Are the Democrats Buying Votes? - For-profit canvassing: the DNC's secret weapon. By Trey�Popp

Are the Democrats Buying Votes? - For-profit canvassing: the DNC's secret weapon. By Trey�Popp: "Are the Democrats Buying Votes?
For-profit canvassing: the DNC's secret weapon.
By Trey Popp
Posted Thursday, Sept. 30, 2004, at 4:28 PM PT


Voters this fall in Democratic strongholds are witnessing an increasingly common sight. Staked out on busy sidewalks in at least 38 American cities, political activists carrying credit-card authorization forms are drumming up donations for the campaign to defeat George W. Bush. Outfitted in T-shirts emblazoned with star-spangled Democratic National Committee logos, these earnest young men and women come across as grass-roots volunteers of the most enthusiastic sort. Little old ladies interrupt their strolls to thank them for their hard work.
But appearances can be deceiving. The organization behind these fund-raisers is Grassroots Campaigns Inc., a for-profit company that counts the Democratic National Committee as one of its flagship clients. It's a safe bet that few pedestrians talked into donating $149�'the price of a bus ticket from Washington, D.C., to Crawford, Texas'�realize that once these canvassers beat their daily quota, they keep up to 30 percent of the take. "