Boiler room décor with rickety folding chairs, tables and phones: check

Bad coffee and picked over bad-for-you snacks: check

Enthusiastic volunteers that reaffirm my faith in the democratic process: check

Like many FHers in the Public Affairs practice, politics is not only a professional passion but a personal one, and every four years I need my fix.  I embarked Wednesday for three weeks of leave to volunteer for the Obama campaign, waiting for my assignment in a battleground state.  As has been my experience in the past as the campaign coordinates thousands of details in the final weeks, there are more that a few starts and stops over the days leading up to my leave. “We might need you in Michigan.  Wait, McCain has pulled his campaign staff out of the state.  Can you make it to Palm Beach County, Florida?  Hang tight for a few days – we may need you in New Mexico.”

So as I waited for my final destination, I made the trek across the Potomac to the battleground state right in my own backyard, Virginia.  Virginia has not backed a Democrat for President in 44 years, but the stars may be aligning: The most recent CNN/Time poll has Obama leading McCain by a healthy 10 point margin.  But it is all about turning out the votes on November 4^th, so applied some of my found time to a phone bank run by a friend with the campaign in Arlington, Virginia.

Ahhh, the stale, slightly funky smell of a store-front campaign office — I felt right at home. As I got my call list to start dialing to ID voters for Get-Out-the-Vote activities, I looked around the room and saw retirees, high school students, people coming from work in business clothes, a father and his two daughters, urban hipsters, a recently returned Peace Corps volunteer – a whole bunch of people who felt strongly enough about their candidate that they were inside on a gorgeous fall evening to work the phones for a few hours.  Even though I only ended up getting a handful of people on the phone, and ended up eating enough junk food that I vowed to get to the gym first thing in the morning, it gave me great satisfaction to have done at least my small part that day.

I’ve got my marching orders now to head to Albuquerque, New Mexico where I will be working to coordinate events and media for surrogate speakers coming into the state on behalf of the campaign.  With Craig Paridy’s able help back in DC while I am on the road, I will be posting occasional dispatches from the front – and look forward to hearing from others in the practice that are getting their political fix as well!

October 16th, 2008 by Kathleen Siedlecki | 1 Comment