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No title 2008-11-13 12:00:04 Day 11It's GOTV time!It’s all come down to this – and the Obama campaign is focused on the number of touches it can achieve. There are four waves of contacts between now and the close of elections on Tuesday, a feat that could only be accomplished by the army of volunteers that this campaign has been succeeded in mobilizing.I begin my day in Farrell at Zion’s Daily Bread, a temporarily shutt
Ups and Downs 2008-11-10 22:58:07 Day 10Along with our quantitative reporting each evening, we're asked to highlight our ups and downs; that is, what went well today and what didn't. They're occasionally lighthearted and often insightful views from the field.From another Western Pennsylvania field office came this summary:Ups: In 3 days Barack Obama will be elected president. Downs: In 3 days I’ll be unemployed.And our submissi
An Army of Volunteers 2008-11-10 22:05:51 Day 9There are pundits who say that Barack Obama has set a new standard in how to run a campaign, and it'll be the one copied in future Presidential elections. They may be right that he's set a new standard, but I don't believe it can be easily copied. Whether it's the gravitas that he has brought to the difficult issues America faces, or the charisma and energy he's shown in his stump speeches, B Read more:Volunteers
Houdini: Is it Magical? 2008-11-10 21:41:16 I've begun hearing about a new technology that the Obama campaign plans to use on Election Day. It's called Houdini, and if it works as it's supposed to, it'll surely be magic -- and a new requisite tool for all campaigns in the future. Tonight, we're doing a dry run of Houdini, entering bogus data to ensure that the system can collate data from multiple sources. Last week, I'm told, there was ano Read more:Magical
Race Cuts Both Ways 2008-11-10 21:32:51 Day 2Anyone who says that Race isn’t an issue – negative or positive – probably hasn’t done any campaigning in 2008. In my canvassing today, I was in quite a run down neighborhood of Sharon, PA. Knocking on the door of an apartment above a retail establishment, the young black man who greeted me said that his mom was away.I was looking for his mother, and asked him if he knew how she might
Arriving in Sharpsville, PA 2008-11-10 21:32:04 Tuesday Evening. Two weeks until Election Day.The drive from Baltimore to Sharpsville, PA was quite a bit longer than I’d expected. On the far Western edge of Pennsylvania – literally bordering on Ohio, and a bit closer to Erie and the northern border of Pennsylvania than to Pittsburgh and the southern border of the state – Mercer County is certainly off the beaten track. It has many of the Read more:Arriving
Canvassing in Sharon, PA 2008-11-10 21:31:39 Day 1This was my first full-day of campaigning, with 14 days to go until the election.In door-to-door canvassing, most people were quite polite, and the majority were supportive of Barack Obama. In a visit to a low-income housing project in Sharon
, PA, I was reminded of the opportunity and the challenge faced by the campaign. Without exception, everyone we spoke to supported Obama – this was per
The Fact-Based Campaign 2008-11-10 21:31:10 Day 1This is a fact-based campaign. It seems that everything that happens has been scripted – and is based upon facts. Just as a salesman knows that his success is a numbers game, so too does the Obama campaign. The more prospects that the salesman touches, the more successful he’ll be; the more prospective voters this campaign touches, the more likely these people will be to turn out for Bara Read more:Campaign
Conference Calls & the Relentless March 2008-11-10 21:30:44 Day 3Competition among nearby field offices in Western Pennsylvania is an incredible motivational tool. Each day we have a conference call to go over our numbers. Of course, everyone has seen them already in the online spreadsheet. Again, this campaign embraces technology and what it has to offer; rather than sending around Excel spreadsheets which would need to be aggregated, the Pennsylvania tea Read more:Conference Calls
, March
The GOTV March 2008-11-10 21:30:18 Day 4Saturday morning marked the 7-day countdown to GOTV. There seemed to be a change in our office with the election becoming imminent. Even though two of our three staffers - Erhardt and Seth - only recently joined the campaign, there's an awareness that this two-year old campaign is now in its last week. It's do or die.There are some tangible changes as well. Our phone bank focus has shifted to Read more:March
This is Hillary Country 2008-11-10 21:29:54 Day 5Today was spent coordinating volunteers and canvassing with other volunteers. Regardless of where you are in Mercer County, you learn quickly that this is HillaryCountry
. And, you won't soon forget it! Her appeal to white, blue collar voters is strong and persistent. Moreover, there's no discernible difference between men and women as there was nationally.Across the country, you see quite a
Penn State-Ohio State: a Friendly Competition 2008-11-10 21:29:30 Day 6This weekend the State
