What has Organization of America accomplished since Election '08?

By GottaLaff

TPM has asked the questions I've been asking for a year, but they got answers. See, they did what I failed to do: They went to the source. Now why didn't I think of that?

TPMDC has learned that 24.7 percent of the donations made online to OFA are new donors - people who didn't give during the campaign. That's a pretty striking figure give that a record 3 million people donated during 2007 and 2008.

That's encouraging!

Organizationally, the boots-on-the-ground, Washington outsider vibe has translated into real results as well.

Even better!

I'm giving you the barest of bare bones, so please read the whole post here. It's an exclusive, and I don't want to be grabby.

Since June 6 when the health care push began in earnest, 95 percent of OFA's efforts have been focused on health care.

Good, good. I'm liking this.

In addition, OFA volunteers from 2008 and this year invested time in training new supporters, who learned community organizing techniques that will help Democrats and Obama going forward, they said. [...]

Bird and Stewart shared several stories about OFA supporters on the ground whose calls seemed to make the difference convincing representatives in Arizona and West Virginia. They said Obama gets renergized from these stories and from reconnecting with the grassroots group that helped him win the presidency last year. [...]

[T]he OFA volunteers are spread out across the country and do outreach to all 535 members of Congress. They also get involved in other issues, and organized locally to help tsunami victims in American Samoa.

OFA stays engaged with supporters who aren't as interested in health care, sending out emails on the climate change bill that's pending in Congress, and targeting college supporters on the issue of student loan reform.

Bird said hearing positive stories from volunteers keeps them grounded in reality.

Now go read what I left out.

Bicycle valet parking for Obama inauguration

By GottaLaff

Want to attend the inauguration, get some exercise, and provide a service at the same time? Volunteer to be a bike valet:

The Washington Area Bicyclist Association is trying to arrange valet bicycle parking for the Jan. 20 inauguration of Barack Obama.

WABA wants to set up three valet stations within walking distance to the National Mall so cyclists can drop off their bikes and hike on over to the inaugural events.

Visitors also will have bicycles in SmartBike DC self-service bike rental program [...] at their disposal. [...]

The DCExaminer.com says America Bikes has donated $7,000 for signs, refreshments for volunteers and commemorative valet cards.

Metro also has bike racks available at rail stations and bike 1,200 bike lockers that can be reserved. No word yet on whether bikes will be allowed on trains or buses that day.

If you'd like to sign up to volunteer to park bikes, volunteer at this WADA site.

Georgia Obama organizers have "a wistful, gravitational pull" to keep working

By GottaLaff

The Obama Georgia campaign organizers are at it again:

If Barack Obama isn't coming to rain-soaked Georgia, his ground organization is very much here. In addition to the existing Georgia organizing infrastructure that has stayed on board, at least fifty outside organizers showed up in Georgia within a few days of November 4. The mission: to help Democrat Jim Martin in his U.S. Senate runoff against incumbent Saxby Chambliss. More organizers arrive each day. They're young -- but they're veterans -- and they've jumped right in.

In other parts of the country, including northern and southern California, Obama organizers run phone banks into Georgia on Martin's behalf.

This is what we wanted to hear. Thank you, Sean Quinn of 538.

At the human level, there is almost a wistful, gravitational pull for many of these organizers in returning to a race. To work on the Obama campaign, these folks had to disconnect from their previous lives. [...]

While the pride is evident, conversations with many of these organizers reveals a strange sense of feeling lost, untethered from an all-consuming routine. So when organizers hear other organizers are coming to Georgia, it's a form of therapeutic reunion for many, much like a reunion of military veterans. Unless you've been through it, it's hard to explain.

I love these people. I want to marry them. All of them.

The Martin campaign has 25 field offices in the state, which is the same number of offices Chambliss has. We visited the Savannah offices Friday night and yesterday, and the organizing edge goes to Martin. On Friday night, the Chambliss office was open but empty, and a couple of dialers worked on Saturday around noon.

So what's the latest on the early voting?

Whatever turns out to be the case, at the close of early voting Wednesday, according to the Secretary of State's office 345,564 had voted, and 22.5% of those votes were African-American, an ominous dropoff from the 34.5% of black early voters for the general election.

Still, according to Georgia Democratic Party spokesman Martin Matheny, thousands of volunteers were hard at work across the state knocking doors in the rain and making phone calls on Jim Martin's behalf. The lines on Election Day will be much shorter than during the general election, given the much shorter ballot, and Democrats here think that most of its voters are going to turn out on Runoff Day itself.

Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease.