Illinois Volunteers Have Created "the Biggest Electoral College State"

Al, Indiana's primary was on May 6, not June 6 (a day which we all remember, along with the NC primary, as the day when Obama really won the nomination).

Elliot - Thanks for the correction. I'll fix that now!

Oh, and excellent article Al, this shows exactly why Obama is probably the best nominee for this political environment. I've felt this way for a long time now, but this remake of the map would never have happened if we would've nominated Hillary Clinton, we still would've won the election, but the map would've never been remade in the way Obama has done it.

Al, thanks for highlighting what I think is one of the truly underreported field organizing stories this year--that of the incredible efforts of Chicagoans to turn out the vote in neighboring states.

This, I think is one of the key reasons that Democrats ought to continue to look west and south for presidential nominees because, for example, a Bostonian's hometown loyalists have such a longer drive to get to competitive areas.

And the nature of this campaigning means that Obama can play offense in these states very cheaply.  While McCain would have to spend money to build significant ground organizations, Plouffe just sends out a text message to the entire City of Chicago telling them where they're headed on any given weekend, and there's a flood of volunteers! So, we Chicagoans have welcomed McCain's misguided attempts to pour money into Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, cuz we're happy to take a nice midwestern tour.

Had a great time at the Billy Goat last night. Let's get organizin'!

It was so great to get to meet you last night and I so enjoyed the political conversation with you and the Chicago Field Hands.  It's nice to read a story about all those Illinois volunteers trekking to neighboring states every weekend.  Perhaps in politics at least we are not the Second City to New York...  (btw,I think you mean 2008 and not 2005 in the first sentence.)

p.s. I enjoyed the music video from Madison that someone posted on the previous thread - love that song.

Should be 2008:

OCTOBER 25, 2005

who live outside Chicago have gone to Iowa twice now to knock on doors.

Telegraph, UK is saying the repubs are in a "civil" war. Kinda ironic.

amk

My parents are from the Gary area and I grew up next to there, so this election is really special to me. In particular, seeing people from such different backgrounds come together to elect a transformational figure like Obama is just such a good thing it's hard to put into words.

This is just great reporting on an issue that's flown under the radar. Kudos.

Thanks for posting the video, Palo. I'm so happy that someone captured the evening!

about how Obama over-performed in states bordering Illinois. Great analysis.

Just a bit of history and geography to consolidate Al's point, though I expect it will sound like hubris from someone who's roots are still sunk deep in that neck of America.

What do all the states in that mega voting district have in common that folks out East — and West, for that matter — take for granted but often forget binds other regions of the country inland?

Water, water everywhere ... and many drops to drink — the Great Lakes and the Mississippi. The history of the region was built on those waterways and remains a binding tie to this day. Finally glad someone from the "East" recognized there's more than horses and wagon trains west of the Allegheny Mountains. 

Or, as some have come to think of it: The Rust Belt.

That brand, though, is worn with pride in the region; as Neil Young foreshadowed some years ago: "Rust never sleeps."

Welcome to the junkyard.

talking point about draft inaugural address made by Obama.

While this charge is completely false and there is no draft of an inaugural address for Sen. Obama, the last thing we need is a candidate like John McCain who just plans on rereading George Bush’s.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14940.html

amk

Excellent post.  It is great to see all the Chicagoans coming to Indiana to help. Democrats here in Indiana are fired up and having additional volunteers from Chicago keeps the enthusiasm level high.  It's all about GOTV -- if it happens, we win! 

(Sorry to ask again...)

I was just wondering if anyone had posted / found the video from either the Wisconsin event or the Chicago event.

Thanks!

Des Moines Register Endorses Obama

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081025/OPINION03/810260320&th...

But it sounds like you got the story anyway-- that there are more volunteers there than are imaginable.  When the UofC people got there, we found that there wasn't enough turf for us to walk!

It was truly amazing how many people were putting in so much time for this campaign.

Also, I had a lot of fun at the Billy Goat and am looking forward to the 6th!

Fired Up and Ready to GO!

A week and a half to go.  And damn this feels good.  Our group made 1200 calls today, zeroing in on the areas where the campaign sees the need.

