Speaking to a liberal summit in Washington today, Organizing for America director Mitch Stewart outlined how the DNC is tapping Obama's campaign network to advance the administration's agenda.
The presidential campaign is history, of course, but about 14 million Obama supporters still receive emails from Stewart, David Plouffe and Obama himself. That communication and organizing guidance helps supporters act as "message machines" for Obama's agenda, Stewart said, from telling "friends about why health care reform is so urgently needed" to demonstrating a united front for Judge Sotomayor's nomination.
Stewart also distinguished between "on the clock" outreach, like canvasing for signatures backing the administration's budget, and "off the clock" persuasion, when people can casually advocate policies while "hanging out" with friends. OFA has now deployed organizers to 30 states, Stewart announced, with the goal of eventually covering every state.
Ari Melber
Speaking to a liberal summit in Washington today, Organizing for America director Mitch Stewart outlined how the DNC is tapping Obama’s campaign network to advance the administration’s agenda.
The presidential campaign is history, of course, but about 14 million Obama supporters still receive emails from Stewart, David Plouffe and Obama himself. That communication and organizing guidance helps supporters act as "message machines" for Obama’s agenda, Stewart said, from telling "friends about why health care reform is so urgently needed" to demonstrating a united front for Judge Sotomayor’s nomination.
Stewart also distinguished between "on the clock" outreach, like canvasing for signatures backing the administration’s budget, and "off the clock" persuasion, when people can casually advocate policies while "hanging out" with friends. OFA has now deployed organizers to 30 states, Stewart announced, with the goal of eventually covering every state.
Stewart spoke on a panel about "Progressives in the Age of Obama" at the America’s Future Now conference. In a question and answer session, Stewart responded to concerns that OFA’s health care push may be too vague — a point I’ve raised before — and Stewart said OFA’s role was to advance "broad principles" and broadcast regular people’s stories, while deferring to Congress on policy details.
Ari MelberTwitterAri Melber is The Nation's Net movement correspondent, covering politics, law, public policy and new media, and a regular contributor to the magazine's blog. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a J.D. from Cornell Law School, where he was an editor of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy. Contact Ari: on Facebook, on Twitter, and at amelber@hotmail.com. Melber is also an attorney, a columnist for Politico and a contributing editor at techPresident, a nonpartisan website covering technology’s impact on democracy. During the 2008 general election, he traveled with the Obama Campaign on special assignment for The Washington Independent. He previously served as a Legislative Aide in the US Senate and as a national staff member of the 2004 John Kerry Presidential Campaign. As a commentator on public affairs, Melber frequently speaks on national television and radio, including including appearances on NBC, CNBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, C-SPAN, MSNBC, Bloomberg News, FOX News, and NPR, on programs such as “The Today Show,” “American Morning,” “Washington Journal,” “Power Lunch,” "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell," "The Joy Behar Show," “The Dylan Ratigan Show,” and “The Daily Rundown,” among others. Melber has also been a featured speaker at Harvard, Oxford, Yale, Columbia, NYU, The Center for American Progress and many other institutions. He has contributed chapters or essays to the books “America Now,” (St. Martins, 2009), “At Issue: Affirmative Action,” (Cengage, 2009), and “MoveOn’s 50 Ways to Love Your Country,” (Inner Ocean Publishing, 2004). His reporting has been cited by a wide range of news organizations, academic journals and nonfiction books, including the The Washington Post, The New York Times, ABC News, NBC News, CNN, FOX News, National Review Online, The New England Journal of Medicine and Boston University Law Review. He is a member of the American Constitution Society, he serves on the advisory board of the Roosevelt Institute and lives in Manhattan.