Armed with cell phones, script, locals stump for Barack Obama

By N. Clark Judd
 

Timothy Case sat on the third step inside his Fieldston Road home, cell phone in hand, encouraging Texans to vote early and often in their March 4 Democratic primaries.

"Deborah, my name is Tim Case and I'm a volunteer with MoveOn. org," he said into the phone. "We're encouraging everybody to vote for Barack Obama …"

With closely-fought election battles raging in Texas and Ohio, the two contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination are looking everywhere they can for reinforcements. MoveOn.org, a progressive political action group, has lent its support to Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, and Mr. Case signed up to host a MoveOn.org event at his home on Sunday when the invitation to do so showed up in his e-mail inbox.

"Four years ago the stakes were high, and they keep getting higher," said Mr. Case, explaining his decision to invite 19 people - some friends, some strangers - to sit in his home and make phone calls to Texans urging them to cast their ballot for Mr. Obama.

Some of the volunteers, who popped mouthfuls of appetizers in between phone calls, were as new to campaigning as the Cases - but for others, like Susan Moscou, visiting from Yonkers, it was just another call bank.

"When I've done this before, I've gotten maybe two people," Ms. Moscou said between two consecutive conversations with answering machines.

After asking one Texan voter if she was going to vote for Mr. Obama, Ms. Moscou sighed, put the phone down and reached for a handful of almonds.

"She thinks it's personal," Ms. Moscou explained matter-of-factly.

"Did she hang up?" asked Natalie Gray, a transplant to Riverdale from Houston and first-time cold-caller.

"Yeah," Ms. Moscou said before she washed the almonds down with a swig of bottled water and checked the number off of her call list.

The low success rate didn't sway Leann Russo, who matched Ms. Moscou's two actual conversations with real people during the afternoon.

Ms. Russo said the goal wasn't to be one person making all the difference - just to work for her cause as others work for theirs. She said she could tell the work was going to pay off, although she couldn't tell how.

"I think there's already a swell for whatever the change is going to be," she said.

Then she placed another call.

This is part of the March 6, 2008 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you. Click here.