Night #1 in the Obama Campaign Headquarters

My first round of volunteer help was delayed a few days due to work, but I did make it in last night for my first round of assisting in making calls for the Obama campaign. I had some great observations and experiences in the office.

I was able to help out for 2 hours last night, from 6pm to 8pm. I got there and was greeted by one of the interns working on the campaign. She walked me through the script that they were using for the night for my segment. Recently the campaign had sent brochures and DVD's to Iowa Democratic caucus goers and we were doing follow up calls to these folks to see if they had watched the biographical video and if they had any questions. We were also soliciting where people stood in terms of candidate support with 6 months until the caucus. There was another group of callers calling Dems in the next town over to tell them about an informational meeting that was coming up and inviting them to attend if possible. The office is small, but last night there were 10 volunteers making calls, and another 6-10 that had been out all day (in 90 degree heat) doing door to door canvassing.

Calling during the hours I did is hit or miss as it is dinner time and already busy for folks enjoying summer. I was able to place 89 calls during my two hours...but only made 12 "contacts" or people I was actually able to follow the script with. The rest of the calls were wrong numbers, not homes, or busy signals. Most of my list was populated with college students who had their college addresses listed and obviously were not still on-campus...another voting block difficult to track. Of the 12 folks I got to talk to, 10 were solid undecideds and not leaning toward any particular candidate. The other two were solid Obama supporters, so that was nice. I also was able to solicit one name to help volunteer with the campaign, which is always a great thing.

Overall it was a great time. Lots of volunteers and dinner was provided with more people calling in to help keep the volunteers fed. Being there has a way of sucking you into more helping. I am going to do more calls tomorrow and Monday, working tables at the Jazz Festival in town on Friday, and marching in the 4th of July parade...call me a junkie I guess.

On a related note, I will be updating my Where The Candidates stand piece this weekend once we have a better idea of what the second quarter fundraising looks like. Look for all of the Dems to post some nice numbers. I predict that a fourth candidate will be entering the top tier after this weekend...a name I kept hearing on some of the other calls in the office last night that people are excited about supporting...Gov. Bill Richardson.

Return of the Iowawineguy and Updates From The Field!

That's right, my relocation is nearly complete and I am now alive and well and working back in the state of Iowa, thus Greg the Wisconsin Democrat has become iowawineguy once again. I am currently living in a residence hall on the campus of the University of Iowa until I close on my new home in Coralville on July 6th. The job is going great and is a great breath of fresh air.

Something else smells great here too...the smell of caucus politics! Thick cut pork chops, the Field of Dreams, corn, and first in the nation Presidential voting...Iowa has it all!

I hope to be able to bring you better coverage from the the front lines of the 2008 campaign, at least from the GOOD side. I might even get motivated to go check out the GOP folks if they get close enough...Lord knows there will be plenty of seating...

Tonight I went to the field office for Barack Obama here in Iowa City. The office is in a large cluster of offices in a building in downtown, and is approximately 6 offices down from the Hillary Clinton field office. I got to meet several volunteers tonight as well as the county coordinator and volunteer coordinator Chris. I got a quick tour around the office, which is fairly small, changed my voter registration, signed a caucus pledge card for Obama (I really hope Gore doesn't get in the race now!), signed up for phone bank shifts and took myself a bumper sticker!

My initial impressions are very positive. Based on my experience with the Dean campaign in 2003, the Obama group already seems more organized and off to a better start. Of course Dean had a much harder road to hoe then Obama does these days. Chris said that they were having a large influx of volunteers, many of whom were young and had never done campaigns before (much like Dean). Most interesting was that they were getting a huge flood of high school volunteers, which was a new phenomenon to manage...lots of young people signing pledge cards in anticipation of their 18th birthday...remember these folks don't get polled!

The office already had numerous ways for me to get involved: upcoming July 4th parades, community summer events where they would have tables, canvassing, and phone banking.

Tomorrow night is my first round of phone banking, and I will be sure to report back after to let you know how it goes!