Local Campaign News

Registration

We did an event in support of Creek County democrats this past weekend, and ended up registering about 56 voters. In addition, we "showed the flag" up there, to great response.

I think that's a pretty good number, all things considered. However, we know we can do better at events in more densely settled areas in Tulsa. Given that we are down to the last 10 days, we are going to try to keep what resources we have those areas.

We do have one good new piece of news. We got permission yesterday from the Chief of the Osages to do registration events at the tribe's casinos. There's still a layer or two of tribal bureaucracy this has to be pushed through, but hopefully we'll be able to work the casinos this weekend.

All this being said, there's absolutely nothing stopping you from registering voters yourself wherever you think will work and on your own schedule. The forms are available from the Oklahoma Election Board's website. Just read the instructions, download the form, and print out all you need. One caveat is that you can't pump a particular political party or view before you register someone.

Keep an eye on this site for our official registration events.

Ideas

Anyone who has stopped by County HQ in the last few weeks has noticed the transformation. What used to be a sleepy office with friendly people happy for a chance to chat has become a frenzied beehive of activity.

This is great of course, but there is a downside. Some folks who want to call in to give ideas for the campaign have to get the brush-off. We don't like doing it, but we just don't have the time for it right now.

However, here on the Oklahoma for Obama website, we have all the time in the world. So this is the place to come with your ideas for the campaign. Crazy like a fox, or just plain crazy, click the "comments" link below and post them here. We are going to be holding a war council in the next few days, and I'd love to arrive with a pocketful of great ideas from you folks to present.

Poll Upswing Continued

The surge for Obama continues today. Rasmussen doesn't have new numbers up yet, but Research 2000 this morning has Obama up another point to %51 (his highest yet), and McCain down another point to %42. Gallup also has Obama up another point to %50 (and McCain down 2).

Nate Silver argued yesterday that its going to be a lot harder for McCain to come back from this than a lot of pundits are letting on. Hard does not mean impossible though, and the Reps have really yet to start swinging with both hands. The real nastiness won't even start until the last 72 hours, when their dreaded ground game gets into full gear.

As a reminder again, there will be a VP debate watch party at the Circle Cinema this Thursday. It probably won't be a game changer one way or the other, but you should watch. I think you should come watch with us, because it's just way too frustrating to watch stuff like this (video below) alone. You need to hear the groans of the other listeners just to prove that it's not you who is the insane one.



So for the sake of your own sanity, please watch the debate with friends.

Polling Data

The first polling data that has all of this week's crisis, McCain's bizarre behavior, and the debate on Friday cooked in is starting to trickle in. Its not quite as good as one might think it would be, but its still pretty good.

Rasmussen has had Obama steady at %50 for the last 3 days, after climbing to that point over the course of the week. The Research 2000 Tracking Poll now also shows Obama at %50 with an upward trajectory. Gallup's daily shows Obama at %49, also with an upward vector.



The important thing about those %50 numbers is that once Obama reaches that mark, no amount of undecideds swinging to McCain can pull him ahead.

Of course those of us that lived through 2000 know that national popular vote is not how we decide elections. The electoral counts are looking similarly nice as well. The magic number here is 270. Pollster has Obama and McCain at 229 and 174 respectively, with "leaners" included. Rasmussen has it at 255 and 227 with leaners included. CNN has it at 240 and 200.

Of course this week has shown that a lot can happen quickly, and we still have about 5 weeks to go.

Debate Wrapup

We had a huge turn-out last night. Mike's count came to over 100! At one point midway through I turned around to look, and the crowd stretched all the way back to the door. Now I see why Tulsans for Obama needed their own watch party. There simply would not have been room.

It was great to get a chance to meet some of you in person. I particularly liked that Mike has us go around and do some introductions before the actual debate started. We had people from at least five different states (four of them "battleground" states). We had quite a few first-time voters, and several people who have been voting for more than 30 years. I brought one of my legion of mini-mules. He won't be old enough to vote until the 2016 general election, but wanted to come see this. On the other extreme, we had a World War II vet who had cast his first vote for Truman in 1948. He is now, of course, an Obama supporter.


The Stump of Jesse
Listening to him reminisce, it occurred to me that my own first vote ever in a presidential campaign was 20 years ago, for Jesse Jackson. For those of you who weren't around then, Jesse won 11 primaries that year, and for a while was the front-runner for the nomination.

Since it was my first election, I researched the candidates positions as thoroughly as I could, and picked the one who best supported my views on the issues. That happened to be Jesse. So you can imagine my frustration when, even while he was the front-runner, all the media wanted to ask him was What do you really want? Like it couldn't possibly be, you know, to be president or anything.

