Republican state Chairman Rob Gleason announced Thursday that the GOP would bolster its grass roots effort by setting up with 22 local offices and 30 staffers in the weeks before the November election.

In a conference call with reporters, Mr. Gleason predicted that the on-the-ground presence and accompanying emphasis on attracting volunteers would boost the fortunes of Republican candidates up and down the ballot.

Calling it “a significant increase in the intensity of our grass-roots effort,’’ Luke Bernstein, the party’s executive director, said that the volunteers and staff members would be going door to door identifying and encouraging Republican voters.

“The [Republican National Committee] is investing heavily in Pennsylvania this year,’’ he said.
The Republican effort comes a Democrats are working to replicate their heavy 2008 turnout through the efforts of Organizing for America, the successor organization to the Obama campaign’s grass roots effort that year