Obama Field Organizers Plot A Miracle

This article, covering the Obama campaign's approach to the February 5 primary, is the first in a series investigating the evolution of field organizing in the 2008 presidential campaign. In it, Exley juxtaposes his own experiences from working inside the 2004 presidential cycle with the impact a more mature online world is having on organizing for 2008.

Inside the Obama campaign, an eclectic team of field organizers is attempting something that has long been considered impossible: building a precinct-level field organization large enough to affect the outcome of Super Tuesday (now February 5, or "Super Duper Tuesday"). If successful -- aided by email lists, web tools and old school organizing techniques long missing in electoral politics -- these organizers could rewrite the rules of presidential politics, dramatically raise the profile of field organizing in the campaign world and help rebuild Democratic party structure in states, such as California, that have been long forgotten to electoral field organizing.

Over the past two months, the Obama campaign has staged a number of in-depth, three-day trainings in February 5 states, with more than 1,000 carefully selected volunteers attending. Trainees leave the events organized into teams by Congressional district, charged with building an organization that reaches all the way down to the precinct level.

For decades, presidential primaries have been almost exclusively fought in Iowa and New Hampshire -- through a complex mix of retail politics, local endorsements and media. If no clear winner emerged from those states, then last minute efforts in other early states such as South Carolina and Michigan sometimes became important (In 2000, Bush played rough in both states with New Hampshire first place finisher John McCain.)

However, by the time Super Tuesday came along (formerly in early March), campaigns had only prayers, no strategy. The vast size of the electorate voting on Super Tuesday, when combined with relatively small budgets, meant that a field strategy was simply out of the question.

In the 2008 cycle, however, two things have changed the calculus of presidential primary organizing and now raise the possibility of a hard-fought precinct-by-precinct field battle in states as large as California and as numerous as 20 possible February 5 primaries and caucuses. Many of these states have not seen serious electoral field organizing in decades.

First, an unprecedented amount of money is now available. The Obama campaign has a mountain of cash on hand and the ability to raise tens of millions more before February 5, 2008.

Second, use of campaign websites now makes hundreds of thousands of volunteer campaign workers available to campaigns in states before a single staffer is hired to work in them. At virtually no cost, campaigns are able to contact those volunteers via email, turning them out to events and trainings and giving them valuable work to do for the campaign in key states.

Those two factors raise the possibility of a well-financed, volunteer-driven field operation on a totally unprecedented scale, reaching even into states that have been organizationally forgotten for decades by both parties.

But it will only happen if field leaders in at least at one presidential campaign can figure out how to blend effective, old-school field organizing techniques with the methods of "online organizing" that are only beginning to be discovered and understood.

Temo Figeroa is one field leader trying to make the leap. A longtime labor organizer, and the son of farm worker organizers, Figeroa, was hired away from the top political job at AFSCME to be the National Field Director for the Obama Campaign. Figeroa believes the new presidential field equation gives Obama a sharp advantage. On Saturday, motioning to a room of several hundred volunteer grassroots leaders attending "Camp Obama" in Atlanta from around the South, Figeroa said, "What's different is there's never been a candidate who has drawn this type of enthusiasm and has raised this type of resources to even fathom doing something like this. That's an amazing combination--if you have the resources and the volunteer base to do it."

He emphasizes that the Obama strategy is an early state strategy, focusing on Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. "But what if it's completely mixed results in the first four? Then you go into a battle for delegates. There are a little over 1,500 delegates that are up on February 5. Twenty states! So, for us, we have to prepare: because we have the ability to prepare. We have that luxury because we have the resources and this amazing volunteer base."

Camp Obama is the main ingredient in that preparation. Not counting dozens of trainings held near the Chicago campaign headquarters (which mostly focused on Iowa), there have been six Camp Obamas in February 5 states so far: Burbank and Oakland, California; Saint Louis, Missouri; New York City, New York; Phoenix, Arizona; and Atlanta, Georgia. While the curriculum has varied with the different teams behind each training, the end goals have remained consistent: send tight-knit, well-trained and highly motived teams of volunteer organizers back to their home Congressional districts with a plan.

Trainings have been lead by a diverse set of experienced -- even legendary -- organizers. The Dean campaign had Internet gurus; the Obama campaign has community organizing gurus. Many have come to the campaign through relationships with Figeroa and Barack Obama.

Figueroa: "For me, personally as an organizer, coming from labor, it's been an incredible experience to invite mentors of mine--colleagues in labor organizing, community organizing and faith community organizing to come and be part of truly an inspiring movement....And it's a really powerful message to our activists to be trained by some of the same organizations and organizers who trained [Obama]."

This past weekend's Atlanta training was lead primarily by Harvard Professor Marshall Ganz, once a National Organizing Director of the United Farm Workers and now sought-after advisor to political campaigns, unions and NGOs. In 1968, Marshall Ganz dropped out of Harvard to join the civil rights movement. He returned to his hometown of Bakersfield California with "Mississippi Eyes" and was able to see for the first time the poverty, racism and injustice that had been around him his whole life. He joined Ceasar Chavez as a farm worker organizer and was mentored by figures from Saul Alinksy's community organizing movement. Ganz eventually returned to complete his undergraduate degree at Harvard, and then stuck around to earn a PhD and become a professor.

