Monday, May 26, 2008 3:07 AM
100,000 handwritten cards mailed to undecided votersTaLisa Sheppard wasn't satisfied with the message from the news media to undecided voters about Barack Obama, so she and other central Ohio volunteers for Obama sent their own.
Actually, they sent more than 100,000 messages, in the form of postcards written by Obama supporters from all over the country and even overseas. The cards were sent to central Ohio to be addressed and mailed to voters in key primary states.
Since the Ohio primary on March 4, it has been one of the main activities of Obama's local volunteers, who kept the Democratic presidential candidate's headquarters on E. Rich Street open after the paid staff moved to other states. (Sen. Hillary Clinton's closed after the primary.)
"When you get a postcard from a 78-year-old grandmother stating why she supported Barack Obama … we just wanted it to be personal," said Sheppard.
Take the postcard from Jennifer Brooks of Moline, Ill., who wrote that she is a 36-year-old mother of four who voted in a primary for the first time this year.
"I voted for Barack Obama because I believe he can bring our country together to solve the problems we are facing," she wrote.
The postcard effort was the idea of Sheppard, 29, and her sister, TaKeysha Sheppard-Cheney, both of Gahanna. The Obama campaign provided names of undecided voters, and local volunteers addressed and mailed the cards, including 60,000 of them to Pennsylvania, Sheppard said.
Other "Women for Obama" chapters across the nation mailed postcards to women in other states, but outside of the early primary states, the central Ohio effort was the largest, the Obama campaign said.
"Our Ohio volunteers got a dry run for the November election during the build-up to the March primary, and instead of folding their tent on March 5, they decided to keep on working right through the fall," Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt said.
"It was really an energizing process for us because our primary was over but we were still able to contribute in what we think was a significant way to another primary," said Valli Frausto, 50, one of three administrators of Central Ohioans for Obama.
Obama lost to Clinton by nearly 10 percentage points in Ohio and also lost in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and other key states, which analysts blame in part on his inability to connect with white, blue-collar and less-educated voters.
But the Obama volunteers in Columbus insist that the more those voters get to know Obama and the more time he spends with them, the more they will connect.
Gita Punwani, 36, a high-school English teacher, and other local Obama volunteer leaders said they had not been active in politics before but were inspired by Obama.
"People tend to think of politics as something that's done by politicians," said Bill Wood, 55, a freelance editor from Westerville and Obama volunteer. "I think what we're seeing this year is that across the country, that equation is being changed and that we really are seeing average people deciding that they need to be involved in the political process."
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/05/26/copy/obama_volunteers.ART_ART_05-26-08_B1_8NAA94M.html?adsec=politics&sid=101:applause:
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