No matter what your opinions are about Jesse, he laid the groundwork two decades ago for what you saw last night. There was a brief moment when the candidates were shaking hands at the beginning where I was thinking, Holy ****, that's an African-American up there being taken seriously. Even better, the moment was brief, and after that he was just one of the two people up there interviewing for the job. Clearly the better one, at that.

Results
Sadly, you can never tell what the story is going to be after the debate simply by watching the debate. Most people don't watch, so the general opinion of who won comes out of the mouths of the talking heads on TV after they've had about five days to masticate on it. The reps of course had their "McCain wins the debate" mini-campaign up and running even before the debate started. Things look good so far though. The snap polls afterward seem to indicate an Obama win by around %10 points or so. If that can hold, the percentages are liable to increase in the coming days.

As for the wider election, I have to wonder. This debate was on supposedly McCain's best subject, National Security. Not pulling out a win here is a bad sign for him. However, this was such a bad week for McCain that *any* change of subject, even to a bit of a loss in a debate, is a good thing for him.

On to Nashville
The next debate on October 7 is McCain's favorite format (Town Hall), so he has a chance to look better. The final one on the 15th will be normal format, and on the economy. If he doesn't watch it, Obama will plaster him to the wall in that one.

I'm not talking about the VP debate on the 2nd (next Thursday), because I don't think it really matters that much in the long run. If it did Dan Quayle and George Bush Sr. would never have been elected. However, it will be worth watching because one of those two will be in the White House for the next 4-8 years, and possibly president after that. I'll be at the Circle Cinema that night, and I hope to see you there too.

Watch Party ON!

I just wanted to get out a quick message about the watch party tonight. McCain has agreed to show up, so the debate is indeed on at 8 tonight. The watch party at the Circle Cinema starts at 7. I haven't heard anything about food or refreshments, so my suggestion would be to eat before you show up.

Also, I got an email from "OFA OK HQ" today about another watch party at the Transport Workers Hall. This was a bit confusing to me at least, so I want everyone to understand that this is a different watch party. The venue for our party has not changed; it is at the Circle Cinema, 12 South Lewis Avenue in Tulsa. Details and registration here.

"OFA OK" I believe is Obama For America - Oklahoma, aka Tulsans for Obama. Why they chose to have their own separate party rather than join with the 10 other area Obama groups at the Circle, I'm not really sure. But I suppose if you arrive at the Circle and it is full, that would be an alternate location you could go to. The address is 11945 E. Pine.

Weekend Events

Our big registration event this weekend is an event in Creek county. We need lots of volunteers for this one, so if you have some time to donate, please come out. I'll let Greg talk about it in his own words below

This Saturday, 9/27/08, you can help turn Creek County blue! Saturday, , Oklahoma For Obama will work with our neighbors in Creek County (Sapulpa, Bristow, etc,) in a one day all out registration drive.
We will meet @ DEM. HQs, 3930 East 31st St. in Tulsa @ 8:00 for orientation and voter reg. 101 training. Then we will carpool and caravan to the Bristow @ 10th and Chestnut.

You should bring: a clipboard, pens, sun screen, a hat. water and a "Yes We Can!" attitude.

We need to know how many folks will join us so please RSVP either: mjhales@staufferlaw.com or stephanielewisimcot@gmail.com

One thing I should add is that you cannot wear any apparel with politically identifying messages on it while registering voters. So please leave your Lick Bush T-Shirt in the closet just this once.

Because of the scale and time of this event, Mary Jo won't be able to support the TU Tailgate party this Saturday. However, there is still a local democratic event going on there, in support of Chad Hawkins, a candidate for State House in district 79. This is being held on Saturday before the game at Ella's Deli at 3208 East 11th St.

Debate Watch Party

McChicken or no McChicken, as of now this is still being held. If you are planning on coming, I'd suggest RSVPing here or here. That will allow the organizers the ability to send you reminders, and perhaps a cancellation notice in the exceedingly unlikely event that occurs.

While we are on the subject of McChicken, Mary Jo asked if I could dig up a video of our favorite septuagenarian doing the chicken dance. I got pretty close. So this video is for her:

McChicken

By now you have probably already heard that McCain is trying to chicken out of the debates. It appears he wants us to believe that the looming financial crisis is so important that he, as a senator, can't spare time for such mundane trivia as helping the people of this country decide who's going to lead it five short weeks from now.

This is the same "senator" who hasn't shown up for a vote since April. Senators Obama and Clinton managed to take time out of their busy campaign schedules to make important votes during that time. Even Ted Kennedy, undergoing treatment for malignant brain cancer, has found some votes so important that he had himself helped into the chamber to vote a time or two. But not John McCain.

