California Democrats are gearing up for 2012 with a new voter registration campaign called "It Gets Bluer." The new effort takes a two-pronged approach at trying to boost turnout in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, also known as the Inland Empire. In addition to door-to-door canvassing, volunteers are looking to register new democratic voters--especially Latinos--by going to concerts in the park, knocking on doors and tabling at events like the Red, White and Cruise Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular at the Fontana Speedway. They even have YouTube videos.

"The response has been tremendous because this is the type of area that typically doesn't see this type of effort," said Tenoch Flores, the communications director for the California Democratic Party. "Right now, this is the perfect program to energize our troops in Southern California--to get people excited.

Now about that name. At first glance, It Gets Bluer is "a riff on the It Gets Better campaign" to quote Flores. But the immediate connotation of blue could be interpreted in a number of different ways. Wandering minds might wonder if the campaign about the ocean? Are Californians getting sadder? Is it in any way related to the Smurfs movie?

Nationally, Democrats have had some trouble with taglines. Obama's recent bus tour to visit closed-down factories and mills was dubbed the "Magical Misery Tour" by Mitt Romney and skewered by the gossip blogs as the "Darth Vader Tour" in reference to the jet black, ominous-looking coach that carried the president around the Midwest. Folks even added up how much the bus tour was costing tax payers ($2.2 million according to one estimate.)

But California Dems aren't worried. Asked about the sadness metaphor, Flores told The Atlantic Wire, "That's fair--we did think of that in the beginning, but honestly, we haven't had a single person raise the point or misconstrue our point."

Republicans so far aren't engaging in pun-slinging. When we asked California GOP spokesman Mark Standriff his thoughts on the It Gets Bluer campaign, he just laughed and said, "I'm not surprised that the Democrats are actively engaged there."

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Adam Clark Estes