In 2004, Ganz was a key advisor to a special Dean campaign organizing program in New Hampshire. Staffers who were influenced by him in that program are now running South Carolina for Obama, and Nevada and New Hampshire for Hillary Clinton. Karen Hicks, who ran the New Hampshire program is a National Field Coordinator for Clinton (Other recent Ganz students include co-founders of Facebook, the managing editor of political blog TPMCafe and an interesting assortment of evangelical Christian faith-based organizers.)

The Dean New Hampshire organization was built meticulously over the course of one year of intensive one-on-one conversations with voters and intimate house meetings. In the ten days after the "Dean Scream," that organization was credited by many for Dean's steady regaining of ground in the polls to place second in the New Hampshire primary. Michael Whouley, "the man who won Iowa for Kerry" was one of the people impressed by the power of the organization in New Hampshire -- so impressed that he hired Karen Hicks to be the National Field Director for the Kerry Campaign. Since 2004, thanks in part to the Dean organization there, the New Hampshire legislature has gone form red to blue and the state has elected a Democratic governor, and a long list of grassroots leaders from the Dean organization have run for local office.

However, the New Hampshire program was an exception inside the Dean campaign. Iowa's field operation was widely criticized after the fact for being utterly disorganized. Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi successfully used the Internet to bring thousands of volunteers to Iowa, but neither old-school field tactics nor new online-organizing tactics were employed to put them to work effectively, in an organized manner, for the campaign. (Obama's Western States field director, Buffy Wicks, was one young Iowa Dean staffer who led a failed mini staff rebellion there to bring in the New Hampshire model.)

Interestingly, for all the power of Dean's New Hampshire organization, almost no attempt was made there to use the Dean email list or online organizing tools to recruit supporters. That sprang from the distrust of the Internet by old school organizers who saw it as an "impersonal" medium.

A few short years later, it is inconceivable that a field director on a national campaign would reject volunteers because they signed up online. It has become second nature among even the oldest of the the old school field organizers to recruit people for events by sending out emails and posting events online. Every single person queried at Atlanta's Camp Obama said they had found out about the event by visiting the campaign website -- in a group that was about two thirds African American and probably one half working class or low income.

Nevertheless, campaigns -- including Obama's -- are still only haphazardly using webtools and email lists to organize volunteers. For example, on the Obama campaign, there is still no online system available for the teams graduating from Camp Obama (or the teams they establish below them) to report in their progress back to headquarters. This is a huge missed opportunity to give field directors perfect visibility into the work of every team, anywhere in the country -- visibility that could be used to identify the best field volunteers in the organization for promotion, and to identify problem areas that need special attention from staff organizers. That said, no other campaign has anything like that kind of accountability system either.

Maybe one candidate will decisively win all first four primary states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. In that case, the Obama February 5 plan will probably be judged to be unnecessary. Even so, it will continue to pay dividends for supporters of the Democratic party in 20 states for years to come.

On the other hand, if the First Four states produce no clear winner, then these months of meticulous planning by the Obama campaign could prove a history-making success. Perhaps there will be no bigger winner from that scenario, however, than field organizing itself, that would find itself in a dominating position in the future of electoral politics for the foreseeable future.

Comments

[AeneasAnnai]

Zack Exley is the man...

Barack Obama 08

[genmalia]

First, I should preface my comment by saying I have been an Obama volunteer since March, and I attended Camp Obama in early August.

Without giving away any "Camp" strategies, we do, in fact, keep a detailed account of volunteers and progress, and we have very real (even scientific) goals.

One of the most incredible things I have noticed, since I am a newcomer to the world of politics and Barack Obama is the cause of this, are the incredible personal stories of the volunteers I’ve had the distinct privilege to work with. We are all different, in age, lifestyle, ethnicity, and any other imaginable difference possible between two humans, except for one very important thing; we are all committed to electing Senator Obama as President. The inspiration is astounding, and I am only too happy to be contributing my time and energy.

Barack Obama ’08!

[naschkatze]

This is an excellent post. Congratulations on a bit of fine writing, and prayers and best wishes to Senator Obama. I don't believe the national polls. Through these manipulated polls and the traditional media and cooperation from the Republicans Clinton is trying to hijack the primary election process. With Obama it's the people that count. Let's not settle for looking ahead to 2012 and beyond--we must work and donate to get Obama in now.

[BionicWoman]

I have read that in Illinois, thousands of people are flooded out of their homes. No one has seen "Mr." Obama. The other state's politicians have been around and tried to help, but not Mr. Obama.

If he won't help his own people - possibly because he is too busy trying to bag the Presidency, what makes anyone think he will do anything for the rest of the country unless it directly benefits himself?

And, as far as his organization goes, he is 19 points behind Hillary in the polls. If he had such a good team, he would be more than a concept.