So its pretty clear that it's not his pressing senatorial duties that are worrying McCain. Likewise, I doubt his primary concern in wanting to cancel the vice-presidential debate is his running mate's gubernatorial duties in her small (and financially flush) state. It's pretty obvious that he's simply afraid of the debates.

Obama could have agreed to this. After all, he's ahead right now, so one could argue that the debates can only hurt him. However, his response is that at this moment, the debates are more important than ever. Notice how he's already fighting for you; in this case for your ability to make an informed decision on November 4.



Obama's having none of it, so as of this writing the debates are still on. This means that the watch party tomorrow night is also still on. Join us at the Circle Cinema an hour before the debate starts.

Registration Report

I talked to Greg and Mary Jo last night. We picked up about 315 registrations last weekend. That's half again as many as the week before. Greg registered a first-time voter born in 1941, and Mary Jo got one born in 1940. Both specifically registered because they were worried about "that crazy Palin woman".

With more volunteers we can improve on even these numbers this weekend. You can be an important part of it. Just call one of the coordinators and ask how you can help. Mary Jo can be reached at 269-4400, and Greg can be reached via gregmarkley@att.net .

Creek County
For those of you in or near Creek County (for you insular Tulsans, if you have a car this means you), we are running a one day voter drive there on the 27th. We need lots of volunteers for this. The more we have, the more successful this will be. Please get hold of Greg at gregmarkley@att.net if you'd like to help.

TU Tailgate Party
In addition to the typical Wal-Marts and flea markets, Mary Jo is planning on working the TU tailgate party this weekend. Kickoff is at 6PM on the 27th, but of course the tailgate party would start some time before then. Call her at 269-4400 to help.

Getting the Word Out
Please take the time today to send a link to this blog to least two other people. The more eyeballs we have in here, the stronger the campaign will be. We are off to a great start, and are growing, but we need our efforts to grow exponentially. We don't have the time to sit around and wait for everyone to come to us.

Debate watch parties

I wanted to get this out now so everyone can make their plans accordingly.

Mike Workman and a whole host of area Obama organizations are hosting watch parties for the debates at the Circle Cinema. The first one of course is this Friday at 7 PM (debate starts at 8).

The Circle Cinema is at 12 South Lewis Avenue here in Tulsa. The other debates will be on October 2nd, 7th, and 15th. With the race as close as it is, these debates will probably be the turning point in the campaign. You don't have to suffer (or thrill) through them in silence at home.

Mike would like RSVPs either here or here, but I do not believe an RSVP is necessary to show up, just encouraged. This is a great chance to meet fellow area Obama/Biden supporters and compare notes, or just socialize. So make plans to be there this Friday at 7.

New Game

Let's play a little game I like to call Spot the Elitist.
(Click on the image for a larger picture)

Surprisingly, a lot of people seem to be having trouble with this one.

Polls

Before I say anything, I'd like to thank everyone who came out to help register voters at all the events this weekend. I'll try to get some kind of numbers to let you know how we did overall posted here tomorrow.


Most of you probably realise that the week after the RNC Convention was a bad week for Obama. All the talk was about Palin and personalities, her family's choices, field-dressing mooses, etc. None of those are really core message for the Democrats. McCain's numbers shot up and passed Obama's.

Then last week reality poked its nose back in the campaign, in the form of the banking crisis. Its funny what putting the focus on a real problem facing this country can do. I wanted to take this time to show everyone the current numbers, in case you got dejected a week ago and quit looking at the polls.

I'll add the pretty graphics when I can figure out how to do it (they are typically HTML scripts, not nice little pictures), but in the meantime if you check the DailyKos tracking poll or the Gallup Daily Election tracking poll you will see the same thing: McCain's numbers dropped like a rock at the start of last week, while Obama's went up to near 50%. The polls currently show Obama at %49 and McCain at %43 and %45 respectively.

The message here is pretty clear. When the discussion is about the real problems this country faces after 8 (or 30 depending on how you look at it) years of republican rule, we win. When its about personalities and moose-meat, we loose. Keep this in mind when you are talking to your friends and neighbors.

Registration Drive Weekend Update

I got a couple of messages from Greg this morning which I'd like to share. A summary wouldn't do them justice.

