How important was the ground game?

According to our friends at 538, very important. Per 538, an exit poll consortium asked voters whether they had been contacted by the McCain or Obama camps prior to voting. It turns out that in 12 states that were rated highly competitive going into the election, Obama held the 'contact' advantage in all but one state.

% of Voters Reporting Direct Contact from Campaigns
ST Obama McCain Gap
NV 50% 29% 21%
CO 51% 34% 17%
IN 37% 22% 15%
VA 50% 38% 12%
PA 50% 39% 11%
IA 41% 30% 11%
FL 29% 20% 9%
NC 34% 26% 8%
MO 44% 37% 7%
OH 43% 36% 7%
WI 42% 39% 3%
WV 29% 31% -2%

And as we know, Obama won 10 of the 12 states shown here. Hence, we can expect the Republicans to try to copy Obama's ground game strategy in 2012.

For the full article, go to http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/contact-gap-proof-of-importance-of.html

Final Results in Bucks County

Hi all: I thought the photo essay would end the Obama PA blog, but there is still more to tell.
Ann Marie sent me the final election results for Bucks County and I thought you would like to see how our guy did. Here are the results:
Obama 178,345 votes or 53.7%
McCain 149,860 votes or 45.2%

This compares with a 1.5% win for Kerry in 2004!
The vastly improved performance is no doubt the result of the superior ground game in PA this year :)

And we can't forget about Patrick Murphy (right, Lara?) Murphy also did quite well:
Murphy 181,586 votes or 56%
Manion 137,565 votes or 42.4%
Lingenfelter 5,371 or 1.7%

Congrats to everyone who contributed to Obama and Murphy's success in Bucks County.
Grant

For more info, see www.buckscountyelections.org

The Doylestown PA Campaign in Pictures

Good afternoon: This post marks the end of my efforts to document one small part of the Obama army of volunteers. It has been a lot of fun documenting the experience of campaigning for Obama in Doylestown PA. The entire experience has moved me deeply. I am especially touched by all the passionate, caring and dedicated people I have met over the past 5 weeks, including the Obama staffers, the full and part-time volunteers and all the voters, most of whom were very supportive. I have compiled a slide show of the people and events that have collectively created this unique, once in a lifetime experience. Take a look. More than likely you will find yourself in one of the pictures. (For best results, view in Slideshow mode.)
Enjoy. All the best.
Grant
http://picasaweb.google.com/grantdu/ObamaPA?authkey=gYRE87BmoPg#

PS: Most of the photos are (c) 2008 Justin Stezelberger

Living the good life in Doylestown

Good morning. I am wrapping up the ObamaPA blog today and wanted to publicly thank the couple who made my visit to Doylestown possible.
I did not have a place to stay when I agreed to work for Obama in PA. The campaign said that was not a problem, they would find me a place. And they did. I have spent most of the past 5 weeks in the town of Chalfont on a 12 acre farm.
It has been quite a change from my apt on the 25th floor of an upper west side condo in NYC.
I have become 'friendly' with 3 dogs, a couple of cats, 4 horses and about a dozen sheep during my time here. And did I mention the chickens?
Anyway, it has been fun getting up at the crack of dawn, having breakfast with my wonderful hosts and then going to the campaign office every morning for a 12 hour day.
I have truly made some life long friends as a result of my time in Chalfont.
Thank you Debbie and Roberto for sharing your home with me. It has been a great experience, and one which I hope to be able to repay one day soon.
Grant

The Day After

I suspect many of you are 538 fans. Those of you who are not will appreciate this piece from today's postings. It was written by the same person who logged 14,000+ miles visiting Obama and McCain campaign offices around the country over the past few months. The sentiment expressed should resonate with those of you who have been toiling for Obama in PA.
Enjoy,
G
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/chicago-day-after.html

What the World is saying today

The BBC is first out with congratulatory quotes from several world leaders. Follow the link below. In particular, see the quotes from Iran and other Middle Eastern countries.
G
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/us_elections_2008/7710020.stm

And the winner is......

