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Weather or Not: Will Winter Storm Help Democrat in Massachusetts?

• January 18, 2010, 6:02 PM ET

By Tamara Audi and Greg Hitt

Could bad weather tip the vote in Tuesday’s special election in Massachusetts?

The Democratic campaign thinks so.

As another snowstorm socked the region Monday, Democrat Martha Coakley’s campaign launched a “snow-a-thon.” About 1,000 volunteers worked the phones from their homes, calling voters with appeals to get to the polls. Campaign officials said another 7,000 were making calls from regional phone banks or knocking on doors where they could.

The good news: Many voters were off work Monday for the Martin Luther King holiday and — better yet for campaign workers — stuck indoors because of the weather. “This is a case where the snow works in our favor. A lot of people are home today, and it’s a good day to reach people,” a Coakley campaign official said.

The worst of the storm was expected to hit the northern and western parts of the Bay State where voters tend to be more conservative and support for Republican candidate Scott Brown is stronger.

The Brown campaign also launched a get-out-the-vote “voter bomb,” a Web-based tactic that taps into everything from cell phones to social media networks to rally grassroots support. Supporters are encouraged to sign onto the campaign, and then commit to get 20 others to the polls. But measuring whether it worked or was, well, a bomb is difficult.

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