Illinois falls one way or the other in the presidential race Tuesday, and like arm-wrestlers before a match, the political camps of Republican George Bush and Democrat Michael Dukakis spent Monday flexing their voter turnout muscles.
Each claimed to have the bigger, better organized voter turnout organization in the state, and each said that would put their man over the top in a contest that has been described as a tossup.
”We have the best, organizationally integrated get-out-the-vote effort that a presidential campaign in Illinois has ever had,” declared Judith Erwin, state communications director for the Dukakis campaign.
”We have 1,000 operating Monday night, targeting those we`ve identified as leaning towards Dukakis and voters in solid Democratic precincts where turnout in past elections has been low,” Erwin said. She said 10,000 Dukakis volunteers would be on the streets Monday night and Election Day.
On the Republican side, Edward Murnane, Bush campaign manager for Illinois said: ”We have a statewide volunteer force unmatched by any state. We`ll have at least one person in each of the state`s 11,000 precincts with a total of 22,000 volunteers working to turn out the vote.”
Murnane said that GOP telephone banks that geared up over the weekend will have made 1 million phone calls by the time polls close Tuesday.
The battle for Illinois` 24 electoral votes remained so close that both sides dismissed a late Champaign television station poll showing Bush ahead by a margin of 47 percent to 39 percent, with 14 percent of the voters still undecided.
The Channel 3 (WCIA) poll was a statewide sample of 361 likely voters that was conducted between Wednesday and Sunday, according to station spokeswoman Jan Kiley, and has an error margin of five percentage points.
”That is a rosier picture than our own polls show,” Murnane said.
”We`re showing a closer lead of a couple of (percentage) points, close enough that it will still come down to turnout.”
Dukakis has been seen as gaining ground during the last week of October and first week of November, largely on the strength of the undecided voters falling his way.
As part of their turnout effort, state Democratic leaders flew off in different directions from Meigs Field Monday morning, traveling to each of the state`s media markets in a voter turnout effort.
”We believe that (Dukakis) can carry Illinois, and if we carry Illinois we can carry the country,” U.S. Sen. Alan Dixon said.
One reason that the Channel 3 poll has been previously well regarded dates back to its accuracy in predicting the 1982 re-election of Republican Gov. James Thompson by the narrowest margin in state history, although other polls had showed him leading Democratic challenger Adlai Stevenson by a comfortable margin.
Remembering 1982, Thompson told reporters Monday, ”I`m just concerned that the northern and northwest suburbs understand that it is a very close race and if they want to elect George Bush they can`t stay home tomorrow.”
Thompson said Downstate GOP chairmen anticipate a good turnout in central and southern Illinois. ”When anybody ever says to me the Democratic machine in Chicago is dead,” Thompson said, ”I go out and work another hour. We can`t afford to win the battle of the airwaves and lose the battle of the precincts.”
Erwin said Democratic infighting in East St. Louis would not have an impact on the vote Dukakis expects to get in Madison and St. Clair Counties. East St. Louis mayor Carl Officer launched a campaign over the weekend against the re-election bid of Democratic Congressman Jerry Costello, the former St. Clair County board chairman.
