Obama Mamas Emerge

by Melissa Bailey | January 30, 2008 10:47 AM | | Comments (3)

IMG_0836.jpgWomen (and one young boy), many new to politics, poured into a downtown restaurant to take part in a newly charged campaign for Barack Obama.

Tuesday night’s event at BAR Restaurant was one a series of women-specific meet-ups and house parties around the state as the Obama campaign pours a new flood of attention on Connecticut and the female vote in the week leading up to the state’s Feb. 5 Democratic presidential primary.

Catherine Shannon, a mother of four young kids, found time to throw together the event in 48 hours for the statewide Connecticut Women for Obama group.

There’s a Connecticut Women for Obama group?

“There is now,” said Shannon, handing out newly minted business cards. Shannon said Tuesday was her first time organizing anything political. She recruited her friend Kiki Kennedy and prayed elected officials would come. (They did.)

The event drew about 50 women, young and old, black and white.

IMG_0837.jpg“This is what America looks like,” said New Haven State Rep. Toni Walker (pictured), who headlined a brief series of speeches from local women leaders as an audience munched on caramelized-walnut salad and hot BAR pizza.

Without mentioning Hillary Clinton, the obvious elephant in the room, Walker told the crowd why she was voting for Obama. “Experience has denied us health care,” she argued and experience has driven us into a quagmire in Iraq.

“We have to have a new day in Washington,” said Walker, urging women to “roll up our sleeves” and get to work in getting out votes.

Though Connecticut is typically considered Clinton country, the Obama campaign has made a recent push to organize in the Nutmeg State, as the front-runners wrangle over each last delegate in a hard-fought battle to the nomination.

Jennifer Just, who’s organizing Obama volunteers in the New Haven area, said some 30 to 50 migrant Obama campaigners, mostly volunteer college kids roving from state to state, have landed in Connecticut over the past few days. A couple of them, one from Georgia, are crashing at her house. At least six paid staff have quickly assembled in the past week, too.

IMG_0832.jpg“There’s been a decision made recently to pay more attention to Connecticut,” noted Lyn May (pictured at left), a political consultant who drove down from East Haddam Tuesday to help out with the event. The influx is pumping extra life into the existing grassroots campaign, she said, as it mobilizes for a last-minute push to primary day.

The thrust of Tuesday night’s coordinated efforts was to get women, who might be naturally inclined to vote for a woman candidate, organizing behind Obama. Obama won the female vote in Iowa and South Carolina, May noted. Making gains in Connecticut appears to be a key part of the campaign strategy.

“All female voters are certainly not alike,” said May.

Susie Voigt, New Haven’s Democratic Town Committee chairwoman, told the crowd how she ended up a huge Obama booster, even though “I might have been the perfect demographic for the other candidate.”

She said her interest stemmed from her children’s enthusiasm with Obama: “It’s my kids who helped bring me there. I’m very excited about a new generation taking on a new kind of leadership in America.”

Cheryln Poindexter, who works for the city and is chief shop steward of Local 3144, said she was on the fence, but watched Obama speak and was won over. “He’s diverse,” and having traveled the world, “he can see the world form all angles,” she said. “He’s ready; he’s what we need right now.”







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Comments

Posted by: Jeanine G | January 30, 2008 11:20 AM

I'm an Obama Mama too! A 42 yo White, Middle-class, Educated, Woman with 2 excited teenage boys, one in college and ready to place his first presidential vote for Barack Obama as well.

With this much excitement, the only thing that will deliver us another Republican presidency would be if Hillary Clinton were made the Democratic nominee, and disappointment and a loss of all this young, hopeful energy and momentum kept people from even bothering with the Nov election.

Hillary is who the REPUBLICANS want on the Democratic ticket. They are ready for her, they will pull out all the stops in swiftboating her into oblivion. But the Hope Barack Obama generates is going to be tougher for them to destroy.

Posted by: Jane | January 30, 2008 12:42 PM

I live in NYC whereI have been volunteering for Obama for the past three weeks. But this Sunday, I will be coming up to Connecticut to volunteer with some other New Yorkers. I am sure you can use the help !

