President Tries to Pump Up Partisans Before Vote

President Bush told a largely partisan crowd in Phoenix that he needs help to get Republican, Democratic and independent voters to show up election day and support GOP candidates in races that could tip the nation’s political scales.

“Go to your house of worship, your community centers, your coffee shops and talk it up,” the president told several thousand people who crammed a downtown theater to hear him speak.

The evening stop was part of Bush’s multistate drive to help the GOP maintain control of the House, win back the Senate and ease expected party losses in statehouses.