Getting Organized
Kevin Holsapple
Posted: 07.20.2008 / 10:23 AM EDT
Coming home to Los Alamos this week I noticed a very visible organizing effort getting underway here by the Obama campaign. I crossed paths several times with Eugene Chow, a campaign representative from San Francisco who is assigned here to mobilize support. Eugene is a likeable young man who exhibits a good blend of energy for his work together with respectfulness for what must seem like the slower pace of a smaller town than I would guess he may be used to. He seems to be either trained or experienced for the organizing task — not just a volunteer left to figure it out on his own. He hosted an organizing session yesterday aimed at making contact with potential volunteer campaigners and answering questions. I understand from friends who went that it was well-attended … overflowing the meeting room. Reportedly, some attendees identified themselves as Republicans who want to be involved in the local effort to support Obama.
I have been asking around and I have not been able to identify any corrollary organizing effort by the McCain campaign.
Although I’m not one who has tuned into political campaigns much before getting involved with the Patchwork Nation blog, I do not recollect ever seeing anything quite like the Obama organizing effort that is being initiated here. The most I have seen in the past has been seat-of-the-pants advocacy led by local party leaders/committees. In those cases, I did not perceive much activation of people as campaigners beyond their small circles. It will be interesting to see what Eugene and his help can accomplish here, and whether anything similar will be attampted by the McCain campaign.
[I’m just returning to our “monied burb” following six weeks of vacation and travel. I hope to get to writing about some observations on the campaign from some of the places I visited.]
