Washington (CNN) - The Democratic Party's fundraising off of Sarah Palin's "dangerous" book tour.
"Right now, Sarah Palin is on a highly publicized, nationwide book tour, attacking President Obama and his plan for health reform at every turn," wrote Organizing for America director Mitch Stewart in a message sent to supporters Friday.
"It's dangerous. Remember, this is the person who coined the term 'Death Panels' - and opened the flood gates for months of false attacks by special interests and partisan extremists. Whatever lie comes next will be widely covered by the media, then constantly echoed by right-wing attack groups and others who are trying to defeat reform.
The group, the president's political arm at the Democratic National Committee, set a goal of raising $500,000 over the next week "to help push back against Sarah Palin and her allies." OFA said the contributions will be used to respond to those attacks via ads, events, and phone banking congressional offices.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – President Obama's political operation is signaling a new call to arms, and is urging supporters to push back against vocal opponents who have dominated the recent congressional town hall meetings on health care.
"The same angry groups and right wing extremists we saw at rallies during last year's election are at it again," Mitch Stewart, director of Organizing for America, says in a nearly two-minute long video that will be emailed Friday afternoon to Obama supporters.
"They are spreading lies about the president's plan and with the encouragement of Republican leaders, and funding from their special interest allies they are disrupting pubic events. They are trying to drown out public discourse and legitimate conversation on this issue in communities all across America."
The video shows Stewart sitting in an office and cuts to images of protesters disrupting town halls. Stewart goes on to instruct supporters to visit a Web site to "sign up for events in your community and contact your representatives."
At the conclusion of the 2008 election, Obama transitioned his presidential campaign into OFA, which is now a project of the Democratic National Committee.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – President Obama’s political team is expanding its ad buy pressuring lawmakers to support the administration’s health care plan, adding 15 more markets as the president’s August target date for congressional passage of the package nears.
The 30-second TV ad from Organizing for America, the president’s political arm at the Democratic National Committee, is already airing in eight states - Arkansas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Ohio – represented by moderate Republican and conservative Democratic senators the White House needs on board for any vote on the massive health care overhaul.
"It's Time" will now begin airing in the Savannah, Palm Springs, Seattle, Nashville, Bloomington, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Little Rock, Columbus, Marquette, Grand Rapids and Medford media markets, according to the DNC – all areas within districts represented by members of Congress who are viewed as swing votes on a key committee weighing the president’s plan. Four-fifths of those lawmakers are Democrats.
The ad - which features ordinary Americans relating health insurance difficulties they’ve faced - does not mention legislators by name, but does ask viewers to call Capitol Hill, and provides the telephone number for the U.S. Capitol switchboard.
(CNN) – President Obama’s political operation will begin running television ads Wednesday targeting fellow Democrats and centrist Republicans urging them to support the president’s call for health care reform this year.
The 30-second TV commercial will run in eight states: Arkansas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, North Dakota, Nebraska, and Ohio for two weeks, according to a preview of the ad provided to CNN by Obama’s Organizing for America (OFA).
The commercial, which features five people discussing health care problems, will also run on national cable television, in Washington, D.C., and online, according to OFA, which is now housed at the Democratic National Committee.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - National Democrats launched a national effort Friday to rally support for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who President Obama introduced this week as his nominee for the Supreme Court.
Organizing for America, Obama's campaign organization which is now an arm of the Democratic National Committee, e-mailed its 13 million supporters a warning that "our opponents will try to play politics with Judge Sotomayor's nomination, and it's up to us to help get out the facts and show the public - and key decision-makers - how much support she really has."
Mitch Stewart, the director of OFA and author of the e-mail, suggested supporters write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper or call their senators to express support for Sotomayor.
OFA is offering supporters downloadable pictures of Sotomayor to be placed on social networking Web sites like Facebook, and posters to show support for Obama's nominee. It has also created a Web page titled "Stand With Sotomayor" to serve as the platform for this campaign.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Organizing for America, President Obama's political organization, dispatched a corps of volunteers to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to hand-deliver to members of Congress hundreds of thousands of citizen pledges signed in of support for the president's budget initiatives.
The organization boasted in a series of press releases that 642,000 "pledges" had been collected during a highly publicized national canvassing effort. The pledges were then printed out at Democratic National Committee headquarters and taken over to congressional offices.
But do 642,000 pieces of paper mean that 642,000 actual people signed up to back the president's budget? Not quite.
According to OFA spokesperson Natalie Wyeth, "some people signed more than one for their members of Congress."
Though she maintained there were 642,000 pledges distributed on the Hill, she pegged the number of people who actually signed the pledges as significantly fewer.
