Week 1 Complete

FYI to my adoring fans: As part of my job, I'm not allowed to maintain a blog that comments on politics. Just FYI. Therefore, from now on, this blog will strictly comment on my life and not politics. It will be difficult, so just bear with me. Thanks!

Now, the first week of any job is crazy. It's difficult to show up and be expected to learn everything in a day and retain it all. Luckily, I have my experience from Pennsylvania to fall back on, and luckily, the Field Organizers there were awesome and super organized, so it's good experience. And it definitely prepared me (at least mentally) for the 14 hour days, running on 6 hours of sleep.

The week began in Middle-Of-Nowhere, VA, which was fun. A great way to get to know everyone. Of course, we then dispersed all over the state afterwards. :( But we'll be meeting again in Richmond in a week so it's all good.

About that, this coming weekend should be interesting. I'm going to leave early from work on Friday, and drive down to the Benders. In the morning, I have the State Convention in Hampton (aka I get to fill out the paperwork to officially become an Obama delegate). Then I'm going to Richmond to stay with the Donnelly's for a night before going to a staff-wide training on Sunday. Thank god for having family all over the state!

The rest of the week was pretty crazy. I think I finally have a hold on my schedule. It begins at 7:30 when I wake up. A shower and breakfast. Leave by 8:30 for the office in Old Town Alexandria. Arrive by 9. Morning meeting with our Regional Field Director. All-staff conference call at 9:30. Call time (aka calling old people) from 10-noon. Lunch break (aka moving cars because we only have 3-hour street parking). Work on various projects and prepare for evening call time. Move car for last time at 3. Get materials and dinner together for evening call time. Then call time from 4-9 (aka five hours with no breaks and the phone not leaving your ear except for a short break at 7 to eat - craziness!). But wait, there's more! During all of that, volunteers were making calls from paper call sheets, meaning we need to enter all of the information into the online database. While the goal is to get out by 9:30, it takes much longer, and we usually get out around 10/10:30.

I know it sounds crazy. And it is. But it will all be worth it if we succeed!
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The All-Important Rules and Bylaws Committee Meeting

I was extremely fortunate today to sit in on the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee Meeting, concerning the delegates of Michigan and Florida. After arriving at 7:30am and running some errands for the campaign, I finally went inside and found a seat in the third row, right behind the presenters.

AND Mark Shields sat right behind me! No joke! The real Mark Shields! We chatted, and I told him how I loved watching his analysis of the Convention, which I do. He joked that by me saying that I brought his demographic down by two generations. :) Then I was telling him how I wouldn't be able to watch it this year because I would be in Denver as a delegate. He was very excited for me, and we continued our chat, saying we'd see each other again in Denver. I hope I do. He was a very nice guy.

Then the meeting finally began. It took forever (as I'm sure those of you watching on TV can testify), but by 3, we had finally heard from both Florida and Michigan. It was very interesting watching the dynamic of the crowd throughout the proceedings. Hillary definitely found her most radical supporters and sent them there. There was a lot of anger, and silliness if you ask me. All I can say is, Harold Ickes is more slimy in person than any newspaper or magazine article can depict. I hope politics never corrupts me like that.

We broke for lunch at 3, and were supposed to return by 4:15. But instead, the Committee decided to debate in private (probably a good idea considering the crowd that was there), so they didn't come out until 6. This gave me a chance to catch up with Evan and Christina (two other 8th District Delegates) and learn a bit about the politics of the 8th District and the history of its, shall I say, "moments". All very enlightening.

As all of you know, when the Committee returned, they voted to reinstate both Florida and Michigan in full, with votes counting 50%. Florida's allocation would be based on the actual results since both candidates were on the ballot, and Michigan's would be allocated 69 Hillary-59 Obama to account for Uncommitted voters, those who did not come to the polls, and the 5% who wrote-in a candidate whose votes were not counted.

Overall, I think it was a fair decision. Regardless of how the Clinton people will claim they will take this to the Convention, I'm confident that this was a compromise that both camps agreed to and I'm confident that the issue of a nominee will be settled by next week.