Good morning. As is well known by now, several TV networks called PA one minute after the polls closed last night. After the cheering died down in the Buckingham Green campaign office, most of us figured it was time to pack up, and get over to the first party of the night in the neighboring hamlet of Furlong. Jolie, our fearless leader, however, had other ideas. Word had come down from the top that several thousand Nevadians(?) needed a personal phone call from us before the polls closed at 7pm PST. So up to http://www.mybo.com/ we went to download call lists and make some more calls, which we did until after 9pm or so EST.
To kill some time between calls, we started an office pool to see who could predict Barack's final electoral count. Here are the final results:

Jolie..281
Laura..290
Lara..295
Annsi..297
David..302
Eric..310
Carol..312
Richard..318
Rorie..318
Lavinia..318
Ann Marie..340

Congratulations, Ann Marie!! Your prize will be mailed to you shortly. And Jolie, you also deserve a prize for the absolutley fabulous job you did running the office and keeping everyone motivated and on task.
It has been a great pleasure getting to know all of you.
G

Jamaicans for Obama

This is a truly amazing story. Three or four weeks ago, Judith came into the Obama office on N. Main St and asked if she could help out. Nothing unusual here. 50 people a day come into the office every day to volunteer. What is unique about Judith is that she came all the way from Kingston to volunteer to help Barack.

Judith took off from work to travel to PA (where her cousin Jackie lives) to donate her time to help Barack, even though she is not a US citizen. Now that is dedication!

And Judith has been coming to the office every Tuesday and Wednesday since to phone voters and volunteers and to canvass neighborhoods in search of votes. Judith, who is pictured here with her new, hipster hairdo, will be in the Buckingham Green office tomorrow to help us close out the election, then return to Kingston and her job on Wednesday.

Many thanks for your passion and dedication, Judith.

Grant

Wow! Obama Cavalry in Pennsylvania has arrived.

Saw this on Daily Kos and thought you would enjoy it. It eloquently describes the GOTV activities being deployed in Philly and is similar to what we are doing in Bucks County.
The story appears below.
G

5,000,000 vs. 1,000

The title of this post represents the number of volunteers working for Obama vs. the number working for McCain as estimated by Sean Quinn of fivethirtyeight.com. Sean has spent the last several months visiting the Campaign offices of the two presidential candidates.
The ground game advantage is a key reason why Obama-ites believe Barack will triumph on Nov. 4th.
Follow the link provided for a fascinating look a the differences between the two approaches to securing votes.
Grant

What Obama has in common with Microsoft

Working for Obama reminds me of my time at Microsoft. In the early days at Microsoft, everyone was on a mission to change the world. People worked around the clock to push products out the door secure in the knowledge that what we were creating would fundamentally change the way people lived and worked. People worked 12-15 hours days. Seven days a week. Over holidays. And behind it all was Bill Gates, whom we all looked to for leadership and direction. It was a very inspiring and rewarding time.
I see the same energy and passion in the Obama campaign. People are working around the clock secure in the knowledge that what we are doing will fundamentally change the course of America and the world. And all this effort is being driven by the collective belief in Barack Obama and his vision for the country.
I feel blessed to be able to experience not one but two world changing campaigns.
G

GOTV Day 1: Not for the faint of heart

Postscript 1: I met Nicholas, an actor from NYC, a couple of weeks ago when he came down to Doylestown for a day of canvassing. He enjoyed the expreiecne so much that he decided to come back for the GOTV effort.

After a long day of canvassing, Nicholas, at left, was spotted taking a break before presumably heading out for a night in Doylestown.

No one ever said canvassing was easy.

G

GOTV Day 1: A smashing success!

Good morning. What a day yesterday!!!! Day 1 of our Get Out The Vote effort was extraordinary by just about every conceivable measure. The Buckingham Green office where I am based put ~350 volunteers to work. This is more people than we usually have had at the N. Main St. central office on a typical Saturday. And Buckingham Green is just one of 13 new staging areas!!! I have not heard how many volunteers we had in total yesterday across all the offices, but I am guessing the number had to be at least 1,200 to 1,500. All in one day! Simply amazing.

Thankfully, it was a beautiful day here in Bucks County. Most volunteers went out canvassing. That meant going door-to-door to homes that have identified themselves as Obama supporters. At each house, we left a 'door hanger' vote reminder and campaign lit and reminded them to vote. The target for the day was ~9,000 houses. We reached 93% of our target and talked with ~60%.

All in all, it was such a successful day that Jolie, the Campaign staffer who runs our office rewarded us with an extra hour of sleep before we need to return to the office Sunday morning. :)

Grant

PS: Lara, one of the office's lead volunteers is pictured above (on the left) with a friend in front of the new office.

Like Rabbitts

Good morning. Yesterday was crazy, as the office started executing final prep for GOTV. Over the course of the day, we transformed ourselves from one central office on Main St to 13 staging area offices across upper and central Bucks. This is being done so we can more efficiently handle the crush of volunteers we are expecting over the last four days of the campaign.
I have moved to the Buckingham area, which is between New Hope and Doylestown. By 11pm or so last night, the office was in remarkably good shape and ready for the onslaught that is expected today.
The volunteer buses will be arriving at the Hampton Inn at about 10:00 this morning, with volunteers being distributed to several of the 13 staging areas for a day of canvassing.
All in all, a herculean effort designed to assure that every single identified Obama supporter gets to the polls on Tuesday to cast their vote for change.
Speaking of volunteers, the lovely couple pictured here are my cousins Tom and Mary. They drove up from MD to spend a couple of days canvassing and making calls for Barack.
Thank you both for the great support.
Grant

Where to Eat and Sleep in Doylestown

Gene, a dedicated Obama volunteer from CT put together a restuarant, entertainment and lodging guide for volunteers coming to the Doylestown office to help out. Since I can't seem to be able to attach a Word Doc to this blog posting, I have pasted Gene's restaurant selections below.
Thanks for the effort, Gene!!!
Enjoy everyone,
Grant

Obama Volunteer’s guide to Doylestown
Local Information

Parking

Free parking at Bucks County garage, located only a few steps north, 3 levels, good security

Movie Theatre
County Theatre 20 E. State St.
First-run movies, Bucks County Film Festival

Doylestown has great food at very reasonable prices:
Restaurants close by
Breakfast
Bucks County Coffee 22 N. Main (215) 345-0795
Opens early; coffee, lattes, mochas, light food, WiFi service

Lilly’s Gourmet 1 W. Court St (215) 230-7883
Opens 8:30, Breakfast, wraps, panini, wraps.

Starbucks 10 N. Main St.
It’s Starbucks Coffee & Wifi

Bagel Barrel 60 W. State St. (215) 348-8280
Weekdays 6-3, Sat.& Sun. 7-2; bagels, eat in or to go.

Chambers19 19 N. Main St. (215) 348-1940
Sunday Breakfast Buffet, 9Am-1PM, Belgian waffles made to order

McGlinchey’s 19 E. State St. (215) 772-1098
Mon.-Sat., 8-2, Sun. 8-10, breakfast and lunch, Menu $5-$8

Sandwiches
Primo Hoagies 6 East Court St. (215) 340-7701
Hoagies, cutlet combos, Sandwiches from $5; stand-up counter, mostly takeout

Pennsylvania Soup & Seafood House 22 S. Main St. (215) 230-9490
Mon. 11-6 ,Tue, 11-8 ,Wed and Thur, 11-9 Fri. & Sat, 12-3:30 Sun. 12 different soups $2.50 -$7;
6 sandwiches $8.50 to $10.50

Basically Burgers 12 W. State St. (215) 345-8500
Open 11-9, The name says it all. Menu $1.50-$9

Lunch and Dinner
Café Allessio 24 N. Main St. (215) 340-1188
Mon-Sat. 10-10, Sun 11-9; Italian specialties, fusion (Italian and Japanese), sushi,
Open-air dining. BYOB, Wine & Spirits, 19 W. Court St. Diagonally across street.

