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Door to Door in Burke, Virginia
Susan, a second-grade teacher, describes herself as having been only an occasional phone banker during recent presidential election years—that is, until Barack Obama entered the national political scene. In 2008 she became heavily involved in canvassing, phone banking, and event volunteering on behalf of Obama’s candidacy.
“I read [his book] The Audacity of Hope, and he just has such a different viewpoint,” she says of the President.
Susan was chosen to be a delegate for Obama at the 2008 local and state conventions—and experience that left her “hooked.” After Obama was sworn in, she continued her work of supporting his agenda. After surgery on a broken kneecap, for example, Susan—crutches and all—made it a priority to visit Washington, D.C., area Metro train stations with a petition to pass health care.
Kneecap healed, this weekend she is able to walk the winding streets of Signal Hill in support of Congressman Gerry Connolly. For a Saturday afternoon, a surprising amount of folks are home and ready to be engaged in a conversation about the November elections—and about the 11th District election in particular, the only race that will be on the ballot in this district.
Susan speaks to many voters who haven’t made up their minds about which candidate to support. In a region that has seen many special elections over the past few years, others weren’t even aware that there was another important election coming up.
After several hours of canvassing, Susan has hit all the doors on her walk sheet. She feels good about the work she’s done and comments that it’s amazing to think that citizens around the country were knocking on thousands of doors at the same time—making sure November 2 is on the minds of American voters.
Rep. Gerry Connolly: “I’m proud of have been a part of President Obama’s agenda”
On a hot Virginia day, Organizing for America supporters in Virginia came together to do the real work of moving America forward, holding voter-outreach canvasses across the commonwealth. In the city of Fairfax alone, as part of OFA’s nationwide weekend of action, more than 70 supporters spent Saturday knocking on doors and making phone calls to voters across the 11th District in support of Democratic Congressman Gerry Connolly.
Congressman Connolly joined the Fairfax supporters to kick off the day’s canvasses. He reminded the crowd assembled—a coalition of OFA volunteers, Democratic Party supporters, and members of the Connolly campaign—of the economic situation President Obama and the Democrats in Congress inherited from the Republican Party:
“We were in the worst decline in 80 years. We need to remind our fellow citizens of what we inherited and what we’re doing is to clean it up. We’re not out of the hole yet, but the good news is that our economy is growing, and we’re doing the right things."
In fighting to rebuild the American economy, Congressman Connolly has been a Democratic champion for the people of Northern Virginia and a great ally of President Obama. The congressman supported both health reform and Wall Street reform—and with the help of 11th District voters will continue to fight for the change America needs.
“I’m proud of have been part of President Obama’s agenda. … We need to keep the good thing going that we started when we elected the President and the 111th Congress.
“President Obama has to have a working majority in the House and the Senate if he’s going to continue the work of changing this country. He needs partners—I want to be one of those partners.”
Taking Back the Texas Board of Education
While you’ve likely never heard about this year’s Texas Board of Education candidates, these seemingly-small-time races could have a national impact come November. As the Washington Post recently explained, with such a large textbook market in Texas, "books assigned to the state's 4.7 million students often rocket to the top of the market, decreasing costs for other school districts and leading them to buy the same materials."
In recent years the Texas Board of Education has been moving to the far right. The Board has come into the national spotlight for attempts to promote conservative ideology and remove textbook references to the civil rights movement, leaders like Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall, and words like “justice” and “equality.”
That’s why Judy Jennings and Rebecca Bell-Meteru are running for the State Board of Education, and why they joined over a hundred supporters for this morning’s Back to School Block Walk in Austin. Both women have PhDs in education, and are Democrats who want to take politics out of the classroom and leave important decisions with teachers and experts. And they both know that to be successful this year, they'll need the help of grassroots organizing like today’s event, where supporters went door to door talking with voters.
Bell-Metereau is running against an insurance businessman who has no background in education, and ran unopposed in 2006. This time he’s got a serious challenger on his hands. Bell-Meterau got the crowd fired up before the block walk:
“We are fighting for our love of our children. You’re going to go out there and reach out into your shoes for that leather to go out and block walk—reach into your dialing fingers to make phone calls, and reach into your hearts to talk to those voters—make them catch your enthusiasm.”
