Extra! Extra! Read all about it here! If you’d like to help Barack Obama win Nevada, click the link below to RSVP for this weekend! 🙂
Hello Everyone,
Please join Obama OC and the campaign on our first organized trip to Nevada to help Senator Obama win this crucial battleground state. We will be focusing on voter registration in Nevada, and need as many of you to help as we can possibly get.
We can not overemphasize the importance of these trips as everything we have done in California now hangs on what happens in states like Nevada. WE MUST WIN THESE STATES!
We will be leaving on Friday at 3:30 and returning on Sunday. Currently we are counting on people to Carpool, but if we get enough volunteers, we will get a charter bus or multiple vans to travel up to Nevada.
If you are interested, please RSVP as soon as possible so that we can give your information to our counterparts in Nevada to secure housing if needed.
Please RSVP at the link attached below:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gpgbl3
When you RSVP, please include the following infornation:
1. Name
2. phone #
3. E-mail
4. Housing/hotel
5. Male/female
6. Cat/dog ok?
7. Smoking?
8. Carpool(passenger/driver)
We hope to see you soon,
Giovanii Jorquera
Obama OC Director
And it begins again. All of OC’s best activists leaving the county.
And we wonder why we have a republican congressional delegation, state assembly delegation, state senate delegation, board of supervisors, city councils and school boards.
CHANGE needs to begin at home…
My 2 cents…
Tim-
I know, I know. I’m just as frustrated as you are. Still, I understand that some people desperately want to be involved in the Presidential Race… And that’s why I posted this.
However, I’d love to sit down with you & many more local activists to figure out how to get more of these “Obamacans” involved with us here in OC. 🙂
The reality of this situation (whether good, bad, or indifferent) is that a very large chunk of the people active in the Obama campaign are not at all involved in local races. As an example, I would have been happy to remain in activist retirement had Obama not re-lit my flame. So I question how much of a brain drain a weekend of campaigning in Nevada will cause.
There is good news, though. The benefit derived from Obama getting so many people involved for the first time is that some portion of them will stay active and become involved in city council races as well as state senate, water district, assembly, school board and the others.
Growing OC from fire engine red to purple or, hopefully, bright blue is a gradual, incremental process that will, in the long run, benefit from an Obama victory. Unfortunately, it may not do a whole lot in the short term. We will see.
I’m with you on this one, Timbo.
Why do national campaigns pull our most talented to NV, NM, OH, FL, MI, and IN every 4 years? They have plenty of time to train people there. And people are much more likely to listen to someone who lives in their area.
But CA and OC are just a giant ATM machine to withdraw dollars and time from.
We’re left here to deal with hot downticket races and the fight against Prop. 8 without much help.
I do not recall a Democratic presidential campaign ever having this much interest in telling California and OC supporters that , essentially, “you don’t count this year UNLESS you want to temporarily move to another state, THEN you do!”
Nonetheless, when you thing about it. it DOES make sense. McCain has a much better shot at the Magic 270 in a place like Nevada than here and if we really do want to see a Dem moving in to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, we need to help the Obama campaign however we can, in any way we can.
Eric, I’ve been involved as an active volunteer with the Obama campaign for 13 months. Not once ever during that time have I heard anyone — staff or volunteer — say “essentially, ‘you don’t count this year UNLESS you want to temporarily move to another state, THEN you do!’ ” or anything even remotely resembling that.
During the early-state period of the primary, the campaign asked California volunteers (the request was made state-wide, not only OC and LA) to campaign in Nevada for two reasons. 1) Nevada needed the help. 2) The learning experience would help us be more effective for the California primary.
Now that Obama is the presumptive nominee, the senior campaign staff knows California will tip for Obama with a comfortable margin while at the same time, Nevada — for a change — is in play. Therefore, if some California volunteers want to help tip the Electoral College more in Obama’s favor, their help in Nevada will make a difference.
TLC, When I made my first trip to campaign in Nevada last summer, I thought exactly the same as you, that people would listen less to an invader from out of state than to a local volunteer. What I found was that depending on how it’s presented, my being from out of state actually worked in Obama’s favor. I was quite surprised– shocked, really.
Generally, to be clear, I also resent that the whole of California is an ATM for out-of-state campaigns, presidential and congressional. In addition, I resent that we pay more in taxes than we are returned in federal spending. From time to time I have to remind myself that California isn’t Texas or Florida or Mississippi. As crappy as the system is practiced here, it’s a whole lot worse in those places. And our weather’s better, too.
One last thing, in addition to the Obama campaign, I also give some time to two local races as well as money to them and a half dozen more because, just as you do, I too know how important they are.
Bill,
With all due respect to a fellow volunteer, whether they mean to or not, the “you don’t count” message is one that I am hearing from Giovanni and other “officials” with the campaign. And I am not the only one hearing it, as others have told me this as well. Like I said, this year, they may be right. California really doesn’t count. So, in the end, I agree with them and what they are trying to accomplish. More power to them!
I too am disappointed in the potential talent drain. Had the people who went out for Kerry stayed here in OC – We could have picked up an additional city council or school board seat.
I attended Camp Obama and saw the national argument presented as if we had more people in Nevada, New Mexico, it might have made a difference. I won’t leave OC, but might be willing to make a few calls.