Yes we can!

http://www.adn.com/opinion/view/story/567867.html

Not surprising, considering their recent coverage of Palin's foibles, but still, that one's gotta hurt.

From tomorrow's Washington Post: "The AP is Breaking More than News".

A new view of Burnham's "Chicago Plan" which included the 4 shoreline states: Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. In 1908 it was a plan for managing growth, transportation, and most importantly identity through land use. A hundred years later the plan is stronger than it ever was, boasting a network of tremendous economic and political strength. Chicago metropolitan area has a population of 6.5 million, more than the state of Indiana. 

I live in East Chicago, Indiana (pop. 30,000), and we have seen several hundred Chicago and Illinois volunteers hitting our streets every weekend for the last two months. This is been the case through out the region. You might want to say that this movement has been dependent on a great weekend migration, a mid-western spin on eco-tourism in the tradition of the missionary worker. They carry with them a vision for better-times. 

Chicago is known as "the city of big shoulders" for a reason.  

That's a good WaPo article on the AP.  Notice, Fieldhands, how some of the newspapers that formerly depended on AP are starting to form their OWN cooperative networks and bypassing the gatekeeper.  Where have we heard that before?

That has been the idea from the start of the ground game.  Illinois Ambassadors for Obama making day trips on the weekends to our neighboring states.  It was a great day in Janesville Wisconsin yesterday, with the GM plant closing very soon there, we saw huge support for Senator Obama.  These fine citizens knew who had vision for the future, and the local paper had printed a story that stated Obama will win Janesville yesterday.

It was wonderful to put faces to all the Chicago Fieldhands and Al on Friday at the Billy Goat.  Looking forward to the future work at hand!

I really do wish I could be there.  These reports really help.  I live in Canada and get excited to see one other car with an Obama bumper sticker. 

But mostly want to say a word about the phone bankers, well, one particular one.  My sister has been phoning rural Missouri (she lives in St. Louis) and getting a lot of grief.  I so admire her for doing it, because she's a quadriplegic.  She can't get out and canvass on the streets like I did in the spring in PA, but she does whatever she can.  She is super-motivated, having worked as a social worker for years.  I just want you all to imagine a person who can't move more than her head putting all she has into this.

The same process is happening in Nevada.  Though I live in Northern California, I just spent the past week in the Las Vegas satelitte city of Henderson.  Each weekend, dozens of L.A. volunteers drive in to work at just the one Henderson field office I worked out of.  There was enough coverage in Henderson (pop. 200,000) that doors I knocked on last Sunday, I was able to visit again on Thursday.

Think of that: re-canvassing neighborhoods once a week.  Has any campaign ever done something like that?

It seems the good people of Illinois are organizing themselves out of a Senator.  Al has already speculated who would take Joe Biden's place.  Care to speculate who would take Senator Obama's place?

Talk about chills running up and down my limbs upon reading this(I guess this means I truly have graduated into political nerd-dom)! I couldn't be more excited about the Obama Campaign's steady, unwavering offensive in Indiana--- I was born and bred in Northern IN, and man-oh-man, if(when?!) it goes blue-- wow.  We were always used to the "red-state" mentality, feeling unquestionably insignificant, no political candidate ever coming to say a word.  It wasn't until I was grown and living in WI that I actually felt engaged in national politics in any meaningful way-- or even saw my first national political ad.

As for the meaning of all this for a place like Gary-- I remember Peter Jennings did a pretty good report on the history of Gary and white flight back in 2004-- Gary's history is an American Tragedy.  Growing up and driving "over" Gary on the Skyway into Chicago-- it was like driving over Gotham, like driving over hopelessness itself. Getting out the vote there is a truly, truly powerful image.

"Greater New York-ers," are calling and canvassing all over PA.

Apparently AP contracts require newspapers to give 2 years notice before cancelling, but the Spokesman Review in Spokane, Wa has announced that it's not going to wait and will be terminating effective January 2009.  The AP is expected to sue.  In my opinion that probably will be a very stupid move.  I'm sure the Spokesman is expecting a suit and already has their defense lined up.  My guess is the defense will be something along the lines that AP unilaterally changed the "brand" and service newspapers purchased with their new policy of "accountability journalism", which some call "bias".  The list of Fournier headlines in the article aren't just blatantly biased; they are surprisingly non-professional.   

