Calls, knocks and high-fives

Volunteers mount impressive drive to turn out the faithful

Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 6, 2006 at midnight

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The goal: Call 12,000 supporters in Jefferson County in one day.

The reality: Republicans, working out of a grubby strip mall in Wheat Ridge, called 19,441 voters on Saturday.

And they knocked on 14,540 doors that same day.

"Oh, my goodness!" gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez said Sunday, high-fiving Rob O'Regan, field director for the Colorado Republican Party.

Steve Jensen, chairman of Beauprez's Jefferson County campaign, told the candidate about a call he had placed Saturday.

"The woman said, 'Hold on, there's somebody at the door,' " Jensen said. "And it turned out to be our people out there knocking."

High-five!

It's crunch time.

Beauprez is behind in the polls and the national mood favors Democrats, but you'd never know it, judging by the GOP's get-out-the-vote efforts throughout the state.

"We have yet to see a Democrat," said Steve Truebner, who is helping direct the GOP voter turnout effort. "I think you'll be surprised on Election Day."

At the College Republicans' office in Wheat Ridge, coolers of soft drinks, a sign reading "Call like a champion," and air mattresses and rollaway beds signaled their commitment as 7 p.m. Tuesday looms.

"I'm pretty excited," said Charlie Smith, 22, chairman. "I think it's going to be close."

Smith attends the University of Denver, but has admittedly been AWOL the past week.

Call after call went out to Jeffco voters, reminding them of legislative candidates in their district and that Republican Rick O'Donnell is running for Congress.

"This eclipses everything I saw in '02," Beauprez said, referring to the impressive GOP vote effort that led him to a 121-vote victory in the 7th Congressional District.

Later that day, at Beauprez's campaign headquarters in the Denver Tech Center, Sharyn Herian, 61, of Littleton, called voters from one cubicle. Next to her sat her mother, Ardy Carpenter, 86, of Mankato, Minn., who is vacationing in Colorado. Beauprez and his wife, Claudia, were tickled at the out-of-state help.

Beauprez continued his gubernatorial campaign Sunday by visiting, for the fourth Sunday in a row, a predominately black church.

The former chairman of the state GOP, Beauprez said it is "shameful" how his party has done so little to attract minorities when they share the same values of strong families and traditional marriage.

"Thank you very sincerely for allowing a Catholic boy and a Republican to come here," he told the New Faith Christian Center Church in Montbello. "It's good to be with you all, especially just before this election."

Beauprez elicited plenty of amens and applause when he talked about growing up without money but with love, and letting parents have school choice.

"Nobody loves a child more than their mother and dad," he said. "That's why we ought to let that mom and dad decide where and how a child gets educated. I believe that with all my heart."

Minister Peter Rogers, 37, of Aurora, was impressed, so much so that the Democrat said he needed to "pray on it" before he casts his vote on Tuesday.

Several others decided on the spot to back Beauprez.

"Hey, man," one said, "you changed my mind."

They were still in church, otherwise Beauprez might have gone for a high-five.

bartels@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5327

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