbers as two years ago, when Ohio was the key state in the presidential election.
"This fall will be a mini-version of 2004. These groups have many states they are focusing on this year," said Mark Weaver, a Republican campaign consultant.
It's already had an effect. Blackwell's organization had a big hand in his 12-point victory over Jim Petro in last week's primary.
Conservative coalition
Blackwell's coalition of religious-right and other conservatives turned out while more moderate Republicans likely stayed home. The same voters who came out for Blackwell also helped to defeat Republican Treasurer Jennette Bradley, an abortion-rights supporter who once voted to grant benefits to public employees' partners, including gays.
"I think he did an excellent job. Ken Blackwell understands coalition building. That provides you a lot of troops," Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett said.
Blackwell was a leader of the 2004 effort to amend the Ohio Constitution to ban gay marriages. The same coalition built for that vote was instrumental in electing President Bush to a second term. His 118,000-vote victory in Ohio gave him the 20 electoral votes he needed to return to the White House. Conversely, organized labor's turnout machine and the work of outside groups that targeted Bush made Democrat John Kerry's loss narrow. Some of those groups, and especially the unions, will be working for Strickland's election.
Outlook for big turnout
Turnout in the 2004 election was an extraordinary 72 percent of eligible voters. In 1998, the last time the governor's seat was open, turnout was about 50 percent.
That could increase this year if voters are asked to decide a pair of ballot issues: whether to increase Ohio's minimum wage to $6.75 an hour and placing slot machines in Ohio's racetracks and other locations in Cleveland.
The unions will campaign hard for the minimum-wage increase, but the gambling issue could be a wash. Strickland and Blackwell oppose it, although Blackwell's supporters are more passionate about their opposition.
Blackwell also will have an advantage he didn't have in the primary: the Republicans' so-called 72-hour program, designed to move voters in the last days of the campaign. Since the state party made no endorsement in the primary, the motivators left Blackwell and Petro alone.
The program, admittedly copied from the unions' get-out-the-vote battle plan, uses Republican Party volunteers to make phone calls, knock on doors and arrange transportation.
"We tested our ground game beginning in 2002. We really got a good test on it in '04 and '05. I'm very confident in our get-out-the-vote efforts," Bennett said.
The 2004 lesson was not lost on Democrats or labor. This year, labor will be working exclusively with Ohio volunteers and target only union households. AFL-CIO Ohio President William Burga said that two years ago, a lot of manpower and time were lost duplicating what other groups had done.