Davis, Simon Hustle Votes 5 Days Ahead of Election

With a spare five days to go, the focus of the governor’s race turned Thursday to the gritty work of getting out the vote, as the campaigns of Gray Davis and Bill Simon Jr. launched their final push to propel supporters to the polls.

The governor dropped by Democratic field offices in Compton and Long Beach, where he urged people to turn out Tuesday, and even called a few voters himself.

Republican Simon campaigned in Santa Monica with former congressman and GOP veteran Jack Kemp and then moved on to his Pacific Palisades headquarters, where he and his wife tried to whip up enthusiasm among campaign volunteers.

While the candidates were supplying the rhetoric, the manpower was being deployed by a host of organizations, both allied and separate from the campaigns, all working to benefit the governor’s race and a variety of other contests and issues that voters will decide on Tuesday.

The traditional pushing and prodding of voters in the final hours before election day -- known as GOTV, for get out the vote -- is taking on even greater importance this year, with turnout expected to sink to near-record lows.

Although a Times poll published Tuesday showed Davis with a solid lead over Simon, backers of both candidates say the lack of enthusiasm for either man could keep voters at home and change the dynamics of the election.

“There is still a chance the race could be close, if people don’t see the value of turning out,” said Art Pulaski, head of the California Labor Federation, which directs one of the largest GOTV efforts in the state.

David Roth, who is directing the Simon campaign in Solano County, added: “This whole election will be about turnout.”

California voters can expect to be barraged with GOTV appeals right up until election day. More than a million Republicans will be getting taped phone messages from President Bush. An even greater number of Democrats will get recorded calls from former President Clinton. Thousands of glossy campaign mailers are flooding into mailboxes.

And on Tuesday, many residents will receive a knock on the door and an offer of a ride to their polling place.

Davis told supporters Thursday in Long Beach that “polls don’t vote; people vote.”

The governor asked the crowd of 150 -- most of them union members and students -- gathered in the campaign field office to volunteer a few hours of their time before election day, offering in exchange to pose for a photo with them.

“Everyone says no one is going to vote, and we have to prove them wrong,” the governor said.

Up the coast, Simon and his wife, Cindy, visited his campaign office in Pacific Palisades. “What we need to be sure to do from this moment on, really, all of us here ... is get out the vote,” Cindy Simon told two dozen supporters and friends.

“It’s going to be such a close election,” she said. “I mean, it’s going to be this close. It’s like Indiana basketball -- right down to the wire.”

Faced with an electorate uninspired by the two men at the top of the major party tickets, GOTV organizers have been forced to come up with other reasons for voters to turn out. Democrats warn supporters of the potential return of a Republican governor, like Davis’ predecessor Pete Wilson, and cite Florida’s tight 2000 election, which decided the presidential race. Republicans, meanwhile, appeal to frustration with the current governor.

Bolstered by labor union support, Democrats have traditionally enjoyed an advantage in getting out the vote in California. The United Farm Workers is targeting 125,000 families with occasional or newly registered voters in three heavily Latino areas: the Coachella Valley, Salinas and the southern San Joaquin Valley.

Beginning this weekend, the UFW -- ostensibly nonpartisan, although the union has strong Democratic Party ties -- will commit 1,300 activists working 12-hour shifts to motivate registered voters to cast their ballots, said union spokesman Marc Grosman.

The California Labor Federation -- which represents about 2 million people -- is using traditional tactics such as phone banks and precinct-walking to reach voters. But the federation has also emphasized what it calls work-site programs, in which shop stewards talk to union members during breaks about where the candidates stand on issues such as overtime pay and paid family leave.

“I think people are starting to believe that Simon has shot himself in the foot enough times that there’s not an urgency to the moment,” the federation’s Pulaski said. “ ... We have to remind people what elections are about.”

The state Democratic Party has its own coordinated $5-million GOTV effort for its slate, and the Davis campaign is spending an additional $4 million on mailers and phone banks. The thrust of their attention is voters who don’t usually go to the polls.

“In a low-turnout situation, it’s going to be the performance of these occasional voters that counts,” said Larry Grisolano, Davis’ campaign director.

In East Los Angeles -- at one of 22 Democrat-coordinated campaign offices around the state -- field organizers have made those voters their highest priority. Precincts with few regular voters are marked in red on a wall map to indicate their importance. Those voters were contacted in September and have been contacted again many times since. The message: Democrats are better on health care and education.

“If someone says, ‘We’re not excited about Davis,’ we say, ‘Well, Bill Simon is not going to be where you are on those issues,’ ” said field director Celine Cordero, 26. Behind her, a red sign declared: “Every Vote Counts -- Florida Never Again.”

On Wednesday night, she and several other young field organizers directed high school students working the phones, lobbying voters in Spanish and English.

“There’s not going to be any excuse not to vote,” said organizer Cameron Calderon, 19.

While Democrats are using techniques refined by years of GOTV campaigns, Republicans -- who historically have relied more on advertising than fieldwork -- are now trying to match those efforts.

“It would be a lie to say they haven’t beaten us on the ground in the past, but we’ve identified that fact and we’re working on it,” said Nathan Fletcher, political director for the California Republican Party.

“We’ve contributed significant resources, and we’re getting better,” he said.

Republicans won’t reveal how much they’re spending, but Fletcher said that, for the first time, the party began planning its GOTV efforts for a race a year and a half before the election.

The Republican National Committee sent a team to California after the 2000 presidential election to give the state party intensive training in getting out the vote.

Since then, the party has set up a statewide infrastructure with phone banks and precinct walkers in almost every county, Fletcher said.

The GOP also launched an aggressive absentee ballot campaign and is trying to contact likely voters nine times before election day.

“It’s putting the emphasis back on the personal connection,” Fletcher said.

Among the GOP ground troops is Marisa Olguin, whose battlefield this week was the neat stucco homes along La Forge Street in Whittier.

Olguin ducked under Halloween decorations as she made her pitch to residents in the quiet neighborhood: Please, go to the polls Tuesday.

“It’s our only hope,” said the 32-year-old, who is volunteering 10 hours a week in an effort to reach GOP voters in a heavily Democratic district.

On Wednesday, Olguin knocked on doors until the afternoon light was almost gone.

The former public relations executive didn’t have much trouble finding people enthusiastic about voting for the local Republican candidate for Assembly, Whittier Mayor Dave Butler.

But when they were asked about the gubernatorial hopeful, their commitment faded.

“Do you support Bill Simon?” Olguin inquired of Jenny Ellis, 34, as Ellis’ young daughters peered out through the front door. “Um, yeah,” Ellis replied. “I guess.”

Down the block, Olguin got another answer she didn’t want to hear.

“I’m about ready to vote for the Green Party on that one,” said Linda Self, 56. “I don’t like what I’m hearing about the Republican candidate, and I definitely don’t like the Democrat. So I’m not sure what I’m going to do there.”

“So you don’t know who you’re voting for?” Olguin asked.

“No,” Self replied. “I may not vote for governor.”

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Times staff writers Michael Finnegan and Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this report.