Now all that's left to deal with is Hillary's radical supporters that claim they will vote McCain in the fall. She really needs to do something about them. I mean, what Democratic woman would vote for a candidate that would overturn Roe v. Wade in a heartbeat? They need to see the light and realize that it is more important to elect a Democrat than to elect Hillary. Now that that's my job as a Field Organizer, I need to start brainstorming ideas... Any thoughts?
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Calls and More Calls

Today, Mom and I went to the Moran campaign HQ to make more phone calls. I'm still confused about how the whole thing will work in terms of the Moran campaign paying for Denver, but from what I can gather, if I get the most "points" in my jurisdiction (Arlington), they'll pay for hotel and airfare.

Points are awarded as follows:
*Call made/door knocked: 1 point
*Voter ID'd (aka supporter found): 2 points
*Volunteers Recruited: 1 point

Now, I haven't had much luck in getting volunteers, but I have made a lot of calls and found a good number of supporters. I've found a good number of people who are too old to understand what I'm telling them too, but what can you do. The numbers are as follows:

May 20
83 calls, 10 supporters = 83 + 2(10) = 103

May 29
Me: 66 calls, 15 supporters = 66 + 2(15) = 96
Mom: 45 calls, 22 supporters = 45 + 44 = 89

Total: 103 + 96 + 89 = 288

Now, I have no idea if that's a respectable total or not. Every time I go in, there's no one there. I've talked to Evan (who's an Alternate to the National Convention from the 8th District), and he's trying to do the same thing, and also has no idea where he stands. It's all very confusing, but I figure it can't hurt. The worst that would happen is that our Congressman gets reelected and I still have to pay for Denver. I'm basically in that position now except our Congressman is being challenged.

Mom, Anne, and Eugenia (maybe some other people as well) are going to go make calls in my name next week. Hopefully, my job will permit me to make calls as well. Then I would have the benefit of not having to pay for my really nice hotel room in Denver! They're putting us up at the Crowne Plaza in Downtown Denver very close to the Pepsi Center.

Regardless, it'll be an awesome experience and I'm excited to be a part of it! OBAMA '08!!

86 days until the Convention.
160 days until the General Election.
235 days until Barack Obama is sworn is as the next President of the United States.
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Job Secured!

Step 1 of my semester off is accomplished! As of 8:30 this evening, I am a Field Organizer with the Virginia Coordinated Campaign. I'll be working with Matt in Northern Virginia trying to get as many Democrats elected as possible.

Step 2: Training! I leave on Sunday/Monday for lovely Wakefield, VA where the 4-H Center will be hosting the entire campaign during our three-day training session. Should be a ton of fun, and a good kick-off to our long road ahead. I'm fired up!

Step 1.5... Anybody heard of Wakefield, VA???

According to Google Maps, it's located about 30 miles South-East of Petersburg.

Some fun facts from Wikipedia:

Wakefield is an incorporated town in Sussex County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,038 at the 2000 census.
Wakefield is famous for being the "Peanut Capital of the World" and the location of the famous Virginia Diner, as well as the site of Airfield Conference and 4-H Educational Center.

Who knew the Peanut Capital of the World was located in good ole Virginia!?
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Memorial Day Weekend Voter Registration

Instead of going to the beach this weekend, I stayed in NoVA to help with the many Voter Registration projects the campaign planned. On Saturday, we met at an apartment complex near Court House and then went out to local high traffic areas. I went, with another girl, to Clarendon, where we stood on a street corner outside Pottery Barn, and registered a total of 2 people in an hour.

Then today, Anne, Eugenia and I went to the Falls Church Memorial Day Parade. Every candidate seemed to have a float (aka a car, and some supporters cheering), and we were part of the Obama float. We were #56 of 60, and we ran out of candy and stickers and signs by the time we got to the big crowd, but we still had a blast. Photos below!


The Obama Convertible


And for fun, the McCainine. :-p
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173 Phone Calls

90 for Obama, 83 for Moran. My ear is tired, and my minutes probably aren't happy. BUT, if I make enough calls for Moran, he'll pay for my trip to Denver and my hotel, which would be excellent. I would write more, but I'm tired, so just a feel-good video below the jump. Enjoy!




166 days till the election!
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A Tank of Gas Later

After returning from Charlottesville, traveling back and forth from Mount Vernon, plus trekking all over Arlington, my tank was empty yesterday. Lucky for me, my (pending) new job will give me a gas card.