I joined Jennings as she went door-to-door in the West Austin area to meet voters this morning. The streets were quiet, but the first person home was receptive. She was a mother of a two-year-old son with another child on the way, and said she’d been meaning to educate herself on the races and thanked Jennings for stopping by.
As Jennings told the crowd today, this “one-on-one contact, combined with their spirit for love of kids across Texas, is how we’re going to make it happen.”
“They say they want to take America back—what they mean is they want to take us backward, and we’re not going to let them”
On the wall of the Travis County Democratic Party, huge letters that cover the length of the main room spell out the words ‘Turn Texas Blue.’ That goal motivated more than a hundred volunteers to gather here in Austin this morning, where they got fired up and went out to make sure voters turn out to support Democratic candidates this November.
Though they know Austin is typically an island of blue amidst an otherwise red state, it doesn’t stop them from working methodically to make a difference this year. They are laser-focused on critical and winnable races—from electing Democrat Bill White to the governor’s office to getting several great candidates on to the Board of Education, these folks are organized and ready to win.
Today's event is part of OFA's national Moving America Forward Day of Action, where thousands of volunteers are gathering all over the country with the goal of knocking on 200,000 doors.
Austin's event is called the Back to School Block Walk, and education is the focus. Republican Governor Rick Perry has refused national funding for Texas schools, and the Board of Education has gotten national attention for its extremist attempts to re-write history and and put conservative politics in the classroom.
Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett, who represents the Austin area, greeted the crowd this morning and mentioned another very different group that was gathering in Washington, D.C. to rally with Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin as he spoke:
“They say they want to take America back—what they really mean is they want to take America backward, and we’re not going to let them do it.”
While Congressman Doggett is in a safer seat than many this year, he isn't taking anything for granted. Rep. Doggett is running a full force campaign against his Tea Party opponent, who is part of the Tea Party Doctors group and is speaking today at a Texas event in support of the Glenn Beck rally. Congressman Doggett told the crowd that building enthusiasm this year starts with them. "There’s still hope, there’s still progress, and it begins right here because of the efforts that you’ve made," he said.
After the rally, the crowd broke up into small groups to role play what they would say at the doors and get their clipboards in order.
As volunteers headed out, I caught up with Congressman Doggett, who had a message for all OFA volunteers out knocking on doors and making phone calls today:
“Everyone who worked so long to bring change for the better to our country is in real danger of seeing that change reversed. The only thing that will prevent that from happening is to try to remember the most joyous moments in 2008 and work to repeat them this year—we have to build up the excitement—it’s that type of excitement our opponents have this year, they’re convinced they can take us backward. But despite all the prognosticators, it’s the person who comes down to make calls, talk to neighbors, get people who have been listening to too much Fox News to come to their backyard and talk about these things—that’s the only thing that will allow us to embody the change this country can become.”
“They’re pouring lots of money in, so we’re pouring lots of people power in”
It’s after 5:00 p.m. on a Friday evening in Austin, Texas, and the Travis County Democratic Party offices are still buzzing with volunteers making phone calls and getting ready for upcoming events.
In a room on the second floor, volunteers are making calls to turn folks out for Tuesday’s phone bank they’ve just named ‘Calling with Candidates.’ The event will have two House candidates compete for most calls made, and volunteers will finish their first round of calls to first-time '08 voters before the month of August is out. And an Austin event wouldn’t be complete without a potluck, which some volunteers are rumored to spend all day cooking for.
It’s OFA’s second day based out of this office, where they share space with several state House campaigns, Bill White for Governor organizers, and an assortment of candidates whose signs cover the building’s façade and front yard.
One of the volunteers I meet is Rosanne, an OFA community organizer who’s coordinating her team of phone bankers sitting around a table together under the iconic Obama ‘Hope’ poster. Rosanne has a team of 12 volunteers who work in state Rep. Donna Howard’s district, and this year they’re focusing on House, Board of Education, and the Governor’s races.
Education is a particularly important issue in Texas, and Austin is the place the President Obama chose to give a major speech on the issue earlier this month. “We don’t like being the laughingstock of the nation when it comes to education,” Rosanne explains. “Here we have two great candidates, women who are PhDs in education, promoting science instead of ideology.” These are going to be tough races—Rep. Howard was targeted by the GOP—but Rosanne is clear on how her team will win:
“They’re pouring lots of money in, so we're pouring lots of people power in. We are pouring our feet and fingers into keeping those wonderful women in office.”
