Millionth GOP voter contact call made from Cedar Rapids campaign office

CEDAR RAPIDS – The Romney-Ryan campaign turned the tables on one of its volunteers Friday afternoon.

Karen Zmoos of Cedar Rapids was making calls from the Republican Victory headquarters when her cellphone started ringing. On the other end of the line was former New Hampshire governor and Romney campaign surrogate John Sununu. He was calling to congratulate Zmoos – and the entire Cedar Rapids Victory office – for its efforts. The millionth Iowa voter contact was a phone call from the Cedar Rapids office earlier this week.

“I'm from New Hampshire where we really, really believe in the blocking and tackling of campaigning,” Sununu said. “I can't tell you how significant that is to getting Mitt Romney elected.”

Zmoos has a pretty good idea of the importance of her efforts. She's been making calls for Romney since 2008.

“This is what I can do,” Zmoos said after getting off the phone.

She has no idea how many calls she's made and doors she's knocked on, but said it's a team effort.

The original plan to celebrate the millionth voter contact was for vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan to call Zmoos, but apparently called her home number, a campaign staffer said.

“I'll have a nice message from Paul Ryan when I get home,” said Zmoos.

According to the Republican National Committee's Victory campaign, Iowa Republicans already have contacted more voters this year than they did in the entire 2008 campaign.

And there are six weeks until Election Day.

“Time for another million calls,” Sununu said.

“We're on it,” Zmoos said.

The Obama campaign doesn't release the number of voter contacts it makes, according to a spokeswoman. She did say that the campaign's 67 offices have “contacted a lot of voters across the state.”