Breaking news from the conference call with Campaign Manager David Plouffe: A new online fundraising contest is being launched that will grant the members of the My.BarackObama.com groups that raise the most money through the end of the week the opportunity to participate in a personal conference call with Senator Barack Obama and Campaign Manager David Plouffe. Be on the lookout for more information from the My.BarackObama.com team.
State of the Campaign
Barack Obama's Schedule: On Monday, Barack Obama received the endorsement of the New York City Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association. Tuesday, he’s speaking at Change to Win in Chicago. Wednesday, he can be seen live on the NBC/NECN/New Hampshire Public Radio/New Hampshire Democratic Party debate, which will be broadcast live on MSNBC at 9pm EST. Following the debate he’ll head to New York, where he’ll participate in a live interview on ABC’s The View at 11am EST on Thursday before leading a major rally in Washington Square Park. On Friday, he speaks at Howard University’s Convocation and participates in the CBC Issues Forum in Washington, DC.
So I was in the NYPost on Sunday as a New York Case Study on who plans on voting for whom come election time. I am literally half the age of the other two "cases," and much cuter if I may say so, though Jeffery Volk the Hillary supporter looks like a jolly fellow. He should join our team. Regardless, what a strange grouping they chose--one 20-something and two 50-somethings? How odd. We 20-49 year olds should get our "letter to the editor" drive up and running in support of Barack and stake our claim on this campaign...50+ Year Old Barack supporters are welcome to speak up as well and show it's not just us "misguided, idealistic" kids who support Obama and his message of change and accountability.
NEW YORKER CASE STUDIESClick on the link below to access the story.http://www.nypost.com/seven/09022007/news/regionalnews/new_yorker_case_studies.htm
I just found a great place for older Obama coverage on the Chicago Tribune's site here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/
It includes lots of great photos and daily coverage of his 2006 trip to Africa:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-obamaafrica-htmlstory,1,2324194.special?coll=chi_news_politics_obama_util
And also some of his international travels in 2005 as a U.S. Senator:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/flash/2006-11/16736037.swf
Click here for the photos on MySpace.
Click here for the photos on my Facebook page (better captions).
June 23, 2007
Lessons Learned as Obama Shepherds a Following
By MICHAEL COOPER
It was just an organizational meeting for Senator Barack Obama’s New York volunteers, but the gathering this month jammed every pew of a church in the East Village, and the crowd spilled over into not one but two overflow rooms.
All told, 710 people showed up, even though the closest they would get to Mr. Obama, the Illinois Democrat and presidential candidate, that night would be to view a campaign screening of a biographical DVD. They cheered wildly anyway. Many had already formed their own volunteer groups in New York: Brooklyn for Barack, NYC4Obama, the Audacity of Park Slope. Quite a few already had Web sites, neatly designed logos, newsletters and regular meetings.
The grass-roots following for Mr. Obama in the backyard of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has been built around a sophisticated group of young professionals skilled in marketing, organizing, Web design and other useful areas. But as Howard Dean’s campaign for the Democratic nomination proved four years ago, it takes more than a core group of dedicated, Web-savvy supporters to win votes.
“One of the lessons, obviously for us, is making sure that the grass-roots enthusiasm translates into votes,” Mr. Obama said in a recent interview. “And that’s something obviously that we’re going to be paying a lot of attention to.”
Organizers of Mr. Obama’s grass-roots campaign are doing what they can to focus the enthusiasm of volunteers on useful work, and to train them so their efforts do no harm to Mr. Obama’s bid. Yet the activities of some supporters, operating outside of the official campaign, have raised questions for Mr. Obama to answer.
Steve Phillips, a San Francisco lawyer and the son-in-law of the billionaire Democratic donors Herb and Marion Sandler, has formed an independent organization, Vote Hope 2008, that has been soliciting money to help Mr. Obama win the California primary. Mr. Obama has criticized such groups, which are known as 527s, because they allow unlimited contributions outside the caps set by campaign finance rules.
“It is our hope that anyone who supports Obama does so directly through his campaign,” Bill Burton, a campaign spokesman, said.
Despite situations like this one, the Obama campaign is carefully aligning itself with volunteers in New York and elsewhere. Ray Rivera, the northeast field director for the Obama campaign, told the crowd gathered in the East Village that the Dean example in 2004 should serve as a cautionary tale.
“A lot of national momentum, lot of national online support,” Mr. Rivera said. “Did he win the presidency? No, it sort of faltered. We want to take all this energy, all of this offline and online grassroots energy, and turn it into a Democratic nomination and get a real victory.”
