Obama campaign reopens regional offices

PORTLAND--A crowd gathered on the corner of NE 15th St. and Killingsworth Ave. on hot, sunny evening. Meat was sizzling on a grill, people in foldout chairs ate fruit salad, others munched on chocolate chip cookies as they avoided small children running around, and a mix of R&B and classic rock music played in the background.

What could have easily been confused as a neighborhood block party was in fact the reopening of U.S Sen. and presidential candidate Barack Obama’s regional campaign office at 1516 NE Killingsworth St. in Portland. About 150 Obama supporters bearing tupperwear dishes for a potluck celebration descended on the area, which will serve as an outlet to Obama’s campaign headquarters, located in southeast Portland. That office opened two weeks ago.

The campaign infrastructure left in place after Obama beat his Democratic challenger U.S Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y) in the primary has allowed for Obama’s general election campaign to hit the ground running.  With Thursday’s opening of the regional offices, Obama will have six Oregon offices open before U.S Sen. John McCain’s campaign even opens their headquarters in the Beaver State.

The party in northeast Portland was one of five occurring for different regional offices opening around the state including offices in Oregon City, Beaverton, Bend and Eugene. While some offices were new, the setting for this one was familiar, as they celebrated Obama’s victory in the Democratic primary here two months ago. The reopening of the office brought back dedicated volunteers that have taken the last six weeks to recover from the closest primary race in recent memory. It also brought in new volunteers ready to send letters, pass out yard signs, and register as many voters as possible before November 4.

“I’ve been wanting to get involved,” said Ann Shannon, who came to the potluck with her granddaughter Aria. “We’re going to do the deal with the phones, get people excited about the race.”

“I think it’s good to get out and support the Democratic candidate,” said Aria, who at 15 is not old enough to vote but is old enough to get others to vote for Obama.

The event even brought out an all-star cast of Democratic politicians in Oregon, including Oregon Speaker of the House and U.S Senate candidate Jeff Merkley (D-Portland) and Kate Brown, the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State.

“Oregon can only go so far if our nation is off track,” Merkley said to the cheering crowd. “We have a lot of work to do in the next three months, so we got to get on those phones and get out on the street!”

At the beginning of the year, Democrats had about 70,000 more registered voters in Oregon than Republicans did. But because of a close primary election between Obama and Clinton, Democratic voter registration surged throughout the spring. With the general election looming, it will be important for the volunteers to maintain that momentum.

“I work the Tuesday afternoon shift on the phones,” said Diane Wagner, who has been a volunteer with the campaign since March. “One day I made 72 phone calls, contacted 10 people, and got six of them out to volunteer.”

“We have to do a lot of voter registration, a lot of canvassing,” said Carolyn May, who was sitting next to Wagner. May, a northeast Portland resident, started volunteering for the Obama campaign in May. It is the first campaign she had ever been inspired enough worked for. “There are still a lot of people out there that aren’t registered. People may have moved since the primary, and…”

“Oh wait,” interjected Shannon as she walked by. “I have moved since the primary. I probably do need to register to vote.”

“You do,” Wagner said. “If you don’t they will send your ballot to your old house.”

“I better go do that right now,” said Shannon, and she hurried off to fill out a vote registration form located next to the potato salad.