‘Roots News round-up and meta on Ohio campaign coverage
The e-mails, phone calls – robo and live, invites and blogs are buzzing through every inch of available space, cyber and otherwise, in Ohio right now. In the last two hours alone I’ve received information about Barack Obama’s efforts to reach out to the Jewish community in Northeast Ohio, I was called by a live (as opposed to recorded) Hillary Clinton supporter about attending a rally tomorrow at a local high school and I’m gathering information for a fellow blogger coming into Cincinnati soon, from California, who may drop in on some campaign events.
And there’s still 19 days before Ohio’s primary on March 4.
For those who are curious, the NBC debate – the one that seemed to be in jeopardy because of MSNBC’s David Shuster “pimped out” comment regarding Chelsea Clinton’s activities on behalf of her mother’s campaign – will occur. Tickets are being issued by lottery to Cleveland State University students only, but students, faculty and staff can volunteer. Hardball will be broadcasting all day from an adjacent location with a different sign-up for tickets process, and information on press credentials has yet to be released.
Here are on the ground reports by Ohioans about the campaign events so far:
Scott Piepho reviews Chelsea speaking to students at the University of Akron, 2/14 (with photos)
Annie at The Chief Source describes the same event (with photos)
Eric Vessels gives his account of the Obama organizational meeting in Columbus last night (2/13) (with photos)
Jen at Democratic Underground describes the Obama organizational event in Cincinnati, 2/13
Man with the Muck-rake was at the Obama HQ opening event in Toledo, also on 2/13
For a population that was convinced as recently as the first week of January that Ohio wouldn’t make a difference, we are mostly very glad that we didn’t kowtow and change our primary date.
4 Responses to “‘Roots News round-up and meta on Ohio campaign coverage”
Hey there, Jill, thanks for the piece. I think I mentioned on one of your previous posts that a big difference between the Dems and Reps in the 2004 race was that the Reps. were widely viewed as more successful because they had neighbors talking to neighbors to support Bush. Whereas the Dems were not as successful because they trucked in supporters from all over the US to campaignx door to door for Kerry. The moral of the story was that the locals weren't too impressed with outsiders telling them how to vote. I'm not just referring to OH, but other states as well.
Do you have any sense of the campaigns' active/visible supporters in OH? Are the active and visible supporters locals or do you think there are a lot of “outsiders” campaigning door to door?
VERY much locals. All those folks I linked to, with one exception, are Ohioans I actually know through blogging and a two or three I've met personally. Oh no, there are grassroots grown groups. And the calls I'm getting – from Ohioans.
Now yes, there are outsiders coming in to work the social networks, but as you say, the mistakes of the past are not being made – or at least, the ODP is working very hard, on behalf of both campaigns, to not make the same mistakes.
Thanks, Jill! I'll tuck that nugget in the filing cabinet of my brain. It's interesting that you mentioned that the ODP was working very hard for both parties not to make past mistakes. That answered another thought I had. I would imagine that the DNC is coordinating (or, probably more accurately, the DNC suggested to Ohio) this effort to get locals out, and so I would assume that this is being done in other states, too. I'll have to keep on the lookout for signs of that. Thanks again!
StockBoy – I'm not sure of the ODP-DNC coordination but Doug Kelly, Exec Dir of the ODP worked for the DNC for ten years I think. So you wouldn't be wrong to imagine the connections.