That's right, I chatted with Matt Robinson, in person, about this job with the Virginia Coordinated Campaign. Matt, the Regional Field Director of NoVA, was very nice, and he seems like he'd been a fun person to work for. After the interview, he introduced me to the rest of the office. When chatting with the Executive Director (whose name escapes me), I mentioned that I was going to be a delegate to the Convention, even though I hadn't been on the slate. She told me that the 8th District was the only district in Virginia that went against the slate at all, yet alone changing two people. More craziness!

Earlier in the day, I was at the Obama HQ where I learned the lost art of cutting turf by hand. What is "turf"? Well, when you go to canvass a neighborhood, you need a plan. The campaign targets a certain demographic of people, from Obama Supporters to Undecided Voters. In this case, we were targeting Unregistered Voters in Centreville. There are thousands of doors that need to get knocked out there.

Now, usually you can upload the information into a special program that will divide the houses for you, but in this case, we just had the info in an Excel document. We uploaded that into this program called MapPoint, which takes the addresses and maps them with pushpins. From there, I divided the pushpins into groups of about 50 houses. Then I searched through the printouts for the addresses and made packets. Later, we'll make maps of the area so the canvassers know where they're going.


I worked on cutting turf for a while, made some phone calls, and then Matt called, asking me to come down to Old Town for an interview. I, of course, accepted. But first, these crazy college kids from Roanoke College (who I had driven to Mount Vernon and back) needed a ride to the Metro. Then when I was at the Metro, my mom showed up, and I gave her a ride to tutoring. THEN, I went down the GW Parkway to the campaign office.

By the time I got back, I was nearly out of gas. Gas, of course, has become an issue here in NoVA, and in other areas where people travel long distances to get to work. The rising price of gas, now at $3.83 a gallon, has led more and more people to start using public transportation again, like the VRE whose ridership has grown for 10 consecutive months, making its weekday average 14,380 riders. Additionally, fewer people are traveling far for Memorial Day. This anticipated dip would be the first since 9/11.

Personally, I'm just happy that my job would be paying for my travel. Otherwise, it would be a very expensive summer. 167 days till Election Day!
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Nomination "Within Reach", Finally.

I went to the Arlington Obama Watch Party tonight to celebrate the returns in Oregon (and ignore the ones from Kentucky). It was a lot of fun. I had the typical running into people who know me because they voted for me on Saturday, and expecting me to remember them (I have a terrible memory guys, sorry.). We also ran into Mr. Erikson and Ms. Harrick, which was fun. Yay, W-L for Obama! :D

Of course big news of the night was that Obama has finally won an absolute majority of pledged delegates, meaning the only way Clinton can win is with superdelegates. Obama gave an awesome speech in Iowa around 10:30ET, which you can see below the jump. Enjoy!



168 days till Election Day!
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Day 1 at Virginia Obama HQ

Last week, I met Katherine and Wynne, two field organizers who have been assigned to Virginia. They emailed me about helping today.

I arrived at HQ, Kevin Wolf's basement, around 11. I helped Wynne brainstorm some Voter Reg. ideas for Memorial Day (like hitting up the parades, the Fun Run in Falls Church, the pools, etc.) while waiting for a group from Roanoke College to come meet us. Once they arrived, we trained them on Voter Reg., piled in the car and drove out to Mount Vernon where there was a Naturalization Ceremony going on. We were excited to register new citizens.

45 minutes later, we arrived at Mount Vernon, only to discover that the ceremony had already ended and everyone was gone. Oh well. At least we got a free trip to Mount Vernon out of it! We drove back, had lunch at Ballston Mall, and then they jumped on the Metro to try their luck at registering voters there. I'll find out how they did next time.

169 days of campaigning left! There's more...

Virginia 8th District Convention

So today, I went to the Virginia 8th District Convention as an Obama Alternate Delegate, meaning if one of the Arlington Obama delegates didn't show up, I could take their spot. But of course everyone showed up, so I was just there for fun and to hear from our lovely elected officials: Sen. Jim Webb, Rep. Jim Moran, and Mayor Bill Euille of Alexandria.