.htm">Penn State
– Ohio
State game was the excuse for an enormous volunteer campaign to see voters, eye-to-eye. The numbers are in for a contest between the Obama field organizations in Ohio and Pennsylvania to knock on the most doors over the weekend.Unfortunately, Ohio won with 385,685 knocks to Pennsylvania’s 378,501 knocks. (Considering the state’s history with flawed cou Read more:Friendly
, Ohio State
The Guv Comes to Town 2008-11-10 21:29:05 Day 7The big event in Mercer County Tuesday was a visit by Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell. He is doing a bus tour of Western Pennsylvania – visiting those places that are typically passed over by the candidates. While Obama recently stopped in to Pittsburgh, it’s a pretty certain bet we won't see him in Farrell! It’s the job of surrogates to head off to lesser populated regions in battlegr
Real World Stories 2008-11-10 21:28:42 Day 8Two stories caught my attention today. The Obama office is almost like a switchboard: we're broadly connected into the community and into the campaign, and we hear stories from all corners.One of today's stories related to the shock one of our volunteer phone bankers experienced when she opened this morning's paper. It's the sort of story that sends a chill down your spine. Last evening, a v Read more:Stories
, World
Is Greenville Really Conservative? 2008-11-10 20:13:04 Mercer County is a large bit of land, with a few city centers. Most of the population is in four cities in the Shenango Valley: Farrell, Sharon, Hermitage and Sharpsville. However, there are population centers elsewhere in the county, principally Grove City and Greenville. In the Northern part of the county, Greenville stands alone as the only community with relatively dense population. The campai
Grassroots At Its Best! 2008-11-10 20:11:46 I joined Mike at the weekly meeting of the Mercer County for Obama group. For over a year, this grassroots group has been meeting on Thursday nights at Quaker Steak, a very large bar in Sharon, PA.It's ironic that they chose Sharon as their meeting location, because the local Democratic party has been anything but kind to Obama. It's leader was a devout supporter of Hillary Clinton's, and upon Cli Read more:Grassroots
A Tale of Two Campaigns 2008-11-09 22:27:15 We’ve had our first snow of the season in Western Pennsylvania this morning. It was only about an inch, but it offered a pristine blanket over the colorful Fall canvas.Last night, the fifth World Series game in Philadelphia was called due to rain, and the weather hasn’t improved at all. It was freezing and raining all over Pennsylvania today. Undaunted, Barack Obama went ahead with his rally a Read more:Campaigns
It's Like the Military 2008-11-09 21:38:48 During my time with the campaign, I’ve noticed that its field operations are driven by a couple of guiding objectives: 1) place exceptional people with intellect and energy in every position, and 2) define every position is carefully and clearly in well-documented descriptions.This approach is actually a good deal like the military. Every person in a position of responsibility is exceptional, an Read more:Military
Barack & The Steelers 2008-11-09 12:20:55 Among my many phone calls tonight, I spoke to a prospective volunteer in Farrell. Initially, I'd called Jeannette to help drive turnout for a stump speech that Governor Rendell will be making next week in Farrell. It’s a big event because Mercer County, like many lesser populated regions, typically receives much less attention than voter rich cities like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Governor Ren Read more:Barack
, Steelers
A Campaign without Traditional Phone Lines 2008-11-08 12:14:06 My second day began with a short drive to another field office in New Castle, a small city in Lawrence County – with an attractive old downtown. The goal was to retrieve some cell phones; rumor had it that there were as many as 12 phones available there for our Mercer County campaign, but I was just able to snag four. Still, that made the trip quite worthwhile! In my short time in the office, th Read more:Campaign
, Lines
, Traditional
Hope For a Smarter Planet 2008-12-02 16:45:02 This blog was launched to share personal campaign experiences, but with the election over it's time to move on to other topics. I've worked in science and technology for much of my career and would like to use this forum to explore those issues as they relate to government policy, economics, and society.One of Barack Obama's best decisions was to select two words by which his campaign was known:
If you've got to eat... 2008-12-01 11:35:23 Harry Truman once said, "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." I've rarely met anyone who embodies that spirit more than Mark Longietti.Mark is a Pennsylvania State Representative who serves in the State's lower house. The first time I met Mark, I'd been told by Mike that an elected official would be coming by the Sharpsville office to do some phonebanking.