Rosanne got involved after hearing Barack Obama speak at the 2004 Democratic Convention—when she made a bet with her husband that this man would one day become President. Rosanne is white, her husband is older and African American. "He just didn't think our country was ready." She volunteered in California, North Carolina, and Colorado, and organized locally as a precinct chair. When Obama spoke in Austin right after announcing his candidacy, Rosanne was just returning from the funeral of her father, who had just passed away in Iowa.
“I had just buried my father, I was in the car on my way back from Iowa for my father’s funeral, and I said ‘Drop me off.’ And it was a drizzly day and it was so what I needed to do. To see him come on stage—and he was amazed—Barack goes, ‘I have to call Michelle, she’s not going to believe this.’ They were expecting 5,000 and they got 20,000—it was a very memorable day for me. That was the first time I’d seen the President. It was good.”
Vote 2010 News: While Beck and Palin speak, Obama backers knock on doors
While Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin speak in Washington, D.C tomorrow., Organizing for America volunteers will be on the ground across the country, talking one on one with the voters who'll be getting out to the polls this November. Our goal is having 200,000 conversations in 48 hours, showing that while Republicans talk a big game, we're out organizing them in communities from coast to coast leading up to this year's elections.
Organizing for America, the successor to President Obama's 2008 campaign committee, plans a response to the rally conservative superstars Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck will host Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial.
While Palin and Beck are speaking, Democrats will be out campaigning for House candidates....
In an e-mail to Obama supporters in the Washington area, OFA Deputy Director Jeremy Bird cited the Beck-Palin rally to drum up support for the effort -- which he says is needed to prevent Republicans from taking over Congress and repealing key items of the president's agenda, such as health care.
Want to join an event this weekend and help keep moving America forward? Find a canvass near you and help us meet our goal of 200,000 doors knocked this weekend.
11 “Very Reasonable” Recovery Act Projects
While Republicans continue to spread false claims about the Recovery Act’s effectiveness, recent evidence shows that the investment has actually helped our economy add up to 3.3 million jobs during the last 3 months of 2010.
The Huffington Post just spotlighted “11 very reasonable” places funded by the Recovery Act that represent the thousands of great projects that were funded across the country. From investing in new battery technology to tax credits for wind-powered energy, these are exactly the type of projects that create jobs, help build our economy now, and spur growth in the long term.
Check out a slideshow of these 11 projects.
Vote 2010 News: Why Democrats Will Keep the House
Hotline On Call highlighted the four advantages Democrats have over Republicans when it comes to this year’s fight to control the House of Representatives: money, turnout, opposition research, and modeling.
House Republicans are measuring the drapes in preparation for big gains in the lower chamber, convinced that Minority Leader John Boehner is going to become the next Speaker of the House. On a macro level, that wouldn't be a bad guess -- Democrats are saddled with bad polls and unpopular leaders, and the national mood wants a change from the status quo.
But the Democratic apocalypse isn't guaranteed just yet. In fact, senior Democratic strategists say they're not only likely to keep the House, but they believe the GOP won't come close to gaining the 39 seats they need to take over.
That's not to say Republicans have no chance of taking back the House. Indeed, for every argument Democrats make about their strengths, Republicans have a counterargument. But Democrats have a compelling case. Here are the four reasons Democrats shouldn't be counted out of the majority, and Republicans shouldn't start counting their chickens, quite yet:
• Money: On both a macro level and a micro level, Republicans are seriously behind in the money chase. Most candidates enrolled in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's Frontline program for endangered incumbents have huge cash leads over their rivals, and the DCCC has nearly twice as much on hand as the National Republican Congressional Committee....
• Turnout: Beyond advertising, money pays for turnout operations, another area in which Democrats have a clear advantage. The Democratic National Committee has pledged $30 million in cash and services to turn out the estimated 15 million voters who cast their first ballots for President Obama in 2008, and the DCCC has put an average of five field staffers on the ground in 75 districts....
• Opposition Research: ... Democrats have engaged in what they characterize as an unprecedented research campaign, digging up dirt on GOP candidates in hopes of driving their negative numbers through the roof.
