Special Delivery! OFA's Budget Pledges Given To Members

Release the activists!

Organizing For America dispatched 200 volunteers today to Capitol Hill armed with citizen pledges supporting Pres. Obama's budget.

"Look at this, I got goosebumps when I saw it," said Caroline Joss, a Washington, DC, resident, when she wandered into OFA's makeshift dispatch center at Democratic National Committee headquarters. "It's evidence of how you keep volunteers mobilized and pushing an agenda."

OFA has promised to leverage the power of Obama's massive 13M strong campaign email list and online social networking apparatus to advocate for his policy agenda. Today's outing marked evidence of their follow through; OFA, folded within the DNC, has collected 642K citizen pledges of support for Obama's budget proposal, according to OFA officials.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) was the Democrat to receive the most signed pledges, while Rep. Anh Joseph Cao (R-LA) was the Republican whose district produced the most signatures.

Stacked neatly in small bundles and wrapped in rope bows, the pledges were organized by district and stacked on tables in the room usually reserved for party press conferences. At the front of the room on a flat screen television hovered the Obama campaign 'O' - the rising sun over the red and white horizon. Volunteers streamed in and out, picking up the computerized pledges, which featured citizen names, cities, states and zip codes, but not actual signatures.

"I'm still campaigning," said Esther Mayberry, a Prince George's County, MD, resident, who had a Michelle Obama pin on her jacket. "I'm remaining a campaigner to champion his cause."

Volunteers were assigned House members, provided with addresses and sent on their way, and then, if their schedules allowed, they'd return for another shipment. The Senate pledges were boxed by state, awaiting the vetting required of all mail to members, said Mitch Stewart, OFA director.

One commonality among volunteers who turned out is that they were highly engaged in the campaign. Joss said she worked in Manassas during the general election to help turn the Commonwealth blue. Mayberry, a federal government worker who took the day off to participate, created a Web site for Obama.

They were notified last night via email of the event.

"I've been sparked by the Obama mania," Mayberry boomed, adding that this is the first time she has gotten so intensely drawn into politics. She said her adult children don't have health coverage or jobs and that she is hopeful Obama's stimulus plan will "trickle down" to them.

Joss, who works part-time helping associations set up lobbying days on the Hill, said she's looking for a job. "Right now I'm partially unemployed," she said. "What better way to spend my day?"

So the White House's budget didn't seem the only - or even a primary - draw for participants. Whether they want to remain part of the bigger Obama cause or are seeking the opportunity to network, participants seemed to have personal reasons for turning out.

Ken Schulz, a PA field staffer for Obama during the campaign, noted that before this campaign, a newly elected president would say, "thank you, I'll take it from here." But Obama is proving with OFA that he wants more from his volunteers than just their votes, Shulz said.

"It's more about supporting the guy that I busted 120 hours a week for," said Schulz, who lives in Arlington and found out about today's event on MyBarackObama.com. "I didn't work that hard to see what he ultimately achieved fail."

Schulz observed, however, that not everyone on the Hill gladly welcomed the pledges. His first delivery - at the office of Rep. Paul C. Broun (R-GA) - was met with "slightly less enthusiasm" than his second stop, Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA).

"They were much more receptive," Schulz said.

(JENNIFER SKALKA)