Fox News played on a big-screen television, an inspirational Ronald Reagan quotation hung above a doorway, and signs wooed volunteers to watch Monday Night Football and attend Tuesday trivia nights while calling voters, preparing messages for mailing and other tasks.

"Millions of pieces of mail - literally, millions of pieces of mail - will go through this facility," said Marcus Carey, the 4th District chairman for the state GOP. "And each one will be handled by a volunteer."

Before campaign workers realized that reporters had arrived for the grand opening, volunteers still were applying postage stickers onto top-secret, tie-dye-decorated mailings that will go out this week. Their non-specific headline accuses some Democrat - GOP officials declined to say which - of advocating a 1960s brand of liberalism.

The office in the Florence BusinessPlex is equipped with three phone lines, a fax line, high-speed Internet access and satellite television, said Carey, whose son, Daniel Carey, is managing the office for 10 campaigns.

Almost all the approximately 90 people who attended the event wore some combination of red, white and blue, with khakis or jeans being the outfit of choice.

"I'm an old soldier, and one thing I knew is battles are not won at headquarters - they're won in the field," said Hebron Republican Geoff Davis. "They're won by the troops in the trenches, one step at a time, one shot at a time."

Davis is running against Augusta Democrat Nick Clooney in the 4th District Congressional seat being vacated by Democrat Ken Lucas.

"I want to say thank you for all of you who have been here in the middle of the night, walking door to door with us in the rain, making the phone calls," Davis added.

Davis told the audience that when he met recently with President Bush, "He said, 'Geoff, what's it like running against Hollywood?' " - a reference to Clooney's son, movie star George Clooney.

"If you call Augusta, Kentucky, Hollywood, then that's pretty silly," said Kenton County Democratic Party chairman Nathan Smith. "When they spend their time talking about one-liner lies, we're talking about health care, education and jobs."

The Democrats have two campaign sites: one on Dixie Highway in Fort Mitchell shared by Clooney and Kathy Groob, a member of Fort Mitchell City Council who is running against Republican state Sen. Jack Westwood of Crescent Springs in Kenton County's 23rd District race, and the other, Democratic Party headquarters, on Court Street in Covington.