Okay. So in a recent post I raised, through anecdote, the issue of the strength the respective ground games of the Clinton and Sanders campaigns. I gave points to the Clinton campaign for having the polish and organization to return my offer to volunteer, while I heard nothing back after multiple offers to help in Bernie’s effort.
Anecdotal conclusions are, of course, unreliable. The fact is there can be other reasons, besides lack of discipline and communication polish, that a campaign fails to get back to potential volunteers, particularly in the last week of the campaign. One of those could be that they are simply overwhelmed with people wanting to volunteer.
After three days on the doors for Bernie, I’d say there’s a pretty good chance that was a major factor in the lack of a response to me. Here are some more data points regarding what the Sanders campaign has put together here.
First, they have had 40 paid canvassers on the ground across the state for several weeks. (Hillary has not.) Most of these are experienced canvassers from groups like VPIRG. These folks canvass for a living. I’m told they’ve made 350,000 door knocks here in New Hampshire. (A knock is an attempt to have a conversation with a voter at the door.) More importantly the campaign has enough volunteers mobilized to do 13,000 volunteer shifts for its GOTV effort. That’s massive.
The polls have Bernie up by a bunch. +14.1 at pollster.com, 13.2 at RCP and 14.5 at 538. A snow storm is hitting the state with the heaviest fall coming in the south along the Massachusetts line where Hillary’s strongest support lies. And Bill Clinton is off the leash and spewing venom at the crusty white-haired Vermont Senator.
All of this should spell a pretty good drubbing for Hillary in New Hampshire. Bernie should win by 10 or more and it could go higher, depending on how the chips (and snow) fall tomorrow. (538 projects a +17.3% as the likeliest outcome.)To legitimately claim a win, Hillary would have to be north of 47.5-48. That seems highly unlikely at this point.