I had intended to post this love letter to the grassroots the night of the election in MA. It would have been a different diary, of course. Had a different title and a very different vibe. Something like Yes. We. Did. It would have been another celebration of the incredible energy, passion and talent of our amazing grassroots and its role in electing Martha Coakley.
Alas, for any number of reasons that have been debated far and wide on Daily Kos, the election was not ours to savor. So I sat back for a few days and let the kossack brouhahas subside, and then let the community focus on the SOTU. And tonight, two weeks after the election that rocked our souls, I am here, with a belated but no less bursting-with-heart love letter to the grassroots in NYC.
In many ways, I think that it's a good thing that I waited. Because now I know exactly what I want all of you to know about the awesome activists and community organizers and canvassers and phonebankers in The Big Apple:
We. Don't. Quit.
You've met the NYC grassroots before. The indefatigable casperr diaried about our grassroots heroes throughout most of 2008. Last summer, you saw our extraordinary march and rally for health care reform, which was organized by a coalition of almost 100 advocacy, grassroots and union groups in NYC. Then in the fall, as New Yorkers gave up weeknights and weekends over and over and over again, to call and canvass and organize for health care, casperr treated us to another salute to her indomitable volunteers. And finally, in December, when the rest of the city was out shopping for presents and planning their holiday trips, the grassroots dedicated half of a precious weekend to training to become better organizers and better volunteers.
So it shouldn't surprise you at all that when the call went out for GOTV in MA, the grassroots in NYC rose to the occasion big time. After all, as you know, in NYC, we go big or go home!
It may be helpful to explain just how committed the grassroots was in NYC. Of the nine phonebanks that took place in the week before Election Day, only two were held at OFA headquarters in Manhattan. The rest were held, as is often the case, in donated homes and offices throughout Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. And they were planned and run strictly by volunteers. Community organizers who are just normal people -- with day jobs, and families, and bills to pay, and a laundry list of things that have to get done in any given week, and still they stepped up and planned phonebanks and arranged for locations and recruited volunteers, and, well, I'm sure you get the picture. And then, when the phonebanks were finished, they counted up the calls, tallied up the volunteers, and calculated and reported the results so that the campaign and organizing staff and grassroots volunteers around the country could measure and track and do their best to fine tune strategy before Election Day. And then they did it all over again!
And then there were the phonebankers themselves. Volunteers all, from all over the city, of all ages, from a mosaic of races and religions, sharing a determined spirit to do the right thing. Many were neophytes, signing up for the first (and certainly not the last) time. Others were campaign veterans. And together, they became leaders among the grassroots volunteers across the country who logged close to 2.5 million calls in the run-up to Election Day.
Here, then, are the faces of the awesome grassroots organizers and volunteers in NYC, in action and in command during the daunting days of January:
First the invitation went out.
Seriously, with everything else that the volunteer organizers had to do, they designed this adorable invitation to send to their army of volunteers (Please note the Dogs for Dems. Edie is the cutie at the top of the diary and you'll meet Lola and Pixie further down the page. :-)
And then everyone phonebanked.
And phonebanked.
And phonebanked.
And phonebanked.
And then, they phonebanked some more. Every other day, I got an e-mail saying that additional locations and times were being scheduled, by organizers and volunteers who felt like they could do more, and knew that they could do more.
Occasionally, folks took a break, and took some pictures without their cells glued to their ears, to post here on Daily Kos :-)
And then they got back to phonebanking.
And phonebanking.
And phonebanking.
And phonebanking.
And phonebanking.
And phonebanking.
And phonebanking.
And phonebanking some more.
They phonebanked anywhere they could. Seriously, folks, this is NYC. We live crammed in like sardines. We don't have the luxury of big houses with great rooms.
So we phonebank cheek-to-jowl.
We phonebank on bench seats.
We phonebank sitting on steps.
We phonebank in bedrooms (check out the pillow!).
And we phonebank in kitchens.
And finally, on Election Day, under the expert guidance of volunteer community organizers, who took over for local field staff that had deployed to MA, almost 165 phonebankers came to OFA headquarters and made close to 10,000 calls for GOTV.
And while the election was a disappointment for all of us, the grassroots army and OFA catapulted into action nationally for GOTV for the first time since November 2008 -- and the model worked. The experience and training gained during the campaign allowed staff and especially volunteers to launch an extraordinary effort in record time, and to test, in real-time, the capability, capacity and cohesion of the human and technological resources that comprise OFA.
In many ways, it was a trial run for 2010, and the excitement at being back in electoral mode was palpable. So palpable, in fact, that less than ten days after the disappointing result in MA, the grassroots in NYC was back in action and had planned a series of phonebanks to continue to support the struggle for meaningful health care reform.
We heard the President say in the State of the Union that he doesn't quit. And the grassroots in NYC has a message to add to that: We don't quit, either, Mr. President.
If you are in NYC and would like to join a phonebank, please sign up at my.barackobama.com.
If you are not in NYC, please check with your local OFA office or grassroots organizers or plug in your zip code on my.barackobama.com to find an event near you.
And finally, the message from the other side is clear and succinct: NO. NO. NO.
Now is the time to be sure that our voices continue to be heard in Washington, D.C. Please call your reps and your senators, as well as the leadership and the White House, and tell them to Pass. The. Damn. Bill.
We can all have different opionions on procedure but the overarching message must be crystal clear and unmistakable: We want meaningful health care reform and we won't stop until we get it, however long it takes.
We. Don't. Quit.
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And now for the lovers of pooties and woozies, here's some eye candy for you: More Dogs for Dems from NYC!
Pixie says, "We. Don't. Quit."
Thanks to Anne, Debo, Deanna, Geoff, Jennifer, Ling and Reno for sending in photos and reports from the field in addition to everything else that you had to do during "call time." It was a privilege to work with you.