| OurMomentIsNow.org | |||||||||||
|
Jamie Hess "Change doesn't come from the top down. It comes from the bottom up." -Barack Obama No experience in politics; just good judgment. Volunteer since July '07. Canvassed, tabled & phonebanked for Obama in four states: NH, MA, VT & PA. Raised money to buy thousands of Obama yard signs, buttons & bumper stickers for Vermonters. Recruited Obama volunteers in 5 eastern Vermont counties. Organized Honk & Waves, an Obama phonebank, and election day poll watchers. Drove a trailer load of campaign signs and literature to Pennsylvania, then went door-to-door for Barack in Philly & Scranton. |
Selecting Vermont Obama Delegates to the Denver Convention by Mark Wiznitzer (Thursday 5/15/08) First off, I am NOT a candidate to be a Vermont delegate to the Convention. I wrote this tip sheet hoping it will assist the 674 pledged town delegates meeting in Barre on May 24 to select six Obama district delegates (3 women and 3 men) and two alternates to the Democratic Party convention in Denver. Impressively, 112 people have stepped forward and are competing for these slots allocated to Barack Obama based on the results of the Vermont. The challenge of choosing from such a long list is daunting. Fortunately, there are tools to assist in selecting Vermont’s Obama team (which already includes at least 5 pledged Vermont “superdelegates”). For those of you who are not familiar with my own efforts for Obama ’08, I attended Camp Obama in Chicago, volunteered and organized in all four “early states”, plus Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Vermont, and have been active on the internet in a variety of ways. After a 23-year diplomatic career in the U.S. Foreign Service, where I was prohibited from participating in domestic US political campaigns, it has been thrilling to apply my skills as a political officer in support of the Obama campaign, especially by providing organizational, field operations and public relations support to Vermonters for Obama. I now take the liberty as an “outsider” to offer some personal observations on five of the candidates with whom I have worked this past year and whose role in the campaign I know well. My intention is not in any way to denigrate the contribution or commitment of others who I do not know but may be similarly deserving. I suspect there are many. In fact, please give every candidate the opportunity to inform you of their qualifications. But I feel it important to share some useful insights which I may be uniquely positioned to highlight. For these are the people I would want on my team if I were going to represent the Green Mountain State in Denver. Mary Sullivan (Burlington) seamlessly melded Democratic Party experience with Obama’s grass roots organizing. A Vermont delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention originally pledged to Howard Dean, she served for 10 years in the Vermont House of Representatives. Mary was heavily involved in the grass roots activities of Vermonters for Obama, assisting in the Obama petition drive and the success of the Club Obama organizing party last fall, for which she lined up important state officials’ participation. Mary rightfully emphasized the need for visibility at Burlington’s polls. She spent most of primary day at her polling place talking to voters, and was there before the media to greet former Governor and Clinton’s state chair Madeline Kunin. Mary organized last week’s “Vote for Change” registration drive in Burlington. Mary is a great role model for other party activists once Barack Obama becomes the party’s nominee. Neil Jensen/ (Monkton) is well known as the creator of Vermonters for Obama on My.BarackObama.com and www.vermontersforobama.org. As such he has been an unofficial spokesman for all Obama supporters in Vermont, as well as the lead organizer of many of our grass roots activities. However, most of you probably did not realize that Neil is also the creator of the Obama Rapid Response group (in addition to the Citizen Strategy Think Tank), an informal media watchdog effort that is probably the most active and successful of all barackobama.com groups. And he has administered that group with unbelievable tact and patience. Neil also speaks eloquently to the substantive issues that have dominated the campaign and embodies the civil tone that Barack has asked us to maintain in this heated contest. Carolyn Dwyer (Montpelier) has strong ties to both the Vermont Democratic Party and the Obama campaign. A member of the state party’s Executive Committee, she is also on Obama’s National Finance and New England Steering Committees. As evidence of the Obama HQ’s confidence in Carolyn, she was tasked last October with submitting Obama’s formal application to be on our primary ballot to the Vermont Secretary of State. Carolyn’s ties to Vermont’s super delegates and other party regulars - she managed campaigns for Sen. Leahy and Cong. Welch, and worked for Dean and Clinton-Gore - will be invaluable to enhancing the influence of the state’s delegation to the convention. If the Obama campaign was naming its own delegates next week, Carolyn Dwyer would probably be at the top of the list. Jamie Hess (Norwich) is a newcomer to politics, but quickly became a leader in the Upper Valley for Obama group that straddles the Vermont/New Hampshire border. Focused initially on New Hampshire, he worked closely with the Obama field office in Lebanon. His Obama literature table was a landmark in downtown Hanover, and he spent many chilly days and nights signing up supporters and volunteers. After NH, Jamie crisscrossed Vermont, hosting meetings to recruit volunteers in five eastern Vermont counties. He organized Honk-and-Waves, canvassing and phone banking, as well as fundraising and purchasing thousands of campaign signs and buttons for Vermonters. More recently, Jamie drove a trailer-load of campaign materials from Vermont to Pennsylvania, and stayed on to canvass neighborhoods in Scranton and Philadelphia. Jamie administers or co-administers six Obama online groups, and he will work tirelessly for an Obama victory in November. Tom Brown (Colchester) supported Barack Obama for President before his candidacy was even announced. An active leader of both the Vermonters and Upper Valley groups, he helped organize their major campaign events and activities. Tom canvassed in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts and organized phone banks to the “early states”. He drove Vermonters from western Vermont to New Hampshire to canvass and conduct “visibility”, working closely with Obama field office staff in Lebanon. Tom may be best known here for his honk-and-waves at dozens of Vermont venues. Less known is his role in reaching across the generations to encourage and support UVM students, who successfully organized, registered classmates, canvassed and got-out-the-vote. Because of his extensive contact with voters, Tom is keenly in tune with the electorate’s mood and knowledgeable on their major issues of concern. We look forward to meeting you! Here's how to contact us: Jamie: (802) 649-3939 Kevin: (802) 295-1066 Email us |
Kevin Christie Experience AND judgment to represent YOU in Denver. Volunteered for Obama in the Vermont primary campaign. Member of the Vermont Democratic State Committee. Chair of the Affirmative Action Committee. Appointed by Governor Dean to the Vermont Human Rights Commission. Chair/Councilor, Governor's Rehabilitation Advisory Council. Co-chair, Hartford Housing Authority; Co-Chair, Hartford Teen Center; Education Advisor, Southeast State Correctional Facility, Windsor, VT. |
|||||||||
|
Jamie Hess & Kevin Christie are COMMITTED to working non-stop for an Obama victory at the Denver Convention, and again in November. Vote HESS for HOPE & CHRISTIE for CHANGE! |
|||||||||||