As you may remember from earlier posts, I’m signed up with the Obama database as living in Alexandria, VA (where I volunteered on the campaign).  On Monday, I got an email from Mitch Stewart, Director of Organizing for America, which took over the mantle of Obama for America after the election.  Here’s the text:

“Keith –

President Obama launched the most ambitious effort to stimulate the economy in our nation’s history when he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Tuesday.

Your representatives need to hear from you when they vote for the change you mandated in November. Doing what’s right can be thankless when the culture of Washington tries to make political games out of the issues that matter to everyday Americans.

You’re part of a powerful grassroots movement that can change that dynamic. According to our records, you live in Virginia’s 8th district.

Rep. James Moran, Sen. James Webb, and Sen. Mark Warner‘s votes were crucial to passing the bill and creating and saving jobs in Virginia.

Can you pick up the phone right now to thank Rep. Moran, Sen. Webb, and Sen. Warner?

Rep. James Moran
202-225-4376

Sen. James Webb
202-224-4024

Sen. Mark Warner
202-224-2023

Report your call. (link)

Here are some suggested talking points for your call:

- I’m calling to thank [Congress member's name] for supporting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
- I’ll be watching closely online and in the news how taxpayers’ money is spent in the implementation of this Act.
- I encourage [Congress member's name] to continue working with President Obama to lift America out of this economic crisis.

After your call, please record your feedback here:

http://my.barackobama.com/stimulusthanks

We still have a long way to go, but working together we were able to take this important first step.

With the plan in place, more than 2 million people will be lifted out of poverty, 20 million at risk of losing their health care will be protected, and 3.5 million jobs will be created or saved.

There will be plenty more ways for you to contribute in the weeks and months ahead.

Thank you for your continued support,

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

This is the carrot.  Senators and Congressmen who behave themselves will get praise, and of course the opportunity to open a dialogue with their own constituents too.

As for the stick?  Wait until we get the emails telling us that the local Congressman (of whatever party) is blocking Obama’s new health policy, and that it would be helpful for his constituents to let him know their opinion…

(Aside: Senator Mark Warner, D-VA, mentioned above, is a regular Twitterer – good communications channel for those interested in knowing what their Senator is doing)

From all-you-can-eat sushi to getting thrown out of a restaurant, I’ve had a really great time here, mainly thanks to the great people I ran into.  Both Jeff’s crew, including dcomg and MDM gangs, and the Obama Alexandria, VA office team were very welcoming and great fun to be around.  Particular thanks have to go to Jeff, who originally convinced me that Virginia was the place to come to.

Nods also to 4E, Dave K, Stephen and Cledwyn, and especially to Meredith for organising the chase around the marathon course when Jeff was running.

More nods to the great Obama Alexandria team – Nate, Steve, Chris, Nippy, Elaine, Brad, Dave and so many others not possible to list in one blog post.  The best Data Team this side of the Mississippi deserve their nod too – with skydiving IT guys, Pentagon comms experts, NASA rocket scientists, firefighting organisers, and mouthy 16 year olds.

I’m on the redeye Air France back to Europe tonight.

I came here to help get Barack Obama and Mark Warner elected.  Mission accomplished, as Dubya would say.

I’m in Alexandria, in the DC suburbs, for the next two weeks.  Go Obama & Warner!

A great sign to see outside the “cottage” I’m renting too: a very fresh Obama/Biden ’08 sign.

I’ll be up early tomorrow to cheer on Jeff, who’s running in the Marine Corps Marathon, having lost about 100lbs this year.  Go Jeff, too!

Go Team Jeff!

In Ireland, someone who did that would probably be promoted in most parties (FF & SF anyway) for being a bit of a “cute hoo-er”, as the saying goes.  Over here, getting one over on your opponent by being sly is considered par for the course.  Getting one over on your running mate is considered equally okay in the two bigger parties.

Why are Mark Warner‘s press releases so secret that he doesn’t have them feeding openly on an RSS ticker?  Why does he have a closed list for press releases?  I can understand an occasional issue when it’s under embargo, but surely you have more to gain by letting your supporters and evangelists know exactly what you’re doing and saying (as Labour do here) as it happens.  There isn’t a real security risk in allowing your opponents see what you’re saying 90% of the time.  The only time you want to hold it off for a bit is when you’re embargoing something to hit a particular news cycle.  Surely not a difficult thing to do.  The technology certainly exists.

Anyway, Jim Gilmore can sack all the campaign aides he likes, but he’s not going to win that race.  The last four polls all have Warner 24 points ahead, which, at this stage, is game, set and match barring a total catastrophe.

• Can Sarah Palin look as engaged as Joe Biden in the debate and can Joe Biden not look condescending to Sarah Palin?
• Does McCain go the next two months without any health scare?
• How many people will vote for Mark Warner and John McCain in Virginia? (I’ve a personal interest in that!)
• Can Obama win this election by winning big among blacks, Hispanics, young voters, and intellectual elites but lose blue-collar whites, Catholics and married women?
• Will the debates decide the election and if so, then what’s the final two weeks post-October 15 going to be about?
• How many newly registered voters will ultimately show up at the polls?

All of them interesting, and none of them easy to answer.

By the way, my personal interest in the Virginia race is that I’ve got some friends over there, and I’ll be over myself to volunteer with Governor Mark Warner’s Senate campaign in late October.

In other news, Obama pulled in 500,000 new donors and US$66m in donations in August.  To give you an indication of scale, a normal General Election campaign in Ireland spends about €35,000 (at least officially).  The 500,000 new donors in just one month is probably the more important figure.  Even if they only give ten dollars each between now and election day, that’s an extra $5m to spend on ads in battleground states.