Because the New York primary awards delegates proportionally by Congressional district, a strong showing in crucial areas could win delegates for Mr. Obama even if he loses the primary. And perhaps more than any other campaign this cycle, his campaign is relying on grass-roots involvement in New York and elsewhere to turn out voters.
The grass-roots organizing is proceeding parallel to efforts by the Obama campaign. In one effort to attract supporters, the campaign invited people to write a few words explaining why they wanted to meet Mr. Obama, for $5. Thousands of responses came in, aides said.
All the campaigns are trying to marshal volunteer supporters this year. The Clinton campaign, for example, arranges discussion meetings in the homes of supporters; holds large, inexpensive fund-raisers; and is organizing groups to go to New Hampshire.
But the Obama campaign is making its ability to mobilize large numbers of volunteers central to its campaign ethos. On its recent nationwide canvassing day, volunteers received campaign T-shirts that read, “In the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.”
Mr. Obama, who was a grass-roots organizer in his youth, places value on door-to-door, neighborhood-by-neighborhood campaigning. In a recent conference call with 400 volunteer leaders, he gave tips for canvassing (“stay hydrated,” and “don’t just talk but listen”).
“As tempting as it might be to think otherwise, this doesn’t just have to do with me,” Mr. Obama said during the call. “Change always comes from the bottom up, not the top down.”
There is debate among the other campaigns and bloggers about how much of a movement the Obama campaign has created. Jerome Armstrong, a liberal blogger, wrote recently on MyDD.com that Mr. Obama had not aligned himself with the “netroots” movement that began with the Dean campaign and that helped propel Ned Lamont’s Senate campaign in Connecticut last year.
Mr. Armstrong questioned whether the Obama grass-roots campaign was a movement at all. It “looks like a better-than-ordinary campaign for a candidate that’s personally compelling, and not much more,” he said.
But many of the volunteers who fanned out across New York City during the campaign’s “Walk for Change” said they felt that they were creating a movement.
Jordan Thomas, a 36-year-old from Brooklyn who works for a film production company, said that he enlisted in the campaign at 3 a.m. on Feb. 10, the day that Mr. Obama announced that he would run for president. On the campaign’s Web site, Mr. Thomas found a feature that allowed volunteers to start groups.
“And I thought, my god, this guy is turning his campaign over to the people,” Mr. Thomas said. “And I thought, wow, this guy really trusts the people. And so I put in ‘Brooklyn for Barack.’ ”
Despite the volunteer effort for Mr. Obama, the Clinton campaign said it had no fear of losing New York. “We’re gratified that poll after poll shows Hillary leading the primary in New York overwhelmingly, and that she is by far the most popular candidate in the state, from either party and among all walks of life,” said Blake Zeff, a campaign spokesman.
David D. Kirkpatrick and Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting.
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Yes, it is clear that we must operate differently than the Dean operation did in 2004. This includes real targeting of geographic areas and a concrete, block by block plan to maximize the Obama vote on 2/5/08. It is essential to work backwards from that date and resist a million "feel good" events in exchange for hard numbers. This is a battle that goes from Congressional District to Congressional District -- and within.
On Thursday, July 19th, your friends and neighbors will be springing into action. In addition to spreading the word about the Obama campaign, we will also be making voter registration forms available to anyone wishing to register to vote for the first time, change their voter registration name and/or address, or change their party affiliation.
This event will take place at three locations on Thursday evening from 5:30 - 7:30pm (weather permitting).
Location #1 = C-Town Grocery Store (Washington Ave & Prospect Place)
Location #2 = Met Grocery Store (Vanderbilt Ave between Prospect Place and Park Place)
Location #3 = Duane Reade (Corner of Flatbush Ave & 7th Ave)
Please volunteer your time for this event.
For more information, please contact Kim at kimmy212@gmail.com
More information on voter registration can be found here: Link
Hey Brooklyn--
Senator Obama is heading into Manhattan for a big fundraiser at 8:30 pm on Friday, June 22nd, hosted by our friends at Generation Barack Obama, and your best chance to get a ticket is right now before word gets out on the street. General seating starts at $100; June is the end of another reporting quarter and it's going to be important to close it out strong.You can only register online, rsvp now at this Link. And please put BROOKLYN down in the "Additional information" box so we can make sure that the senator and the campaign can see how much support there is on the street in the borough.Send this on to your friends, and get your contribution in right now. Last time tickets were gone before most people heard it was even happening, and this time around the place is going to be twice as crazy. See you there.Andrew & JordanBrooklyn for Barack
