Morning News: One By One, Getting California’s First-Time ‘08 Voters Back to the Polls
Of the 15 million folks who cast their first votes in 2008, the Los Angeles Times reports that one million are in California—and OFA is hard at work to bring them back to the polls this year.
The LA Times highlighted one of the personal interactions between an OFA volunteer and a first time ‘08 voter—the type of conversation that will happen time and time again leading up to this fall’s elections:
Jordan Love, 22, was standing outside his home with his pit bull Duke when he was approached the other day by a Democratic volunteer canvassing his Carson neighborhood. Love had voted for the first time in 2008, inspired by Barack Obama’s campaign, and that has made him a target in 2010.
Lori Noflin, the volunteer, urged him to cast a ballot again this fall and would only walk away after Love signed a card pledging to vote in November.
Voters like Love — first-time and sometimes voters — are a vital voting bloc for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jerry Brown and incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer in their election bids, according to political observers in both parties. Both candidates are in dead-heat races, and their fates could rest on these voters, a mercurial bunch whose turnout potential is unpredictable….
Organizing For America, the Democrats’ national get-out-the-vote apparatus, has made the president the centerpiece of its message to voters. On a recent Saturday, organizers told volunteers to make Obama and his agenda central to their pitch as they reached out to 2008′s first-time voters in their homes and on the phone. More than 330 volunteers sought out 6,000 first-time voters in California that day, and talked to 900 of them.
"We are obviously focusing on first-time 2008 voters… making sure these people are as fired up and ready to go, and get to the polls in 2010," Phil Gaskin, a regional field director, told a handful of volunteers gathered at Lori Noflin’s airy Carson home, preparing to canvas neighborhoods and make calls from a phone bank. "It’s a whole campaign to keep the president linked to these voters, even though he’s not running this year. It’s a very, very cool strategy."