"It's at least 214,000," Wyeth said in an e-mail. An initial 100,000 signatures were gathered during OFA's nationwide canvass on March 21, she said, and "tens of thousands more" were collected online and in a series of smaller canvasses over a two-week period.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - A brigade of President Obama's loyal followers are blitzing Capitol Hill on Wednesday to shore up support for his budget.
More than 200 volunteers enlisted by a special project of the Democratic National Committee fanned out across the Capitol to deliver hundreds of thousands of pledges of support for the president's agenda to Republican and Democratic members of Congress.
The effort is the culmination of an organized push by the Obama administration to leverage their muscular campaign organization to back the president's budget initiatives - in this case, his plans to invest in health care, education and energy.
The roughly 642,000 pledges were gathered during a two-week push by Organizing for America, the Obama administration's political apparatus housed at the DNC. The group picked up 100,000 signatures from neighborhoods around the country during a series of canvasses, and tapped into their robust e-mail list to sign up hundreds of thousands more.
OFA director Mitch Stewart called the stacks of pledges "a down payment on this agenda of change that we all fought so hard for over the last two years."
The delivery of the signatures to members of the Senate and House, he said, will let them "know that they have support for the president's agenda in their congressional district or in their state."
(CNN) – Organizing for America highlighted its grassroots canvassers in an ad released Thursday, urging supporters to call Congress to support President Obama's budget.
The 30 second spot touts the president's plans to cut the deficit and create jobs through investment in health care, energy independence, and schools.
Watch: OFA ad "Door to Door"
"Thousands are going door-to-door as part of Organizing for America, gathering support for President Obama's plan to invest in America's future," says the narrator.
"You can help too. Call Congress and tell them to support President Obama's budget plan to get our economy moving again."
Organizing for America, the post-election incarnation of Obama's grassroots campaign army, is currently an arm the Democratic National Committee.
ARLINGTON, Virginia (CNN) - Democrats mounted a nationwide effort Saturday to try and harness the grassroots support, which helped propel Barack Obama's campaign, into support for his administration's initiatives.
Volunteers met in 1,200 to 1,300 locations across the country, organizers said. From a library in Arlington, Virginia, to a park in Brooklyn, New York, to homes and restaurants in California.
In some, participants discussed the president's agenda. In others, they set out to homes, subway stations and farmers' markets seeking signatures on forms in which they pledged support for "President Obama's bold approach for renewing America's economy" and committed to asking friends, family and neighbors to do the same.
The first priority for organizers is the president's proposed budget. This petition drive is part of an effort by the White House and Democrats to help push it. In a video e-mailed to supporters this week, Obama lobbied for it acknowledging that "passing this budget won't be easy" and saying "that is where you come in."
He urged supporters "to head out this Saturday" and "stay involved in the days ahead" by writing letters and making phone calls.
Saturday's project is the first concrete effort by the Democratic Party's new "Organizing for America" initiative to use the network of volunteers to help build push the administration's agenda, although last month the group did host house parties where the proposed stimulus bill was discussed.
Through the information gathered Saturday, organizers are able to continue growing the vast database of supporters' e-mails and text addresses. The Obama campaign's list of supporters was transferred to the "Organizing for America" effort.
But whether the success seen by the Obama campaign in signing up supporters can be replicated when rallying a policy agenda is an open question. Some organizers and volunteers admit it will be a hard sell since there is no excitement and timeliness of a presidential campaign.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Amid criticism from prominent Republicans that the White House is taking on too much and not focusing enough on fixing the nation’s struggling economy, the Democratic National Committee asked the president’s backers Monday to pledge their support for the three broad policy initiatives highlighted in the White House’s 2010 budget outline.
“The budget is a bold blueprint for our country’s future,” Mitch Stewart, the Director of Organizing for America says in a video message to supporters emailed Monday. “It addresses three of the most pressing challenges facing our nation – health care, energy, and education.”
In the video, Stewart announces the “Organizing for America Pledge Project,” an initiative that seeks to identify support for the president’s economic blueprint by asking individuals to complete an online pledge to support “Obama's bold approach for renewing America's economy.”
“We will show in every state and in every Congressional district the hunger for leadership and long range thinking that’s in too short supply here in Washington,” Stewart says in the video.
The online form allows users to complete the pledge, and to state in their own words why they support Obama’s economic blueprint and to forward the form to their online contacts via e-mail.
“By pledging and building support, you will be taking the first steps towards establishing a nationwide grassroots network,” Stewart says in the video. “Neighborhood by neighborhood, standing side-by-side with President Obama as we bring about our agenda for change.”
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