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Notes from the Obama Campaign, #2
One of the counties I organize for the Obama Campaign has some very interesting local politics. The woman who is the local Dem Chairperson is at war with the others in the county party hierarchy. I had been warned by the soon to be elected state Assemblyman and my field director that the Chairwoman, we'll call her Sarah, is hyper-controlling and "all talk and no action". Apparently in the recent past, members of the local Democratic leadership had tried unsuccessfully to take away her Chairmanship.
I decided to deal with the Chairwoman head- on; I called her. Sarah immediately tested me by firing off a number of names of Dem activists in her town and asked if I had talked to them. then she paused, "you haven't talked to Russ, have you?" I later learned that she is also at war with Russ (who is the vice chairman). She described how decimated she had been in 2004 by Kerry's lose and at that point needed to act. At that point she had recently retired, she was in her mid sixties, and everyday she went door to door trying to stir up interest in the local Democratic party. She clearly felt proud and without articulating the words, pointed out that she had established the local Democratic community. I got the feeling that she didn't want me to intrude on her turf. I explained the Obama Campaign's philosophy: we will build a lasting grassroots movement. Unlike other campaign I worked on (congressional campaigns in South Dakota, Ohio, Nevada, and California) this campaign focuses on building strong relationships with community members and working hard to empower them. This philosophy is based on the social science work of the famous organizer Marshall Ganz. He teaches organizing and leadership at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and emphasizes the empowerment of people in the community. We place our focus on developing our own persona narrative, our story, and this is a tool we use to form relationships with community members. After sharing our story, we ask them theirs. The other campaigns I have worked on tend to hand you talking points, a list of doors to knock on, or calls to make. Here we spend little time talking policy. If we speak openly and put our selves at risk by telling our very personal story, it will inspire community members to open up about their lives. Our goal is to identify and befriend like minded people who have not been politically active and have them open their homes and hold house meetings so all their contacts become more involved in the Campaign. Those that attend house meetings may be inspired to hold their own house meeting and/or become involved in voter registration efforts. The concept is to build a grassroots infrastructure of empowered community members who will become part of a national structure; this network of grassroots, progressive activists will be in place and ready to move in future campaigns (either issue- oriented, which the Obama Administration plans on using, or elections).
But the local Chairwoman had no interest in holding her own house meeting and didn't seem interested to help; she told me that she would prefer to have a "supervising" role. I decided to end the conversation as soon as I could by pretending that my wife was calling on the other line.
I got a call a few days later from Sarah; she told me that I was making to many calls to people in her district and that I should "just cool it, Alex." I brushed her off with a joke and mentioned that in the previous phone call she had complained to me about how lazy the previous Democratic organizers had been. I finally met her in person at a State Senator's fund raiser. At this event held in a park, the Senator wore cowboy boots and sang cowboy songs for the crowd as he grilled burgers from cows off his ranch. I had been at this event not 5 minutes, sitting next to Sarah, when the number 3 person in the local Democratic party walked up to the Chairwoman and said in a loud voice that she was going to hold an emergency meeting to revoke Sarah's chairmanship. Though Sarah had been terse and obstinate, it was still difficult to see her embarresed in front of a large crowd. Later that night, after her husband, she and I left the fundraiser and returned to her home, she explained how she had been at war with others in the local Dem party. Basically they have personality conflicts that are years old; to me they seem stubborn and threatened by each other. I spent the night chatting with her; I explained my story, and she shared her complaints about local small town politics to me and how she had got involved in the Democratic party. By the end of the night she still would not agree to host a house meeting and mentioned again her desire to help "supervise" others. I told her that I was interested in approaching those in her community who had not been traditionally involved in politics (for me this is where the growth of our movement stems from). She seemed to like the notion of me not contacting her loyalists and helping to build her party. That was last week; after multiple more phone conversations in which we discussed me trying to pull in new community members to be more politically involved, she turned from an obstacle to an ally. Last night, Sarah e-mailed all the Dems on her local e-mail list and described me as "a pediatrician who really cares about changing our country" and encouraged them to meet with me.
On a slightly different note, I worked as an usher last week at a speech Obama made in Colorado Springs about community service. The speech was great. Afterwards I made my way upstairs; I will admit I may have been hoping to bump into Obama. I ran into a couple I know that are Latino leaders in Pueblo. They introduced me to Frederico Pena (former Secretary of Transportation and Energy) and we chatted for a while; I explained to them my story. I could tell that the crowd of 10- 15 were waiting to meet Obama, because they were well dressed in suits, and kept glancing down the hall anxiously at the Secret Service. Sure enough, a few minutes later the Secret Service ushered us into a small room. The head of the Colorado Obama Campaign entered the room and stared to hit people up for donations; I kept my head down. A few minutes later in walked Obama. We were lined up in a semi crescent greeting line, and he walked down the line stopping to chat with each of us. I told him my name, how proud I was to meet him. I briefly explained my story about how I am a Pediatrician volunteering this summer with his organizing fellowship. He asked me to repeat my name and he said my name back to himself. He asked if I as enjoying the summer and I told him I was having a ball! Here is our pics.