What does our office do??

Life at the Obama Lansdale campaign office is pretty straightforward, to be honest. We focus on a couple of key things: phone banking, canvassing neighborhoods, and recruiting volunteers to do either of those things. There are also a few people who do data entry and other office work. Oh, and we greet the gazillions of people who walk in the door everyday asking for a yard sign. The whole idea is house by house, person by person, getting people to vote for Obama. Right now, things are looking positive for Obama in Pennsylvania…4 years ago, PA “went blue” for John Kerry, but only barely. The feeling at the moment is that we can win PA, but we’ll have to work for it. And winning PA is important, because we have 21 electoral votes. If we’re not careful, we could be another Florida or Ohio. The crazy part is that Montgomery County, where Lansdale is located, is one of the hottest battleground areas- meaning if we can win here, we can win the state of PA. Lansdale is one of about 6 offices in Montgomery County.

The office is pretty bare bones- it’s just a large space, pretty much what used to be an old car dealership showroom, with lots of folding tables and chairs. Almost everything is donated, too! Dan and Ben have almost no budget. The other day we needed push pins, posterboard, and staples, and Sheila just went out and bought them, and paid herself. We have a food corner with a couple of mini refrigerators, a microwave, and coffee pot, and some shelves with snacks. Supporters come in all the time with food- I’m serious, they just drop off a big box of donuts or bagels or bulk snacks like tons of granola bars or pretzels or cases of bottled water. It’s amazing. We have a kids corner with coloring books and toys and I even brought in a tv/vcr for when it really gets busy, as we do get parents who stop by for an hour or two to help out.


In the picture here, you see a cut out of Obama from our office with a sign that says, "wish list." We keep a running list at the front of things we need and people often just bring it in. This guy Hugh is some sort of delivery guy and owns a big truck, and came by the other morning with his truck full of beat up folding tables and chairs. Yahoo! We have a big roll of plastic table cloth stuff, so we cleaned up the tables, covered them, and there we go! More space for volunteers. Right now our huge wish list item is cell phones or cell phone minutes. We have a bunch of pay-as-you-go cell phones with a lot of minutes, but there are never enough. A lot of volunteers use their own phones too.