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Hernando Today

Hernando's Presidential Push

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By TONY MARRERO Hernando Today

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 11, 2008

SPRING HILL - Joe Racioppo had a live one on the line Friday morning.

The 72-year-old Brooksville resident, red cell phone to his ear, asked the woman who she planned to support in this year's presidential race.

"To be honest, I don't know which way to go," the woman replied.

"Well, think about John McCain," Racioppo said as he sat in the McCain's Hernando County headquarters on Spring Hill Drive. "He's the right man for the job."

An hour later, at Sen. Barack Obama's headquarters about five miles to the west, 19-year-old volunteer Justin Colon got one answer he was hoping for when he asked the same question to a voter.

But he had another query: "Have you turned in your absentee ballot yet?"

It's crunch time for the presidential campaign and efforts are ramping up at the Obama and McCain headquarters in Hernando County.

Both sides are gearing up for an intense three weeks leading up to the Nov. 4 general election in a county that leans Republican by a hair but has more than 25,000 independent and minor party voters.

The weapons of choice: cell phone and, especially in the case of the Obama campaign, laptop computer.

Visits to the respective parties Friday found volunteers flipping through voter data sheets, dialing and then launching into their scripts and questionnaires. The goals are to persuade the undecided, but also to get voters who opted for absentee ballots to mail them.

And with such an even split between the major parties here - just 1,643 more Republicans than Democrats as of Oct. 1 - both campaigns are going hard after independents.

The Obama camp is even making inroads into the enemy's camp, said Adora Andy, Florida regional communications director for the Obama campaign.

"I think it's going to be close no matter how you look at it, but I certainly think we have a fighting chance in Hernando," said Adora Andy, Florida regional communications director for the campaign. "We have the support of more and more Republicans all over the region including Hernando."

Tommy Bronson, the McCain campaign chairman for Hernando, said he thinks the chances are "very good" for a victory here.

"I think we have the most experienced and most qualified candidate for the times we're living in," Bronson said. "I think the American people as well as the citizens of Hernando County will recognize that when it comes time to vote."

Both campaigns say they are pulling in volunteers who have never gone to bat for a political candidate before.

'Fired up'

Amy Racioppo, Joe's husband, is one of them.

The 72-year-old said she was drawn to help after reports surfaced that a hacker made public vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sara Palin's e-mail.

"That was just wrong," Racioppo said before she started making cold calls. "That was the last straw."

Racioppo was one of several volunteers making calls in the McCain "Victory Office" in a small office suite adjacent to the Hogan Law Firm. Hogan family members are among the county's most prominent Republicans.

Signs from the county's Republican candidates leaned against several walls. One volunteer slid plastic "McCain/Palin" signs onto metal stands; buttons boasting the ticket were on sale for $3.

Joanne Porter didn't mince words Friday when she had a voter on the line willing to talk - and listen - for a few minutes.

"He's really a socialist," Porter said of Obama. "He's proposing more government interference in people's lives. He's proposing programs I don't know how he's going to pay for."

Porter, a 56-year-old Hudson resident and mother of Jessica Porter, the Florida Republican Party's regional field coordinator for the Nature Coast, said she's motivated to volunteer "because I believe in our country" and fears what could happen if Obama is elected.

"I'm fired up," she said. "I can't believe people are getting sucked into his style. They like his talk, but he doesn't have the record to back it up."

'A desperate situation'

A visit to the Obama headquarters, in Suite C of a shopping strip at 5330 Spring Hill Drive, showed the candidate's power to pull in young activists.

Twenty-somethings pored over laptops in the sparsely furnished, multi-roomed office sporting handmade signs featuring Obama quotes and pictures of the man himself: Obama on the cover of Time, Obama on Rolling Stone.

The paid staffers weren't allowed to talk to a reporter.

The volunteers could, though. Among them was Jan Thayer, a more experienced voter who had to dust off her skills this political season. The 60-year-old Spring Hill resident and lifelong Democrat hasn't volunteered since the McGovern campaign in 1972.

But Obama has inspired her.

"We're in a pretty desperate situation and we need someone with the ability to lead," she said.

She admitted during a break that she doesn't exactly enjoy making cold calls, but will be coming in at least once or twice a week for the next three weeks.

"I think these types of grassroots work," she said.

The campaign headquarters in Hernando

The McCain "Victory Office" is at 11033 Spring Hill Drive. For more information, call Jessica Porter, 727-637-2673.

The Obama campaign office is at 5330 Spring Hill Drive, Suite C. For information, call 686-1844.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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