"Special Delivery"
Under the headline "Special Delivery," the National Journal has more on today’s event on Capitol Hill:
Organizing For America dispatched 200 volunteers today to Capitol Hill armed with citizen pledges supporting Pres. Obama’s budget.
"Look at this, I got goosebumps when I saw it," said Caroline Joss, a Washington, DC, resident, when she wandered into OFA’s makeshift dispatch center at Democratic National Committee headquarters. "It’s evidence of how you keep volunteers mobilized and pushing an agenda."
Stacked neatly in small bundles and wrapped in rope bows, the pledges were organized by district and stacked on tables in the room usually reserved for party press conferences. At the front of the room on a flat screen television hovered the Obama campaign ‘O’ – the rising sun over the red and white horizon. Volunteers streamed in and out, picking up the computerized pledges, which featured citizen names, cities, states and zip codes, but not actual signatures.
… Volunteers were assigned House members, provided with addresses and sent on their way, and then, if their schedules allowed, they’d return for another shipment. The Senate pledges were boxed by state, awaiting the vetting required of all mail to members, said Mitch Stewart, OFA director.
One commonality among volunteers who turned out is that they were highly engaged in the campaign. Joss said she worked in Manassas during the general election to help turn the Commonwealth blue. Mayberry, a federal government worker who took the day off to participate, created a Web site for Obama.
… Ken Schulz, a PA field staffer for Obama during the campaign, noted that before this campaign, a newly elected president would say, "thank you, I’ll take it from here." But Obama is proving with OFA that he wants more from his volunteers than just their votes, Shulz said.
"It’s more about supporting the guy that I busted 120 hours a week for," said Schulz, who lives in Arlington and found out about today’s event on My.BarackObama.com. "I didn’t work that hard to see what he ultimately achieved fail."
The National Journal also noted that Rep. Anh Joseph Cao (R-LA) was the Republican whose district produced the most signatures. Rep. Cao is notably one of the few Republican representatives who has publicly said that he may vote in favor of the President’s budget. In all, over 640,000 individual pledges will be delivered to congressional representatives over the course of the day.
In the meantime, supporters across the country are continuing to call their congressional members to express their support for the commitments to health reform, education and energy independence that President Obama outlined in his budget proposal. There is still time to contact your representatives and let them know where you stand:
Under the headline "Special Delivery," the National Journal has more on today’s event on Capitol Hill:
Organizing For America dispatched 200 volunteers today to Capitol Hill armed with citizen pledges supporting Pres. Obama’s budget.
"Look at this, I got goosebumps when I saw it," said Caroline Joss, a Washington, DC, resident, when she wandered into OFA’s makeshift dispatch center at Democratic National Committee headquarters. "It’s evidence of how you keep volunteers mobilized and pushing an agenda."
Stacked neatly in small bundles and wrapped in rope bows, the pledges were organized by district and stacked on tables in the room usually reserved for party press conferences. At the front of the room on a flat screen television hovered the Obama campaign ‘O’ – the rising sun over the red and white horizon. Volunteers streamed in and out, picking up the computerized pledges, which featured citizen names, cities, states and zip codes, but not actual signatures.
… Volunteers were assigned House members, provided with addresses and sent on their way, and then, if their schedules allowed, they’d return for another shipment. The Senate pledges were boxed by state, awaiting the vetting required of all mail to members, said Mitch Stewart, OFA director.
One commonality among volunteers who turned out is that they were highly engaged in the campaign. Joss said she worked in Manassas during the general election to help turn the Commonwealth blue. Mayberry, a federal government worker who took the day off to participate, created a Web site for Obama.
… Ken Schulz, a PA field staffer for Obama during the campaign, noted that before this campaign, a newly elected president would say, "thank you, I’ll take it from here." But Obama is proving with OFA that he wants more from his volunteers than just their votes, Shulz said.
"It’s more about supporting the guy that I busted 120 hours a week for," said Schulz, who lives in Arlington and found out about today’s event on My.BarackObama.com. "I didn’t work that hard to see what he ultimately achieved fail."
The National Journal also noted that Rep. Anh Joseph Cao (R-LA) was the Republican whose district produced the most signatures. Rep. Cao is notably one of the few Republican representatives who has publicly said that he may vote in favor of the President’s budget. In all, over 640,000 individual pledges will be delivered to congressional representatives over the course of the day.
In the meantime, supporters across the country are continuing to call their congressional members to express their support for the commitments to health reform, education and energy independence that President Obama outlined in his budget proposal. There is still time to contact your representatives and let them know where you stand: