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