Recently, pollsters have moved Pennsylvania from a toss-up, battleground state to leaning or, according to Real Clear Politics, leading Obama, but Democrats are not taking the state for granted. Bill Clinton carried the mid-Atlantic state twice, Gore and Kerry carried it in 2000 and 2004, and the Democrats are determined to carry it again this year. The Keystone state is an important key to an Obama victory and each week surrogates for the Democratic candidate stream into the state to keep the momentum going, adding new supporters in the process.
On October 13, Senator Hillary Clinton spoke to an enthusiastic crowd at a rally in the Philadelphia suburb of Jenkintown, Montgomery County. Three days later, Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), chair of the congressional Oversight and Government Reform Committee, stopped by the Pennsylvania for Change office in Center City Philadelphia to talk to staff and volunteers moving full-speed ahead to get out the vote. Waxman then addressed voters at the Main Line Reformed Temple in Wynnewood, Montgomery County. A large voter turnout in Philadelphia combined with victories in Philly suburbs like Montgomery County will give Obama the edge in Pennsylvania.
"This is a very important state," Waxman told the staff and volunteers, "We have so many Democrats in Philadelphia; we need to get them to the polls on November 4."
Representative John Murtha (D-PA) said last week that some parts of western Pennsylvania are racist and might not vote for Obama. James Carville famously once described Pennsylvania as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with Alabama in the middle. With ideas like this in mind, McCain--in spite of polls that give Obama a 13-point lead--still looks to turn Pennsylvania red.
Cindy McCain spoke in Luzerne County on Saturday and Sarah Palin was in the state last week. As a Pennsylvanian whose family came to northeastern Pennsylvania from Connecticut in the 1790s--as free African Americans--I beg to differ with Carville's assessment. I cannot speak for Mutha's western counties, but Pennsylvania for the most part, is not a conservative, right-wing state--it is a moderate state. African Americans lived as free people -- and landholders in Pennsylvania decades before the Emancipation Proclamation. My great-grandfather who was born in 1866 and his older brothers attended an integrated school (they were the only African-Americans in the school) in rural Susquehanna County, a county that prior to the Civil War was decidedly anti-slavery and played a significant role in the Underground Railroad. This largely "white" county has maintained all my family's historic records since the late eighteenth century.
Today, Pennsylvania's governor, Ed Rendell, and one of the state's US senators, Bob Casey, are both Democrats; the Republican US senator, Arlen Specter, is a moderate. Former governor, Tom Ridge was a pro-choice moderate Republican and conservative Republican senator, Rick Santorum, was voted out of office in 2006 after one term. Small towns in Pennsylvania, like the one in Luzerne County where I grew up, have been hard hit by this economy. The factories that once employed working-class citizens are long gone. The anthracite coal mines that attracted immigrants to the area in the 19th century and provided jobs well into the 1960s are gone. There is no manufacturing, and year after year, for lack of opportunity, young people move away taking their skills and talents with them. Tough economic times bring with them frustration that sometimes expresses itself as anger toward others, sadly that anger is their alternative to despair. Small town Pennsylvanians, like so many small town Americans, have been unfairly painted with one wide brush. Sarah Palin doesn't represent small town America. There are proportionately as many open-minded, forward-looking Americans in small towns as there are in big cities, and as many bigoted, backward looking people in big cities across the US as there are in the nation's small towns. Educational and economic opportunities play a major role in combating racism everywhere.
Describing Obama as authentic, fresh, creative and a real clear change for our country, Representative Waxman reminded campaign staff and volunteers of why this election is extraordinarily important and historic, "In the last eight years, our middle class has been wiped out, our foreign policy is in shambles, and now the stock market threatens our economy," he said, "The contrast between Senator Obama and Senator McCain is so clear."
In his capacity as chair of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Waxman said his two most important issues are energy technology and health care. Developing alternative energy technologies will provide new jobs at home and decrease our dependence on oil from other countries -- which means the money now spent on foreign oil will be spent in the US. In addition to providing universal health care for Americans, health care reform will include regulating the insurance industry.
I asked Congressman Waxman whether, if Obama is elected, he will review the recent financial bailout package. "Yes," he said, "we will review the bailout to make sure it is working. We want regulations so that capitalism is working for everybody, not just a few. For homeowners who face foreclosure and bankruptcy, we have to see to it that the terms of their mortgages are readjusted so they can keep their homes and continue to pay affordable mortgages." When I expressed concern that the country is now facing a period as bleak as the Great Depression, Waxman looked me in the eye and said thoughtfully, "I don't think we'll have a crisis like we had in the 30s, but people are going to be hurting, people will lose their jobs, they will lose their homes, and they will lose their health care." If there is a proverbial silver lining to this dire prediction, it is that, as Waxman said, "The crisis will make Americans open to doing things that are more sweeping in scope--like universal health care."
After the congressmen left, I spoke with volunteers and asked what issues concern them most in this election cycle. Allidah Muller, 26, is an elementary school teacher at a private, Friends (Quaker) school in Philadelphia. Originally from South Carolina, Muller graduated from Harvard with a degree in Art History, with a concentration in contemporary art. Education is her priority and she is impressed with Obama's ideas about education. "I love his ideas about giving financial aid to students in exchange for public service," she said. "And I'm pro-charter schools and against vouchers. Vouchers are not a good idea. All they do is steal from schools that are struggling." After teaching in a school and family program at the Whitney Museum in New York, Muller decided she wanted to teach full time. "At the Whitney, I loved working with kids. Their responses to contemporary art were fresh and unique," she said, "and they made me want to try classroom teaching." Muller moved to Philadelphia where she now teaches second and third grade, a job she relishes. Because she isn't certified, her salary is lower than teachers in the public school system. She would like to go to graduate school and continue her education, but it isn't affordable. "On a teacher's salary, how do you fund a master's degree?" she commented. Her support for Obama isn't confined to her interest in education, "I feel that we need a change, a fresh perspective and I feel as strongly about his ideas on the economy as I do about his ideas on education," she explained. Obama's marketing style has, also, pleased the former art history major, "I've been impressed with the way this campaign has branded itself, graphic design, the Obama logo, even the commercials are more like mini-documentaries than campaign ads," she said, "It's a very positive brand."
