Late $$ flow to get-out-the-vote tactics

Plus: Some thoughts about the Shavers drama, an Inslee bank-shot for Hobbs, and La Corte leaves AP

Editor’s Note: A storm-driven power outage and related issues¹at Observer World Headquarters delayed this edition. Apologies to those of you who have baked it into your Sunday routines.

With just hours remaining until ballots are due, the big political spenders in Washington have shifted much of their cash to get-out-the-vote efforts. Such tactics — known collectively as “field” — are the end-game of political strategy, designed to make sure that as many voters likely to favor your candidate send in a ballot as possible. Field is expensive, and generally viewed as capable of changing the result of an election only slightly. So an aggressive field play is a sign of a genuinely close race.

Here’s a look at a few of those plays, both large and small

New Direction, the biggest political action committee working to maintain and build the Democratic majorities in the Legislature, is spending more than $100,000 phone banking for votes in the two hottest Senate races in the state: defending Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, in the 26th District on the Kitsap Peninsula; and supporting Rep. Sharon Shewmake, D-Bellingham, in her bid to oust sort-of incumbent Sen. Simon Sefzik, R-Ferndale, in Whatcom County’s 42nd District.

New Direction has spent more than $5 million this cycle, making it the biggest player by far in state races. Most of the money comes from public-sector labor unions, most notably SEIU 775, which represents long-term care workers.

New Directions top donors: The Kennedy and Truman funds are controlled by Senate and House Democrats, respectively.

Here’s why you should care about this: That’s more than five times as much as Amazon, Microsoft, T-Mobile, and Boeing have given this cycle combined, per Renata Geraldo’s piece in The Seattle Times over the weekend