Chambers 19, Bistro and Bar 19 N. Main St. (215) 348-1942
Mon.-Thur., 11-10, Fri-Sat ,11-11, Sun 9-9; http://www.chambers19.com/. Extensive menu, entrees $10-$23 ,
lunch specials from $7 Salads, pasta, Nuevo American entrees. Open air dining
Sunday breakfast buffet, 9-1, $10 adults, $5 children 10 and under.

Lilly’s Gourmet 1 W. Court St. (215) 230-7883
http://www.lillysgourmet.com/ Mon.-Fri., 8:30-4; Sat. 10-4, Breakfast, wraps, panini, salads

Smoken’ Lils 9 W. Court St. (215) 348-5170
http://www.lillysgourmet.com/ Mon.-Thur.,11-7, Fri.-Sat.11-9; Southern BBQ, pulled pork, smoked brisket, ribs;
sandwiches from $6.50, platters from $9.95.

Domani Star 57 W. Court St. (215) 230-9100
Brunch Sun., 9-1; dinner Sat. 5-10, Sun. 4-9; Cucina Itliano, BYOB, entrees $19-$28

Siam Cuisine at Black Walnut 80 W. Court St. (215) 348-0708
Wed.-Sun., 11:30-9:30; Thai cuisine; entrees $15-$27

Madam Butterfly 34 W. State St. (215) 345-4488
Lunch Mon.-Thur., 11:30-2:30; dinner, Mon.- Sat.’ 4:30-10:30; Sun. 12:30-9:30,
Japanese lunch specials $10-$14, dinner entrees $16-$25, sushi and sashimi 2 pieces, $5-$7

Cross Culture 62 W. State St. (215) 489-9101
http://www.crosssulturecuisine.com/ 11:30 Am- 10:00 PM, Indian Cuisine BYOB Entrees $17-$25

Paganini Trattoria 81 W. State St. (215) 348-5922
Lunch 11:30-2:30, Dinner 3-10 Sat. Open 11:45-9:00 Sun. Traditional Italian Cuisine , full bar
Lunch specials $9-12 Entrees $24-27

Paganini Café & Pizza 72 W. State St. (215) 348-9600
Open daily 11:30-10, Salads, wraps, Pizza, Gelato, nice wine selection, espresso

Liquor Store
Wines & Spirits 19 W. Court St.
Full selection of spirits and moderate priced wines.

Lodging
Doylestown Inn 18 W. State St. (215) 345-6610
Luxury Inn, food & drink, Weekend rates $195-$220

Courthouse Inn 625 N. Main St. (215) 345-6722
Good basic motel, friendly staff, rates from $75 Continental breakfast included.


After Canvassing for Barack Obama
visit historic Doylestown's restaurants.

Thanks for your efforts on behalf of Obama.

This guide was prepared by an Obama volunteer, not by the Obama campaign , and it is not endorsing any particular establishment. I hope it makes your visit more enjoyable.

As reported in the WSJ....

....McCain Doesn't Look Competitive in Pennsylvania

This headline appeared in Friday's WSJ and featured our very own Doylestown office.
Here is the article's intro--
The Barack Obama campaign occupies a storefront on N. Main Street across from the county courthouse. A stream of people filters through to pick up buttons or leaflets. The bulletin board lists a dozen staffers in this office and another in Bristol.
Now try to find a John McCain outpost in Bucks County. Armed with an address, you'd get an unmarked, low, stand-alone office building on a four-lane state highway 15 minutes' drive from here. On the front door a small sign directs visitors to the McCain campaign around the corner and down the stairs to the basement. Two volunteers man phones, McCain posters or signs aren't readily available. Three paid staffers direct the Republican's campaign from a single office in this critical battleground.
For the rest of the story, go to http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122480892803665099.html

This article reinforces what I talked about yesterday. The Obama team is all over Bucks County and PA. McCain...not so much :)

A Test of Wills

Good morning. As mentioned yesterday, McCain and Obama were both scheduled to be in PA yesterday in what appears to be shaping up as the MAIN battleground of the election.
One candidate braved the winter-like conditions and rallied a crowd of 9,000 enthusiastic supporters in nearby Chester. The other candidate sent out a press release at 10:30am saying that as a result of inclement weather, he was cancelling his appearance and going on to his next stop in another state.

Hummm...let's see....which candidate do you think stayed and which candidate baled on his constituents in this battleground state?

For more pictures from yesterday's rally, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/28/obamas-day-in-the-rain-ph_n_138677.html

Obama: 100 McCain: 1

Good morning: Wow! The campaign's are really serious about PA! Obama will be in Chester, PA, about an hour south of Doylestown, at noon today. And McCain-Palin will be in nearby Quakertown at 12:15pm. The weather here is miserable, so it is will be interesting to see what kind of turnout each candidate draws.
Several people have asked how the McCain ground game compares to Obama's activities in Bucks County. Here is a little insight. The Obama office is averaging about 50 walk-in volunteers a day during the week and 200-300 over the weekend. This is in addition to the 6-7 paid staffers and the 6-7 full time volunteers that are in the office every day.
So how does this compare with McCain?
Well, one of our people went over to the McCain campaign office in Warminster last week to get tickets for today's McCain-Palin rally. What he found was very revealing. First of all, the office is in a basement that is only accessible from the rear of the building, which is kind of depressing. Second, when our person visited the office, he found 2 paid staffers and 2 volunteers in the office. FOUR people. That was it! In addition, so far we have seen no evidence of any canvassing by McCain people in our area or 'turf', as Obama-ites refer to their area. And no local phone banking that we know of. (It all appears to be remote.)
A numerical rating of the two campaigns ground games would look something like this: Obama--100, McCain--1

Back in Doylestown for the final push

Hi all: Happy Halloween from Obama-Biden land.

I had to leave the campaign for a few days to host my nieces Allison (age13) and Christine (10), who flew out from Indiana for a long weekend on LI.

There have been several changes since I left the office last Wednesday. The big push now is to lock in volunteers to help us execute the aggressive GOTV plan set for Nov1-4. We have signed up literally hundreds of volunteers for the effort. The next task is to plan how to effectively deploy all these volunteers for the final four days. To do that, a dozen or more staging areas have been set-up around the County to take the pressure off the N. Main St. office. I have been assigned to an office in the Buckingham area, 10 minutes NE of the main campaign office. I will be stationed there Nov 1-4. Seven more days to go. Should be exciting!

Grant

GOTV

Good morning. I went back to NYC for a couple of days and am now back in Doylestown. Yesterday was GOTV day. The first couple of times that I saw web references to GOTV, I thought it was a political web video channel and did a Goggle search to find it. No luck. After two weeks with the Campaign I am now smarter. Turns out GOTV stands for, you guessed it, Get Out The Vote, duh.
Anyway, Obama offices across PA (and presumably across the country) are gearing up for a massive GOTV effort. Last night, the GOTV show came to Doylestown. Expecting a large crowd, the meeting was scheduled at the Bucks County Courthouse, across from the Campaign office. The meeting was scheduled for 7:30pm. The goal was to finish up by 8:30pm so everyone could get home to a.) watch the Phillies or b.) watch the last debate. At 7:45pm, people were still streaming into the meeting room, with no end in sight. Soon the meeting room was standing room only, so staffers made a quick adjustment, sending a large group back to the Campaign office, where we ended up conducting a second GOTV training session.
The purpose of the two meetings was to communicate the GOTV strategy for the last 4 days of the campaign. Without boring you with all the details, it is an AWESOME plan. The goal is to touch every declared OBAMA supporter in the entire County multiple times over the last 4 days to make sure every single voter knows how and where to vote, the hours polls are open, etc. In total between 100 and 150 volunteers learned what we need to do to deliver Bucks County to Barack Obama on November 4th.
McCain has no idea how much energy and passion there is for Obama in PA!!

