Here's what the New York grassroots was up to yesterday...
...and many days over the past few months.
Yes, in New York City we've been making calls. LOTS of calls. And our calls are working.
Of course, we've done a lot more than make phonecalls. New Yorkers have been working hard on health care reform since last November.
We've held house parties, teach-ins and myth-buster sessions. We've been out tabling and collecting postcard signatures and messages to send to Congress.
And we've organized rallies, including a big August rally in Times Square.
We had decided to make this past week a "week of action" on health care to coincide with the anniversary of last year's election. There were multiple phonebanks each night as well as parties on the 4th.
What a way to end the week -- a phonebanking party that happened to fall on the day of the historic House vote.
Over 60 people turned out at a Times Square bar to make calls to constituents in a couple of NY districts whose Reps who were still on the fence.
Callers reached out to voters, asking them to call their Reps immediately to support H.R. 3962.
With cspan on all in the background, we called for four hours, making a total of over 1,700 calls.
The energy was incredible. Our volunteers -- and the people they talked to -- were aware of the importance of every single call.
And last night we learned that one of the Congressmen (Dan Maffei) whose constituents we called decided to vote for the bill!
We see the results of our efforts. GOTV calls to NY-23 last weekend helped win not just one more Democratic seat, but one more vote for H.R. 3962. Calls to Maffei's constituents helped bring him around. We didn't win over every fence-sitting Rep in the state, but we're not done yet.
**********THIS is how we win!**********
I urge everyone to find a way to become actively involved in the fight for health care reform. What I learned during the election has been reinforced in this effort -- the individual actions thousands of volunteers around the country add up to the big wins.
Find a grassroots group that is active in your area. In my experience, the most effective work is being done by groups associated with OFA, (though it's by no means the only way to go or true everywhere). At my.barackobama.com you can find events and groups to connect with. If you don't find something, sign up to get notices about actions you can take from home. Or, set something up yourself!
We have a LOT of work ahead of us. Let's get this done.
(I have to note here that I only became very actively involved in our health care efforts in May. The real credit for our work in NY goes to those who have been working hard on this for the past year. Go NY grassroots!)