ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 7, 1996 TAG: 9611070057
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DO DEMOCRATS buy votes on Election Day? Here's a ground-level look at the party's get-out-the-vote operation.
The early-morning scene at Grace Episcopal Church did not look like a political rally.
Norfolk State University students slumped in metal chairs as they waited to be assigned in groups of six to vans parked outside.
Khalil Munir, a Democratic Party organizer, explained that they would be knocking on doors in 40 predominantly black neighborhoods in Hampton Roads, "flushing" every possible voter to the polls.
"If we get out the African-American vote today, there is a good chance you will have a new United States senator," Khalil said.
The NSU students did not clap or cheer at the prospect of an upset by Democrat Mark Warner. For many, this was no labor of love. They had risen before sunrise for the chance to earn $60, enough to keep them in pizza for a while.
These flushers received some of the "walking-around money" that the Virginia Democratic Party puts on the streets each Election Day.
The money is legal, but difficult to trace because transactions are in cash. Critics say street money is open to abuse, giving rise to the perception that Democrats are buying votes and endorsements from blacks.
Democrats say they target black neighborhoods because those precincts are fertile ground; traditionally, nearly every person who shows up at the polls will pull the lever for Democratic candidates.
For instance, Tuesday the Eureka Park precinct in Northwest Roanoke gave Bill Clinton a lopsided majority of 95 percent.
Democrats defend street money as payment for services rendered on Election Day.
"It is tradition. When I got into electoral politics, I was taken aside and told there were certain customs," said Petersburg Del. Jay DeBoer, one of few white lawmakers who represent black-majority districts.
The money ends up in the pockets of blacks who hand out sample ballots, answer phones, haul people to the polls and flush people out of their homes. In addition, some pastors ask for a "donation" before allowing a Democratic candidate to address their congregations on the last Sunday of the campaign.
Former Gov. Douglas Wilder defended street money, describing it as a method for blacks to share in the millions of dollars spent on elections each year in Virginia.
Wilder noted almost all campaigns have spending benefits - media consultants, pollsters, press secretaries and campaign managers - almost all of whom are white.
"Why don't they volunteer?" he asked. "If you look at the bulk of money spent in campaigns, the money that goes for the [black] vote that turns out, it's pennies."
Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor, confirmed that Democrats spent several hundred thousand dollars mobilizing blacks across the state during his election in 1989.
Analysts say street money helped make the difference for Wilder, who won by a mere 6,741 votes out of nearly 1.8 million cast.
The Democratic Party not only works neighborhoods in Roanoke, Richmond and Tidewater cities, but also reaches out to smaller pockets of black voters in such places as Martinsville and Bedford.
"We spend as much on getting out the vote in Virginia as they do in big states like Pennsylvania," said Louise Ware, a longtime activist from Lynchburg.
Chris LaCivita, executive director of the Virginia Republican Party, said he considered it "unethical" to pay for services that political volunteers can perform.
"I've had enough people out there who can't stand Bill Clinton that I don't have to pay people to work the polls," LaCivita said. "We tapped into people's emotions. The Democrats just tapped into their wallets."
Still, LaCivita admitted he admired the Democrats' efficiency Tuesday as he watched flushers move through Richmond neighborhoods.
"I wish we could do what they do," he said. "But our vote is out in the suburbs, all spread out."
In Hampton Roads, Democrats planned their get-out-the-vote effort with military precision.
They rented 40 minivans, equipped them with loudspeakers and stocked them with potato chips and sodas. The leaders put drivers and flushers through a dry run last Saturday, sending them into neighborhoods in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Suffolk and Portsmouth.
Up close, flushing is hardly the streamlined operation that Republicans fear.
In Portsmouth, Alicia Smith knocked on doors for more than 30 minutes Tuesday morning without meeting a single voter. She hung a colorful flier on each door, featuring pleas to vote from Aretha Franklin, Jesse Jackson and Spike Lee.
"Everybody's at work," sighed Smith, an 18-year-old senior at Woodrow Wilson High School.
Minutes later, she made her first contact when an elderly man cracked his door and peered out to see what she wanted.
"Hi, I'm Alicia for the Democratic Party," she chirped. "I'm just reminding people to get out and vote today."
"All right," he said, reaching for one of her fliers.
She affixed a fluorescent sticker to his door, telling other flushers there was no need to return.
But she forgot to run through the flusher's script: Are there any other registered voters in the house? Does anyone need a ride to the polls? Please don't forget to "mark" your ballot for Mark Warner.
Larry Framme, a Richmond lawyer and former chairman of the state Democratic Party, said flushing's effectiveness can be overrated.
"It's a feel-good thing," Framme said. "People expect to see poll workers. They expect to see flushers. But it's a rare election when [get-out-the-vote] efforts make a difference. The problem is you never know what election it will be, so you do it every time."
Democrats fell short of sending Mark Warner to the U.S. Senate. But the street money helped ensure a solid black vote.
Turnout at four black precincts in Norfolk - Berkley, Hunton YMCA, Park Place and Young Park - remained at the same level as four years ago, even though voter turnout citywide fell from 78 percent to 72 percent.
After the polls closed, the vans returned to Grace Episcopal Church so the flushers could get paid.
A deputy sheriff carried a box containing envelopes filled with cash. Before handing out the money, Democratic staffers checked to make sure every flusher had given his or her Social Security number, presumably for tax purposes.
LENGTH: Long : 125 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: VICKI CRONIS/Landmark News Service. Cherie Ware, anby CNB18-year-old Norfolk State University student, shares Democratic
literature with Park Place area residents in Norfolk, where she and
other students went door to door urging people to get out and vote
Democratic. color.