Guidelines for Delegates Contacted by the Press

As a delegate, it’s likely that the local press will want to hear about your support for Senator Obama and your role in the campaign. On a case by case basis, depending on the story and its goal, we may approve these interviews. As a delegate for Senator Obama you are a representative of the campaign and your actions will reflect on the campaign and Senator Obama. This is a race that changes daily, and we want to make sure that before you speak to any member of the press, you are fully informed on the happenings of the campaign and potential issues. As such, we have some press guidelines that all our representatives use which we want to share with you:

What should I do if the press contacts me?

As soon as any member of the press contacts you, please reach the person on the campaign that you have been working with. As a delegate for Senator Obama your remarks will have a direct reflection on the Senator and his campaign, so we want to make sure the campaign is aware of any interviews being done. We will let you know if doing the specific interview is helpful to the campaign. Many times we will approve the interview, and your contact person will be able to update you with any new information and provide you with specific talking points.

It will also be helpful if you tell reporters to, in the future, contact the Chicago Press Office directly at (312) 819-2423. This will help us track which reporters are working on which stories in which states.

Should I contact the press?

No. The exception to this rule is letters to the editor. We encourage everyone to write letters to the editor expressing their support for Senator Obama. Click here to use our Letters to the Editor tool.

What should I tell the press?

If the press contacts you, and after you have been in touch with someone on the campaign, we want you to feel free to talk about your reasons for supporting Senator Obama and what it means to you to be a delegate for him. Please do not get into specific policies or try to be an expert on all aspects of the campaign. Please help us by focusing on your personal reasons and our overall message of change. If there are exceptions where campaign staff thinks your focus on a specific issue will be helpful, we will let you know.

We also want you to keep in mind Senator Obama’s message of running a positive campaign. We expect that the comments from any representative of the campaign focus solely on Senator Obama and a fundamental change in the way we conduct politics, and not on any negatives.

Please remember - the first thing you should do when you are contacted by the press is to reach out to your contact person on the campaign and let them know who has contacted you. Your contact person will give you direction after that.