Preparing for the Onslaught

Good morning: today is Saturday, which means hordes of volunteers will be descending on the office. Around 10AM or so the buses will begin arriving from NYC for two days of door-to-door canvassing in Doylestown and the surrounding towns in middle and upper Bucks County.
We have spent the last two days preparing for the onslaught. Dozens of info packets with canvassing instructions, policy positions, and Google maps have been created for the visitors.

The main goal of the canvassing is to determine who the Obama and McCain supporters are and who is undecided. A key strategy is to try and persuade the undecideds to move toward Barack.

The canvassers could not have asked for a better day: sunny and in the 60s.

I am off to welcome our visitors. Check in tomorrow for some photos of the day.

Grant

Obama Doylestown PA office goes Global

The big excitement at the office yesterday was the arrival of TF1, a major French TV station. They came to the office to do a segment on Obama Campaign volunteers. They interviewed several of us to understand what motivates us to volunteer our time for a political campaign. In particular, they found it fascinating that a person would leave his/her home and family and move into a home of complete strangers. The Producer told me that this would never happen in France. They were so fascinated by this, in fact, that they asked me to take them home so they could see meet the couple who opened up their house to me. So the three Frenchmen and I schlepped the 5 miles out of town to the farm where I am staying and the film crew videod Debbie and me talking at the kitchen counter. It was all very exciting.
If all goes according to plan, TF1 will be airing a 2-minute segment on the Doylestown office 3-4 days from now. As soon as the video is up on TF1's web site, I will add the link here.
That's all for now.
Grant

How a Campaign Office Works

Here is a little insight into how a typical campaign oiffice works. A typical Obama campaign office, that is. :)
The Doylestown office is located in the middle of town on the first floor of a rented house, across from the County Courthouse, in case you are in the neighborhood. :)
The office is run by of a core group of paid 'staffers' who are complemented by a small group of full-time volunteers and a revolving group of part-time volunteers.
A large percentage of the money contributed to the Obama Campaign is used to 'staff' the ground game acrosss the country. The Doylestown office has 6-7 paid 'staffers' and five full time volunteers, including Neil, a former ad agency CFO, Marv, a successful book author and granddad, Gene, a sailor from CT, Rob, a recent law school graduate and me.
The paid staffers and full-time volunteers work together to recruit and train a steady stream of part-time volunteers who show up at the office every day.
The most important task of the office is to engage voters. We do this via telephone and door-to-door canvassing. There is a ton of data collecting and inputting as well. Every voter contact results in a data entry task.
All in all, the operation is very impressive. It is amazing to witness what a group of wildly disparate people can do when they are united by a common cause.
Got to go now. Rob, the recent law school grad, just told me that a French film crew is going to be in the office this morning to film a day in the life of an Obama Campaign office for French TV.
See ya,
Grant

The Town Hall Debate

Good morning: After a busy day in the Doylestown office yesterday, I went to my home-away- from-home to watch the debate with Deb and Roberto, who have very generously opened up their home to me during my stay in PA. As you might expect, Deb and Roberto are enthusiastic Obama fans, which made for a most enjoyable debate.

At about the 15 minute mark we all agreed that Obama was doing a terrific job connecting with middle class voters, while McCain clearly was not.
The more I hear and see McCain and Obama together the more I am convinced that this election is a choice between the future and the past. I do not believe the majority of Americans understand McCain's historic references, which renders much of what he has to say meaningless to younger Americans. At the conclusion of the debate, we were all more postive than ever that Obama is the right choice for these difficult days.

Now it is on to the blogs to see how the 'experts' called the debate.
Grant

I am working for Obama in Doylestown, PA

Hi all: after attending Camp Obama in Manhattan in late September I was assigned to work for Obama in Doylestown, PA, which is where I am now. I plan to stay here until the morning of November 5th.

For the past week the focus has been on voter registration. In PA, that ended today, Oct 6th.

Moving forward the focus is on voter contact through phone and canvassing.

Then, towards the end, everyone will focus on the GOTV effort.

Every weekend, bus loads of NYers descend on the area to provide volunteer muscle to the local efforts.

If you would like to join us one weekend, please give me a call and I will provide you with the details.

Grant