• Modeling: Hours after the polls closed in a special election in Pennsylvania's 12th District earlier this year, Boehner was still predicting that businessman Tim Burns (R) would beat former congressional aide Mark Critz (D). Republicans' polling showed Burns would win. Their polling was wrong, and Critz is now a congressman....Republicans did not, resulting in a blown call and a self-deprecating examination of the party's polling techniques....
Republicans still have a strong chance to gain an important toehold in the legislative branch. But they should not invest in new drapes just yet; dislodging a majority is harder than it seems, and Democrats are using every lever of power at their disposal to hold on.
But Hotline left out the fifth and most important reason we’ll keep the House this November: the hard work and support of OFA volunteers across the country. Every day volunteers are out knocking on doors and making calls to elect new Democrats to Congress and help keep strong representatives in Washington. This weekend our goal is to knock on 200,000 doors to build momentum for November—find an event near you and join in.
This Weekend: Door to Door Across the Country
OFA Deputy Director Jeremy Bird just sent a message to supporters inviting them to this weekend's Moving America Forward Day of Action events:
This fall, there's a lot at stake.
For two years, the Republicans have said "no" over and over to legislation that would help Americans -- no to extending unemployment benefits, no to creating jobs, no to the Recovery Act.
But that's not enough -- if the Republicans take back Congress, they've pledged to repeal health insurance reform and pursue policies that would end Social Security and Medicare as we know them.
They're convening in Washington, D.C., with Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin this weekend. Palin has said that the plan for keeping taxes low for the middle class so they can stimulate the economy, while repealing fiscally irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthiest 2%, is "idiotic." And Beck said last week of some of those who are unemployed, "you'd be ashamed to call them Americans."
These are the folks that the Republican party draws its energy and ideas from. But we have a much better source -- you.
That's why, this weekend, OFA volunteers are going door to door across the country to make sure your voice is heard.
There's an event in your area this weekend -- and I hope you can make it.
We're talking to folks in small towns and big cities, focusing on voters who turned out for the first time in 2008 to cast their ballot for Barack Obama.
And we're going to make sure as many as possible of these voters commit to going to the polls again this fall.
We've got an ambitious goal -- 200,000 doors knocked across the country.
You see the progress we're making every day: as new provisions in the Affordable Care Act take effect, as federal funding saves the jobs of police officers and firefighters in your state, and as the brave men and women of the armed forces return from Iraq.
But to continue this progress, we need to elect Democrats who will stand with the President and fight for change that matters, not Washington Republicans and extreme Tea Party leaders who want to repeal all our hard work.
Join us in your area to help us reach out to voters about the importance of voting this fall:
http://my.barackobama.com/MAFevent
Let's get to work,
Jeremy
Jeremy Bird
Deputy Director
Organizing for America
Why Sue’s Working to Elect the Next Governor of Illinois
Every week from now until November’s election, OFA volunteer Sue A. is taking time out of her busy schedule to help elect Democrat Pat Quinn as the next governor of Illinois.
Despite the long drive, Sue comes in to the Chicago office as often as she can to call voters and ask them to make their voices heard this year.
OFA Illinois shared why Sue’s passionate about electing Pat Quinn for governor and Sheila Simon for lieutenant governor:
"I'm a lifelong Democrat, and I think that Pat Quinn is a very solid politician. I also had the opportunity to have lunch with Sheila Simon… I liked her father, and I think she's got a good background. I think she's very pro-women, pro-education, and has a good head to evaluate issues as they come up."
Sue’s commitment also comes from a realization of just how much is at stake this November. She's concerned about the election, especially the prospect of Republican Bill Brady becoming governor.
"His ideas on women's issues are scary. He's an extremist in my opinion."
Pat Quinn is moving Illinois in the right direction—signing the state’s first jobs bill in a decade and successfully getting companies like Ford and UPS to expand their local business. Thanks to the Governor's actions, the new fuel-efficient Ford Explorer is being built exclusively in Illinois, which will create 1,200 new jobs.
OFA Illinois will be out this weekend asking supporters to commit to vote for Pat Quinn, Sheila Simon, and other great candidates in November. Join in and find an event in your area.