[altohone]

Spin from Hillary supporters is always nice to see.

Thanks for showing up!

[hawkjt]

Senator Obama is the right man ,at the right place, at the right time for america... we must bow our necks and toil on disregarding the pundits.

Turn the page,America,elect Barack Obama and bring the men and women home.

[ObamaSeeChange]

YES WE CAN...!!!!!!
Obama '08

[Uselessboy]

This is really impressive.

I was very peripherally involved in the Dean campaign. As an older blogger, I felt as early as the spring before the Sleepless Summer tour that they weren't establishing the realworld links and alliances that a national campaign needed to do.

Personally I think Dean never intended to win the nomination, it always felt to me as though he was an old fashioned issue candidate hoping to boost his issues in the debate and maybe land a post in the Dem admin. It always felt to me as though he was half drafted by the blog eruption.

This story about Obama shows the first attempt to take this new reality out on the highway and open 'er up to see what she'll do.

I love being blindsided by the promise of opportunity. I don't know if anyone can pull this off against the machine, but if anyone can, I'm betting it's Obama.

You Obama folks, heed the constructive criticism in this article, it's impossible to overstate what all is riding on this very short interval ahead.

[naijaman]

As an Obama volunteer in PA, I must tell you that the energy and determination from the group here is quite amazing. I have attended 7 events, and spent time canvassing York County and the Mount Wolf area. The response has been nothing short of amazing, and as someone else said already, most of the people are starting to ignore the media pundits and their conventional opinions. The grassroots work is really building up to a crescendo, and people are donating small amounts to the Obama campaign, $25, $50 at a time, and this is really adding up.

The media establishment will be shocked come Feb 5th.

Obama for President!

[Inaru]

Zack, Camp grads are starting blogs and listserves for their districts, and whenever someone in a particular area asks for a campaign office where there isn't one yet, they're steered to trainees to volunteer with, if they're in a state where there was a training.

Also, we're sharing resources on Google Groups - so we don't reinvent the wheel - both from the campaign site and from regional/district groups. It's a loose organization, but I think there are enough dedicated people in each district to carry it off.

What I found great is that older campaign volunteers who were active in fieldwork are thrilled to get back in the action, and have great ideas to share with the novices. It's a great opportunity for younger people who don't like the traditional Party politics but want to learn how to organize at the grassroots.

[NoMoFearNoMoHate]

Obama in '08!

http://www.barackobama.com

[zull]

I think a lot of people will be surprised by the support that will occur as a direct result of academia starting here in a month or so. Obama is a law professor, and his academic ties are exceptionally strong. College kids, and professors, take their summers off to relax. But come time for the school year, one of the most vocal and energetic demographics will be out hitting the pavement in force, and much of that will be support for Obama.

[lafrance]

Thank you for an insightful article. I am still amazed by how Obama has put use his skills as a community organizer into this campaign. He has accomplished what everyone said he couldn't. He built a well organized and effective campaign from the ground up in 6 months with no less than 30 field offices in Iowa that seems to have sprung overnight.
He has outraised the 'inevitable' Clinton machine twice.
He has come out with alot of well thought out policy proposals while working in the senate and campaigning.
And now he has taken his mentors and co workers from those days and have them use the same skills to build this awesome grassroots, on the ground operation.
While the so called pundit class on glace at the polls and declare Hillary as inevitable, Obama has been quietly using all his skills to his advantage to lay down his organization. And now it will begin to do explode on the landscape and the naysayers will scratch their heads and say 'what the ...?" happened? While Obama is taking the oath of office.

[KAP]

Today's daily tracking Rasmussen poll has Obama down into the teens, lower than he's been all summer, and now tied with John Edwards. Don't forget that his "skills as a community organizer" weren't enough to win a race for Congress 7 years ago. That poll is a four day running average, so the big drop (in spite of an arguably improved debate performance) occurred as Mrs. Obama was not so quietly antagonizing the great majority of Democratics who admire Hillary.

[Boadicea]

A most interesting blog! Thank you.

[researcher]

As an independent voter and no lover of politics in America obama appears to be the most intelligent of the bunch.

Read his statements before the Iraq 'war' and he nailed it. Then read Hillary’s and make your decision who you want as pres.

Hope it works for him let a black man take over god knows we white males have screwed up this county. Look no farther than Texas for it giving us presidents as warmongers.

Please please lord do not let another pres with a cowboy shoot them up mentality go to Washington as president. We have become the most despised and loathed nation in the world with this pres from Texas running the show.

[Alex&Ben.com]

CO-SIGN!

[Stanley]

Sounds like Obama has things well in hand for a run, but what about the other voices from the Democratic Party which do have experience? How is Joe Biden doing in the race? I like Joe even though he is not a favorite to win at this point.

[SeanGardner]

that's right baby!!! Obama sees that if you really want to affect the people in a substantive way, you have to start from the ground up. Grassroots organizing is underrated, and the ability of the savvy politician to use it wisely in concert with new media, means a big, stunning victory in November 2008.

Go Obama!