A World Hoping for Change 2008-11-30 22:56:07 There were two Election Night parties we wanted to attend: the Mercer County Democratic Committee's party at the American Legion Hall in Sharpsville, and the Mercer County for Obama celebration in Sharon, back at the Grassroots' groups meeting place, Tully's.We had made friends in both the Democratic Party and in the Grassroots group, and it was important to see everyone during what we hoped woul Read more:Change
, World
Waiting For McCain 2008-11-30 21:00:50 I've come to be aware that Don Christof can make insightful comments -- even when he's blustering. And, at 11:30am on Sunday, Don did just that. "Just remember, there’s no one at the McCain
office right now." Simple, straightforward. And, without a doubt, he was right. This felt somewhat surreal, like Waiting
for Godot. Were we missing something? There were virtually no signs of a McCain ground
The Campaign Ends 2008-11-30 12:20:45 8:00 PM came and passed. Pennsylvania's polls were closed. The campaign was over.The volunteers at Zion's Daily Bread were fabulous helpers at the end of the day, just as at the beginning. We had used every square inch of that restaurant, with perhaps a couple of hundred people coming and going during the day: it was a mess! I knew the campaign wanted us to begin calling voters in Midwestern stat Read more:Campaign
A Blank Canvas(s) 2008-11-30 11:58:12 Election Day: Early EveningIf there's a way to end this campaign in style, it is going out for a final canvass with Stephen. We took one of the new walk lists that presumably incorporated Houdini data. It was perfectly flawed as it turned out: each person we visited claimed to have voted earlier in the day.We visited twelve homes, and the Obama voters at each convincingly told us that they had a Read more:Canvas
Wave Action 2008-11-30 11:45:19 Day 13I know we've got four waves of contacts scheduled for GOTV weekend, but I haven't really focused on the details. Somehow, we're going to touch as many voters in our GOTV universe as we can during these four hectic days, employing those 934 volunteer shifts.The only detail I've focused on is a door hanger that will be distributed to targeted voters' homes on Monday. (Door hangers are oversize Read more:Action
Houdini's Death Defying (Last) Act 2008-11-30 11:40:49 Election Day: NoonThis is what it's all come down to: our efforts in Mercer County in the weeks and months leading up to Election Day were focused on developing the knowledge of who our supporters are -- and using the Obama campaign's tools to ensure these supporters vote. There are just a handful of hours between learning which supporters haven't yet voted, and the closing of the polls.Houdini Read more:Defying
Each Vote Counts 2008-11-25 10:35:02 Election Day: Late Afternoon (part A)While the canvassers were regrouping for our last GOTV push, the phonebank had grown substantially. At Farrell alone, there were more than 20 men and women calling Obama supporters. When I arrived at Sharpsville, I counted another 14 phonebankers.The failure of Houdini didn't hinder our efforts -- though they were certainly poorly targeted! By 4pm callers were Read more:Counts
Houdini's Final Gasp 2008-11-24 22:03:55 Election Day: Late Afternoon (part B)It's interesting, but there don't seem to be any 'crisis' plans to follow should Houdini fail. Yes, it was tested in advance. But things still break! And that's what's happened on Election Day in Mercer County, Pennsylvania.By 3:30pm I decided to head over to Sharpsville and see if I might help in reasoning through our next steps. Moreover, as a volunteer, my Read more:Final
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