My 2 voter reg teams registered 23 voters on Brookside. One woman who I helped was born in 1941 and had never registered to vote until today and primarily did so because of Pallin! I mainly did a visibility, sign sales, and volunteer recruitment, thing. I must have sold 100 Obama Biden yard signs (sold out!). People honked and cheered!

and

Not only did I sell out of Obama signs ... people took all (almost) of the other candidates' info I on display! Moreover, a lot of people commented on how many Obama signs they see all over town and how few McCain/Palin signs. Most saw last week as pivotal, and feel the McCain’s campaign is in self-destruct mode.

Just to make it clear, this was a 68 year old woman who has never in her life even registered to vote. But she's doing it this year so she can vote against Palin. These are the kinds of inspiring Tulsans you can meet when you help us register voters.

We still have lots of registration events left for today, so pick one, call the coordinator, and show up to make a difference. (See my two previous posts for events, times, and basic instructions).

Work Day

Today is our big day for voter registration drives! Please pick one or more from the list in yesterday's posting and come out to help make a difference.

Things to remember about voter registrations:

• Bring a clipboard and extra pens.
• The coordinator should bring plenty of forms, but you can print your own out from here (requires acrobat).
  
• Don't wear any party or candidate identifying clothing or pins, buttons, etc.
• Don't discuss your own political views before a person has completed the form. They'll have to guess. :-)
• Don't discourage anyone from registering for any reason.
  

I want to emphasise that last point. I don't care if they did tell you they want to register Republican or LaRouche or whatever. We try to weed those folks out by picking our locations to perform the drives. However, once we are there it's our moral (and legal) imperative to register everyone regardless of affiliation.

Campaign News

There's a lot of news to get through today.

Office Moving

The first bit of news is that our office is moving. The new address is 3930 East 31st St. This is also the Tulsa Democratic Headquarters, so you can pick up campaign signs and materials for you other favorite democratic candidates when you stop by. Please do stop by, pick up your swag, and volunteer.

Registration Status

Greg turned in a batch of over 200 voter registrations to the county election board office this week. Congratulations to everyone who helped gather those registrations. But we need more, way more.

Now that we have a bit more experience, we can analyze which locations work well and which don't. Half of those registrations were gathered at a single drive at Wal-Mart last weekend. Half of the remainder were gathered at another drive at the east Tulsa flea market. We sent a lot more people to the various football games last Friday, and didn't gather more than 20 or so. So we are going to be dropping the football game drives and refocusing our efforts to locations like the area Wal-Marts and flea/farmers markets. I'll get the calendar updated when I can, but for now know that the football game drives are not happening. If you are going to one anyway and want to take some forms, by all means do so though.

Registration Opportunities

If you want to do something more that just simply voting to help Obama get elected (and every other Democrat in the area), this is your big chance. This weekend we have lots of registration drives going on. Just pick one or two from the list below that fit your schedule, and call the coordinators. We have plenty of opportunities, so don't just sit back an let someone else do it. Come on out and help!

If you want to help with the flea market drive this Saturday morning, contact Mary-Jo at 269-4400. She is also coordinating drives at the Quick Trip Anniversary Festival this Saturday from 5 to 7 PM.

We will also be doing a drive at the TU tailgate party this Saturday from Noon to 5PM at the stip mall on 11th street across from the stadium. Again, contact Mary-Jo at 269-4400 if you'd like to help.

Louis King will will be running a drive outside the BOK center during the Lil' Wayne concert this Saturday from 6-7:30 PM. You can contact him at 437-0310 to help.

Greg will be leading a drive at the Brookside Artzz this Saturday (tomorrow) from 11 to 5. He will also be coordinating a drive at the Jazz Hall of Fame during the concert this Sunday. If you like to listen to some good Jazz while you help register voters, contact him at gregmarkley@att.net.

Finally Blanca is running a drive at the downtown Hispanic Festival this weekend. It is both Saturday and Sunday from 1-10PM. The hispanic community in Tulsa has been growing much more quickly in the last few years than I think most Tulsans realise. Nothing less than the party's future hangs on how well we reach out to this community. Blanca has been working hard to register their voters for the last two years, so she's one of my personal heroes. If you have any free time at all to donate this weekend call her at 231-3340.

Debate Watch Parties

The campaign will be hosting watch parties for the debates. More on this in a later post, but for now mark you calendars.

Mule Skinner's Mail Pouch

I got the following email the other day:

Do you know if someone is doing a similar blog for other parts of the state?

After a long web search, I'm afraid I could find no other local Obama campaign site in Oklahoma. The closest I found was the statewide site up on Barack's main campaign website. It has some local area subpages.

