I am not close to the day to day inner workings of the Republican apparat of late but as John Q Citizen who gets around local Iowa quite a bit I am seeing more Democrat yard signs than Republican.
True, the frequency for Democrats is in Democrat precincts but the Republican precinct are comparatively scant. In full disclosure I do not have my full complement out yet but I am not on a highly trafficked street. However I have had an open-seat race yard sign out for some time as I began seeing all the Democrat signs.
One Republican exception has been Mike Vondran running for the Iowa House. Also, John Maxwell running for County Supervisor has done well in the non-urban area of the county.
Is there some ‘strategy” of Labor Day forward in that voting (by mail) starts a little later now? It is a pretty weak momentum strategy given that all the printing should be done and most locations found by now. Door knocking would go much better with such visibility and fund-raising momentum would be enhanced. Is this over-confidence or just more selective emphasis than I am seeing? Neither are worthy of what is at stake.
Does the Republican apparat – (campaign people) not realize this is a Democrat machine county but one where Republicans can win? I really think the current visible effort is rather pathetic. I would not be critical if I saw local generic Republican efforts breaking through exposing and condemning the Democrats for what they support. It is game time and the Republicans have not taken the field (and with the free rides they are giving some Democrats they will be participating with seriously less than full compliment).
