This is cool. From an Obama campaign press release:
Senator Barack Obama's campaign today announced the kickoff of Vote for Change, an unprecedented 50-state voter registration and mobilization drive. The campaign will work with grassroots volunteers and partner with local organizations to register new voters and boost engagement in our Democratic process. The program will launch on May 10 with dozens of events around the country."If we're going to push back on the special interests and finally solve the challenges we face, we're going to need everyone to get involved," said Senator Obama. "Over the next six months, Vote for Change is going to bring new participants into the process, adding scores of new voices to this critical dialogue about our future. I started my career as a community organizer, and I worked to register voters in communities where hope was all but lost. I've seen what can happen when Americans re-engage and take ownership in the process."
"We've already seen amazing new enthusiasm and involvement over the course of this campaign, and now we're taking that excitement to the next level in all 50 states," said deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand. "We've seen too many elections where turnout was less than 50 percent. At this critical time in our history, we know we can do better--this year and beyond."
This is going to pay dividends for the party well into the future, no matter who the nominee is, but I think Ben Smith is onto something that it's not entirely out of the goodness of his own heart, nor is the timing of the announcement, right after his PA loss, coincidental.
It's clearly nascent, and it's been rolled out now to make the case for his electability.But six months, swarms of volunteers, and the sort of smart online infrastructure the campaign has built before will be a formidable thing, with possible consequences down-ballot, all over the place.
UPDATE: A reader makes the point that the Obama drive -- with its national map -- also sends a message to superdelegates, many of the members of Congress, of what Obama's nomination could do for them.
Another interesting part of the press release was this nugget:
The campaign's recent voter registration drives have registered more than 200,000 new Democrats in Pennsylvania, more than 165,000 new Democrats in North Carolina, and more than 150,000 new Democrats in Indiana. Those numbers just scratch the surface of what's possible.
Notable, considering the official, although admittedly incomplete, pre-primary increase in Dem registration in Pennsylvania since November was 161,000 and counting. I'd be really interested to see updated Pennsylvania numbers and to get a sense of the rate at which registration has continued even past the deadline to vote in the primary. By the looks of these numbers, I'd bet the excitement surrounding the Democratic primary continued to net new Democratic registrants even after the deadline passed.
Update [2008-4-25 20:14:47 by Todd Beeton]:Should have included the Vote For Change link.
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