My First Obama Organizing Event in Red, Red Virginia

In contrast, this past Saturday night, locals were selling "Proud to be a Democrat" t-shirts to a packed house and planning how our efforts in four rural counties could help Barack Obama win the state in November.

This is the story of one Unite For Change event, held in a Presbyterian Church all-purpose room on a hot, humid Saturday evening, four months before the general election.
About three weeks ago, two women in neighboring Madison County posted notice of the event on their "mybo" web page as part of the nationwide Unite for Change effort.  I signed up for the event and mentioned in my RSVP that I had recently contacted the Obama campaign to volunteer full time, offering to help organize Culpeper, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock counties - all very rural and very Republican enclaves in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains about 75 miles from Washington, D.C.

Within 10 minutes of posting my RSVP, I got a call from one of the event hostesses and we discussed my decision to set aside any income producing efforts and spend the next several months working for Obama in this possible, but iffy state (The last Democratic presidential candidate to win this state was Lyndon Johnson).  Slightly frustrated with an inability to get a response from the Obama campaign, she asked me how I was able to make contact with "real humans" on the staff.   I explained that I too was having difficulty proffering what I deemed my most valuable of assets - my undivided time, attention and unfettered commitment.  But I also cautioned that the Virginia operations were just getting started and that when I had been able to connect, the staff members were grateful and encouraging - just not quite outfitted sufficiently in the state to find a definitive role for everyone yet.

We proceeded with arrangements for the event. I contacted my local county Democratic Committee and emailed invitations around to all the people I thought might consider attending.  I also made a bulk purchase of Obama paraphernalia - yard signs, buttons, bumper stickers, figuring that even if the turnout to this first event was light, my $700 purchase of "stuff" surely could go to good use over the course of the entire campaign. Also, wouldn't it be nice, I reasoned, to line the front edge of our property along our dirt road with about 20 Obama yard signs, if for no other reasons than to annoy our one and only neighbor - hard-core Republicans of the horsey set.  

A few days before the event, we got lucky.  One of the newly minted Obama Organzing Fellows contacted the event hostesses and set up a planning meeting.  Although not entirely new to the campaign, he was just getting acclimated to his assigned "beat" of this region.  (A total of 100 Obama Fellows have been assigned to Virginia).  Upbeat, enthusiastic and helpful, this young man gave the meeting preparations a needed punch of purpose and value.

Also, a local reporter interviewed some of the folks helping with the event and yesterday morning, the largest newspaper (which isn't saying much) in the area ran a page 2 story with the headline, "Local Dems to Hold Obama Event Tonight."  

Honestly, I expected about 20 people to attend.  Thirty, and I would have called it a good night.  

My partner Dave and I arrived a half-hour early so we could meet the hosts and set up our table of campaign gear. The church parking lot was empty and the doors were locked.  My hopes for a respectable showing were diminishing.  And consequently, I felt the tug of my conscience: "You're putting your livelihood on hold..... for this?"

A few minutes passed and the hosts arrived. They reported they too had no idea about what to expect in terms of turnout so we proceeded to set up a registration table, put on the coffee, lay out the cookies, and set up 30 or so chairs.  

In the middle of a sudden thunderstorm, folks started to trickle in.  And then, more came.
And we put out more chairs.  And then, there was a line stacked up at the sign-in desk and we put out more chairs.  

It was starting time.  And we still had to add a few more chairs.  Seventy-one people had shown up, some driving two hours or more.

Our hostesses welcomed everyone and noted the importance of this election year.  Citing not only the presidential race, but adding plugs for Senator John Warner and Anita Hartke who is waging an uphill battle for Congress against Bush watercarrier, House Deputy Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Aside: Please donate to Anita Here).

The hostesses introduced our Organizing Fellow who relayed his reasons for joining the campaign, pointing out the strengths of Senator Obama and the importance of Virginia as a swing state in November.  

But he also underscored what he had observed about the campaign as a whole; that it was not only about a fine candidate, but it was also about individual connections and rationales for being involved in this year's election.  He encouraged the audience to share their reasons for attending the event; their reasons for supporting Obama, saying "The beauty of this campaign is that it is personal. You are being asked to do more than vote. It is really more about the people in this room and how you help one another.  Yes, Obama got us here tonight, but the rest is up to us. Everything about this campaign is personal."

And then, one by one, several people in the audience raised their hands and told their stories.

There was the woman with a daughter who worried about the composition of the Supreme Court. Applause. There was the 10-year-old redheaded boy who said he liked Obama not just because his grandparents sitting next to him liked Obama but because Obama would "make the world like us better."  Enthusiastic applause.

And then there was this:

"In 1968, right as I was graduating from nursing school, Martin Luther King, Jr had been killed. Bobby Kennedy had been killed.  I went off to be a nurse in Vietnam and my spirit for caring about politics and believing that things could be changed for the better disappeared.  It's forty years later, and I have Barack Obama to thank for waking me up to what is possible; for waking me up to believe again."

The crowd was hushed and then wildly cheered.  
It was so clear: Everything about this campaign is personal.

We planned and plotted a bit more - ideas for voter registration and outreach in a region where Bush beat Kerry by almost 30 points.  We traded predictions about VP picks and other campaign tidbits and then adjourned only with pledges to do more of this.

Taking the long view, it was only 71 people on a summer Saturday evening.
But it felt like something more.
And at the end of the evening, Dave and I hopped in our pickup truck - the one with no stars and bars, but covered proudly (and haphazardly) in Obama, Warner, Hartke and faded, two-year old Jim Webb stickers.  

Oh, how much fun it is to be a rip-snorting, unabashed Democrat in Virginia this year!

(Crossposted at DailyKos)

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