send to a friend | print | comment

Rothfus makes a volunteer-fueled ground blitz

BEAVER FALLS—As he continues to raise money toward his bid for a third term this fall, Congressman Jason Altmire (D-4) has kept a relatively low profile, with public events few and far between. So Republican opponent Keith Rothfus is seizing on the opportunity to undertake something of a blitz of on-the-ground, retail campaigning, as the conservative insurgent continues to rely heavily on volunteers for his underdog race against Altmire.

That strategy—heavily reliant on a lean campaign replete with volunteers—was on display during a recent Saturday here, when Rothfus was canvassing and hitting almost two dozen homes himself in this town 31 miles from Pittsburgh. The door-to-door was one of four campaign events Rothfus held that day. The energetic campaign has made for a striking contrast with Altmire’s, which is still not seriously engaging political reporters and, other than recently asking supporters to host house parties, has done little in public. The extent of Altmire’s messaging campaign against Rothfus has been to declare, without mentioning him by name, that Rothfus is an “extremist” candidate.

“We had to run our campaign early,” Rothfus campaign manager Stephanie said. “We’ve been out walking and calling people since the beginning of July. We’re ramping up, getting more people out there, more people calling. [Altmire] may be doing his fundraising, but I haven’t seen him out on the campaign trail the way Keith is.”

Altmire’s campaign declined to comment for this article. Of the opposition’s tack, Miller said: “I don’t know that you can use that strategy in a swing district like this.”

On this recent Saturday of canvassing, Rothfus talked about his opposition to increased government spending and the newly-enacted health care law to anyone who answered their doors. He referred to his children as “Generation Debt” for the crushing burden he said they would inherit.

David Lozier, a Rothfus volunteer, said the campaign on this day was targeting Beaver County voters who are independent or moderate-leaning members of either party that might be sold on Rothfus. Democrats who consistently vote in their party primaries are seen as less likely to swing toward the conservative candidate. A more extensive phone bank is being set up to more extensively target the ones who could be up for grabs.

“A lot of people around here vote Democrat just because they always have,” he said.

Despite the fact that about half the doors went unanswered on this particular day, the energy from Rothfus was palpable.

“We need to stop spending our kids’ and our grand-kids’ money,” he said repeatedly.

August 5, 2010 at 7:59 am

--Michael Macagnone

Tags: Jason Altmire, Keith Rothfus, PA-4

comments

comments [5] | post a comment