Also, I was there running as a District-Level National Delegate, meaning I would get to go to Denver and the DNC Convention. However, the Obama campaign had chosen a slate of 5 candidates to go to the convention, to try and ensure that the delegation would represent the diversity of the district. The delegates didn't have to choose them, but they were a slate, nonetheless. So I wasn't getting my hopes up. I was just there to see how the whole thing worked and get my name out there so I could run successfully in four years.

Then I gave the following speech:

"Hello. My name is Bridgit Donnelly. I graduated from Washington-Lee High School last year, and I just finished my first year at Barnard College in New York City. I stand before you today to wholeheartedly endorse Barack Obama. You may not think my endorsement means much, but consider this. I am one of the many youth who have never been involved in politics besides reading the morning paper or maybe making some phone calls for a local candidate. One of the many who thought you had to know somebody to be involved with processes like these.

At the beginning of this year, I never imagined I would be standing before you today. I never imagined that I would forgo schoolwork to host phone banking parties out of my dorm. I never imagined that I would march from 135th Street in Harlem down to 59th Street in Columbus Circle with a group of 100 or so other Obama supporters, chanting "Yes We Can!" I never imagined that I would give up my Spring Break to go to Pennsylvania and register young people to vote for the first time. I never imagined I would skip school to go back and help them get to the polls. I never imagined that I would actually read the enormously long document explaining the procedure of how to file to run for National Delegate. And I especially never imagined that just two days ago I would sign the paperwork to take the fall semester off to campaign for Barack Obama.

But standing in Washington Square Park on a beautiful September evening, something happened. Standing there, with people from every walk of life - young, old, rich, poor, black, white, Hispanic, Asian - all there to hear Barack Obama speak, I realized that if we can all come together, we can all have a say this year. It's not like the elections of years past. You don't need to know somebody to make a difference. This year, WE get to decide what we want for our future. And WE choose Senator Barack Obama because WE know that he has brought people together across this country. We know that WE have made a difference.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a spectacular group of people running for National Delegate. We have all worked extremely hard to get Senator Obama to where he is today. And I know that we will all work even harder to get him to the White House. I know that I do not have much of a chance at getting to the National Convention as a District-elected Delegate. I am just grateful for the chance to stand among such a dedicated group of people and be considered for this position. Thank you for considering me, and I look forward to Barackin' the Vote with all of you in November. Thank you."

The delegates were extremely inspired and kept telling me how awesome my speech was. Was it really that good? Well then, thanks Prof. Stokes for teaching me how to write a speech in Reacting! Anyway, I was still not hopeful. Many of the delegates had come to the convention knowing who they were voting for. Some had even already turned in their ballots and left before I spoke (I mean, we had been there for 6 hours!). So I wasn't hopeful.

But then people started coming over and telling me they had voted for me. People from every Virginia Democratic group were trying to get me involved and giving me their business cards. While I was chatting with the Obama campaign representative about helping them out, a man came over and said, "It looks good for you." I didn't want to believe him until he said, "I was in the room counting. It looks really good."

Sure enough, minutes later, Mayor Euille was saying, "The female delegates will be Cristina Chiappe, and the young woman from Arlington who stole all of our hearts, Bridgit Donnelly."

So there you have it. I'm going to Denver as a Delegate! Like, I'll be on the floor when Barack gives his speech! I won't have to sneak in or hope I get a good volunteer post. I'm gonna be there! Thanks again to everyone in the 8th District who voted for me! I promise I will serve you well!
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My Year of Barackin' the Vote

After much urging from my mother, I have started a blog to document my involvement with the Obama campaign this summer and fall.

I started with the campaign as a Volunteer Coordinator for Columbia Students for Barack Obama, and my crazy year began from there. We did tons of phone banking and visibility in New York before Super Tuesday. When the campaign didn't end there, I kept calling other states, encouraging them to vote for Obama. Over Spring Break, I interned in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, registering young people to vote for the first time. I skipped school and returned for Primary Weekend to make sure they got to the polls.

Now, I've taken the plunge and have decided to take the fall semester off in order to campaign full-time as a Field Organizer for the Virginia Coordinated Campaign. I am looking forward to doing my part to turn Virginia blue for the first time in my lifetime.

So I hope you guys enjoy reading about my adventures. Hopefully, I'll have some good stories to tell! FIRED UP AND READY TO GO!! There's more...