Presidential Aide Rove Rallies the Faithful in Irvine

Senior presidential advisor Karl Rove came to Irvine on Thursday to fire up folks like Bob Mirsky.

Mirsky, a home inspector from Fountain Valley, began volunteering two months ago in the effort to reelect President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, working a local Republican phone bank recruiting other volunteers.

It’s his first experience working a political campaign.

“A lot of people first thing say, ‘I can’t give any more money,’ and I say, ‘Guess what, we’re not asking for money,’ and they’re surprised,” said Mirsky, 55. “Then they’re interested in what they can do.”

Rove thanked Mirsky and about 200 other volunteers and activists during a campaign stop designed to showcase the man many Republicans revere as a political genius for orchestrating Bush’s razor-thin victory in 2000.

Rove spoke for 20 minutes about the importance of reelecting Bush, declaring: “Who wins this election will determine the course of history.” Then he worked a busy rope line with vigor, shaking eager hands and posing for photos.

Similar parties were held at 6,922 other venues nationwide for the Bush campaign’s “Party for the President Day.” About 17,000 parties have been held overall, officials said.

The Irvine event came two days before the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, is scheduled to appear at a luncheon at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.

Republicans here refused to concede any real estate to Edwards and running mate Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts. The Orange County Republican Party is “100% integrated” with the Bush-Cheney campaign to coordinate grass-roots efforts well before Labor Day, the traditional start of the final campaign surge, said the county’s party chairman, Scott Baugh.

Republican Assembly nominee Chuck DeVore said he had been subletting a portion of his campaign office for two months to the presidential campaign, where volunteers work four nights a week trolling for volunteers. “This is the real building of an infrastructure so when the state becomes competitive, they can drop in a bunch of money to real effect,” he said. “I’ve never seen this happen before.”

Despite the GOP’s efforts in 2000, Democratic Vice President Al Gore swamped Bush by 1.3 million votes in California. That margin helped buoy Democrats to their largest electoral gains in the state in 40 years.

Since then, California voters have recalled Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and replaced him with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose popularity has contributed to a surge in GOP voter registration.

The national and state party will spend what it needs to be competitive in November, said state party Chairman Duf Sundheim, “and the rest will be up to the voters.”

“You can always get people to the polls motivated by anger,” he said, “but the middle is not going to be motivated by anger, they’re going to be motivated by who’s performed well.”