I would also guess that the AP's decision to no longer allow member newspapers to pick and choose particular wire service feeds "cafeteria style", such as signing up for just sports and fashion news instead of a whole package might also be a contract change.  I'm not an attorney but this seems to me to be just common sense that one side cannot unilaterally change fundamental parts of the contract and expect it to hold.    

I also think it's just plain dumb to piss off so many newspaper editors with the same tone deaf ear AP management displayed to the complaints from "left wing blogs".     

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/24/AR2008102402757_2.html

I had a very enjoyable time with you and my new Field Hand friends. What a great group of folks. Thanks.

Here's my PSB post on you, the event, this post, and the next event Nov 6.

Thanks again.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/10/rep_jesse_jackson_jr_endorsed.html

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081026/NEWS0301/81026029/1014/OPINION

Interesting article in The Guardian with stories from friends of Obama from grade school through to today.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/26/barackobama-uselections2008

KD

'Doggone it, Barack,' he said. 'If you were more liberal in your card playing and more conservative in your politics, we'd get along much better.'

Loved it. Saved it.

amk

And our top local organizers are now in the far-flung land of Florida this weekend.

I am reduced to sending postcards into the gated senior enclaves in Florida, having little other work left to do around here. ;^)

An Ohio Democrat sends in this picture of this line outside the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, where thousands of lined up today to vote early. Another photo showed lines of buses outside, as churches had bused their parishoners over.

Meanwhile, in Florida, the latest official numbers show Democrats taking a lead over Republicans in the votes already cast, 871,251 to 818,799. The GOP has a lead in mail ballots, but the Democrats have made up the difference with huge early vote numbers — more than half a million so far.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/26/15524/015/908/642871

Went to a phone bank party in SoCal today, expecting to make calls to NV. There was a change of plans, to test a new phone call system that dials through to actual humans who answer. So much better than making a ton of "not home" calls for each actual human contact. We called voters in Missouri. It was one after another after another contact. They've been working out the bugs in the system, and it ought to be a good tool for the final week of GOTV.

p.s. thanks for the news re: Henderson, NV. I worked out of that office the weekend after the first debate (that was a week after they'd had their office opening party), and will prolly work out of that office for the final push before the election. I also made some decorations for that office (the dotted Yes We Can and Si Se Puede signs, and some SMILE signs near the phones). It's nice to think that other fieldhands have been to the same place and seen the signs and (more importantly) have canvassed the same areas that I have.

Since September, I've been spending my weekends first in Michigan and now in Wisconsin, but I've never thought of my efforts in the grand scheme of things. My focus has been on helping out the local office of whatever city I'm in that day: knocking on doors, identifying supporters, pursuading undecideds to vote for Obama and generally doing the legwork needed for good datamining before heading back to Chicago. This puts a whole new spin on all those doors I've knocked on. nice!

In Vegas this week on business and spoke with a Republican friend who mentioned he saw an Obama ad out here that he felt was one of the best political ads he'd ever seen. Just Obama talking to the camera and basically closing the deal. My friend's response after seeing the ad was, "This election is over." And he's a hardcore conservative Republican! Anyone see anything like this? Searched the BO site and can't find it.

Hi Everyone, 

I just posted a call for volunteer help to the Chicago Field Hands site. With Lake County, Indiana getting a lot of help from the Chicago area, I wanted to let readers know that we can use volunteer help 2.5 hours further south from Gary.  Terre Haute and Vigo county are actually very important in the strategy to win Indiana. The bigger university towns plus Indy should balance out against the rest of the state. Thus, if we get big gains in an area that went surprisingly strongly for Bush in 2004 (around 7%), we can help tip the state.  

BUT, right now we need volunteer help for Nov. 1-4, especially, Monday the 3rd and Election Day.  

If anyone can come down/over please let me know directly and I can help sign you up for canvassing slots. More info can be found on the Field Hands Chicago discussion thread. 

Thanks for any and all help. 