I did find a fairly rich lode of personal blogs of Oklahomans who are writing about the campaign, along with their other concerns. The best I saw were:

• Blue Oklahoma
• Peace Arena - The emailer in question's own blog
  
• Alternative Tulsa
• Just Not Right aka Kittenstomper
• Middle Raged Punk
• Oklahoma Lefty
• Sinister - For those of you who don't know Latin, Sinister means left
• Fourth District Democrat - Covering southwest Oklahoma
• Soonerthought
• The Oklahoma Hippy - Currently has a lot of posts up about last night's Ani Difranco concert. Greg was there too. He had a great time, and registered 20 new voters.

I should also mention Sooner Kos, which isn't as much a blog as a discussion group on the Daily Kos website. Its fairly low volume, but you can find me there.

With a list this long, its inevitable that I missed a few good ones. Feel free to post your favorites.

Registrations Up or Down?

I stumbled across an interesting article by
Randy Krehbiel in Monday's Tulsa World about declines in the voter rolls in Tulsa voting districts. This is despite the fact that the population of the city is growing. This is mostly due to purges in the voter rolls in guess where? That's right, heavily democratic districts in north and east Tulsa.

The six north and east Tulsa districts pictured here lost about 3,000 voters in the last two years.

I'm not suggesting anything nefarious here. Randy's article suggests the culprit is declining home ownership rates in the area. Renters move more, and thus need to reregister more often than homeowners do. I suppose you could call the ongoing impoverishment of the working class, and north Tulsa in particular "nefarious", but that's another story.

I do know that we are going to work our tails off to reverse this. I'm going to try to get some detailed numbers today, but I do know that just two of our weekend registration events alone made up %5 of this deficit. We are still just getting geared up and learning where the most effective places to register people are, so I expect this to accelerate in the days to come.

In the meantime, if you want to help, please call the office (or stop by during business hours). If you have any suggestions for good places to register voters, please post a reply to this message.

Help Us - Help Yourself

The election is now 7 weeks away. I know a big deal has been made about Obama's fundraising, but that isn't the whole story. The Republicans have the resources of the world's weathiest men to draw on. Campaign finance laws limit how much money they can give to any one candidate, so they just find other ways to leverage their money. They give to the RNC. They start "astroturf" campaigns. They own many of the media outlets. They even own the companies that make the ballot boxes.

To fight all this we only have one asset: you.

This one asset can make all the difference. There are way more of us than there are of them. If we all stand up, they lose. If we sit around waiting for others to do everything for us like usual, we lose. It's that simple. El pueblo unido jamás será vencido

Our stategy for this cycle is equally simple. Until Friday, October 10 (the registration deadline) we register new voters. Lots of them. Everyone we can. After that, we get registered voters to vote. If we do both well enough, we can win. Yes, even here in Oklahoma.

If you have time, please contact the campaign at (918)497-6292 or stop by the office at 3930 East 31 Street during business hours to ask about helping out with voter registration. Our calendar lists the big official pushes, but there are lots of other ways to help register voters. Even if you don't have the time, make sure your friends and relatives are properly registered. Also make sure they know about this website. Getting others to help is as good as helping yourself. Everyone should strive to do both.

For those with specialized skills and gifts or extra fee time there are some other needs the campaign has right now. Namely:

• Volunteer staff for the office. Hours are Monday through Friday from 9 to 5. Saturday 9 to noon.
• Write letter to the editors of the Tulsa World and other papers.
• Help manage the newsletter.
• Update Demkookie and Tulsa Dem Newsletter.
• Apply to be Tulsa County precinct officers.
• Make color copies.
• Make black and white copies of materials.
• A CPA or accountant to track receipts/expenditures.
• Order, sell and distribute T-shirts.
• A graphic artist.
• Several more trucks with drivers are needed to pick up and deliver Obama stuff.
  

You can also inquire at the office about donating funds to the campaign.

It is said that evil triumphs when good men do nothing. It is time for the good women and men of Oklahoma to stand up and do something. Yes, Oklahoma Can! Si Se Puede Oklahoma!

Welcome

Welcome to the Oklahoma For Obama Campaign 2008 blog. This is a statewide campaign, but those of us running this blog are from Tulsa. Our activities are going to concentrated there. We'd like to try to use this blog to help tell everyone what is going on, what our needs are and what you can do to help.

Our primary push right now is for voter registration. All across the country Democratic voter registrations are way up, and with your help Tulsa will be no exception. Check out the calendar at the bottom of this blog to see what your upcoming opportunities to help will be.

Like the presidency itself, this is the people's campaign. If you don't participate, it doesn't happen. So if you have any suggestions for things you'd like to see here, feel free to post them below. Otherwise, make sure you get registered to vote, and make sure all your friends are registered as well.