I'm excited to hear about that, Susan.  Sounds like the autodial technology used by telemarketing call centers.  It dials numbers until it reaches a live response, then connects the call to an available agent.

I ran a phonebank this weekend, and we made about 2000 total calls, but probably only a few percent reached a live voter.

But we were calling sporadic voters in a college area and much of the personal data was old and no longer accurate (# disconnected, person no longer at that number, etc).

Still, I remind our phonebankers that every call they make helps the cause.  If we find a wrong number, we get it out of the database so no one else wastes time calling it.  If people don't answer their phones, their data gets moved over to walk lists for doorknocks.

But I would love to see our volunteers spend more of their time talking to people.

@ nepat:  the ad's up on Jed...it IS awesome...

Can't wait for Wed's 30-minute "O"-fomercial...my  birthday present!

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

while Our Guy is putting up ads with real facts and real answers for America, the "old guy" is wasting trees still trying to spread "questionable ties"...

One commenter on HuffPo said: "Who is Barack Obama...he's the guy I just early voted for!"

McGruff..this just smacks of desperation...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/27/mccain-sends-out-tony-rez_n_138019.html

waterprise2 AKA Pam

Liberal with a Capital L!

There are so many out there that it is dizzying for me to get a real sense.

Is there one good and unbiased pollster that I can follow till 4th ?

amk

Obama 52 McCain 44

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/26/AR2008102602504.html

Amk - There is no more such a thing as an unbiased pollster as there is an unbiased journalist.

However, there are pollsters that have proved more accurate than others. I personally like SurveyUSA, but there are others, and Nate Silver over at 538 "weighs" each pollster's results based on the previous track record of that pollster, making their results more influential in his final estimate, while making the results of the less accurate pollsters weigh less heavily on the tally.

In the end, though, don't believe the polls. Had I believed them too much, I would have had a less successful winter and spring.

pundits that make me dizzy.

I will stick to SUSA to retain what little sanity I have.

amk

amk,

Good call on the problem being with the pundits, but in fact it's better not to pick one pollster, but to follow an aggregation site like pollster.com or fivethirtyeight.com. Any pollster, no matter how good, will produce outliers occasionally, aggregations are less affected by those.

But this Special Ops stuff happening in Syria makes my Wag the Dog radar start to go off...

A week before the election? This has to happen now?

in them at least.

amk

Al: I had hoped to see you Friday but had unfortunately double-booked the evening and missed the opportunity to pass on the following message to you from Christina P:

Please do give him my regards!  He was such a kid when we had friends in common at Montague Farm. MF founded the Alterative Energy Coalition (AEC) which later helped start the Clamshell Alliance.  I don't think we were in the same wave of Seabrook occupiers, though.  He was an inspiring organizer, always had a million ideas...  What is the Billy Goat?

Anyway, I appreciate the insight about the power of Illinois and it's neighbors. Since I moved to Chicago from California, it's sometimes felt like an island of progressive politics in an indifferent ocean. No longer.

Regards, Tom

There are a few things that you missed in his assessment of Illinois volunteers, Al.
 
Obama groups are autonomous neighborhood organizations that take direction and training from local organizers.  The organizers' jobs are to train more organizers who know and live and work in the communities.  To think that having a few hundred people from Chicago coming to Des Moines for a weekend would make much of a dent in my neighbors' minds is a bit of a stretch.  Knocking on doors and running into my parents old friends and church members in my neighborhood is far more important to Obama's overall organization. 
 
A student from the University of Illinois couldn't make the same impact on the people that know me, know my family or live near me.  These people are more likely to trust me, not because they're not nice people, but because they don't know and understand what it's like to live in our neighborhood.
 
I can see the only discernible advantage that Obama has is the overwhelming influence of the Chicago media market, spilling over into northwest counties of Indiana and southern Wisconsin, and to some extent the influence of WGN nationally. 

Thank you for a very thoughtful, and insightful, article.  I have one question.  Is it just Illinois, or could any charismatic Midwestern politician have been able to replicate these results (e.g., Russ Feingold, Claire McCaskell, or Kathleen Sebelius)?

Illinois volunteers have been making the five hour drive to Cleveland and 6 hour drive to Columbus since they locked down Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.