Posted by: Beth Gilson | January 30, 2008 3:06 PM

I support Obama for, among other things, the reasons set forth in this letter, which I have signed on to:

HABEAS LAWYERS SUPPORT OBAMA
January 28, 2008
Dear Friends:
We are at a critical point in the Presidential campaign, and as lawyers who have been deeply involved in the Guantanamo litigation to preserve the important right to habeas corpus, we are writing to urge you to support Senator Obama.
The Administration's Guantanamo policies have undercut our values at home and stained our reputation around the world. All of us are lawyers who have worked on the Guantanamo habeas corpus litigation for many years, some of us since early 2002, and we were all deeply involved in opposing the Administration's attempt to overturn the Supreme Court's Rasul decision by stripping the courts of jurisdiction to hear the Guantanamo cases. We have talked with Senator Obama about why the Guantanamo litigation is so significant, and we have worked closely with Senator Obama in the fight to preserve habeas corpus.
Some politicians are all talk and no action. But we know from first-hand experience that Senator Obama has demonstrated extraordinary leadership on this critical and controversial issue. When others stood back, Senator Obama helped lead the fight in the Senate against the Administration's efforts in the Fall of 2006 to strip the courts of jurisdiction, and when we were walking the halls of the Capitol trying to win over enough Senators to beat back the Administration's bill, Senator Obama made his key staffers and even his offices available to help us. Senator Obama worked with us to count the votes, and he personally lobbied colleagues who worried about the political ramifications of voting to preserve habeas corpus for the men held at Guantanamo. He has understood that our strength as a nation stems from our commitment to our core values, and that we are strong enough to protect both our security and those values. Senator Obama demonstrated real leadership then and since, continuing to raise Guantanamo and habeas corpus in his speeches and in the debates.
The writ of habeas corpus dates to the Magna Carta, and was enshrined by the Founders in our Constitution. The Administration's attack on habeas corpus rights is dangerous and wrong. America needs a President who will not triangulate this issue. We need a President who will restore the rule of law, demonstrate our commitment to human rights, and repair our reputation in the world community. Based on our work with him, we are convinced that Senator Obama can do this because he truly feels these issues "in his bones."
We urge you to support Senator Obama.
We encourage you to forward this message to anyone who might be interested.
Gary A. Isaac (Chicago, Illinois)
Elizabeth P. Gilson (New Haven, Connecticut)
Joshua Colangelo Bryan (New York, New York)
Thomas B. Wilner (Washington, DC)
Ismail Alsheik (Chicago, Illinois)
Diane Marie Amann (Berkeley, California)
Elizabeth Arora (Washington, DC)
Baher Azmy (Brooklyn, New York)
Scott Barker (Denver, Colorado)
Douglas Behr (Potomac, Maryland)
G. Michael Bellinger (Glen Ridge, New Jersey)
Amanda Shafer Berman (Washington, DC)
Catherine A. Bernard (Chicago, Illinois)
Carolyn Patty Blum (New York, New York)
Patricia A. Bronte (Chicago, Illinois)
Carol Elder Bruce (McLean, Virginia)
Charles H. Carpenter (Washington, DC)
Jennifer Ching (Brooklyn, New York)
George M. Clarke (Washington, DC)
John J. Connolly (Baltimore, Maryland)
David J. Cynamon (Chevy Chase, Maryland)
Joshua W. Denbeaux (Westwood, New Jersey)
Mark P. Denbeaux (Newark, New Jersey)
James Dorsey (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Rebecca Dick (Arlington, Virginia)
Wells Dixon (New York, New York)
Heather Lewis Donnell (Chicago, Illinois)
Buz Eisenberg (Ashfield, Massachusetts)
Marc Falkoff (Chicago, Illinois)
Tina Monshipour Foster (Queens, New York)
Murray Fogler (Houston, Texas)
Matthew Freimuth (New York, New York)
Hon. John J. Gibbons (Newark, New Jersey)
Jared Goldstein (Providence, Rhode Island)
R. David Gratz (Westwood, New Jersey)
Eldon Greenberg (Washington, DC)
Dean Donald J. Guter, Rear Admiral, JAGC, USN (Ret.)
(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Gitanjali Gutierrez (Ithaca, New York)
Jonathan Hafetz (Brooklyn, New York)
Osman A. Handoo (Falls Church, Virginia)
Sarah Havens (New York, New York)
Gaillard T. Hunt (Silver Spring, Maryland)
Kristine Huskey (Austin, Texas)
Varda Hussain (Arlington, Virginia) 
Dean John D. Hutson, Rear Admiral, JAGC, USN (Ret.)
(Concord, New Hampshire)
Thomas R. Johnson (Portland, Oregon)
Stephen J. Kane (Chicago, Illinois)
Zachary Katznelson (San Francisco, California)
Samuel Kauffman (Portland, Oregon)
Michael Y. Kieval (Bethesda, Maryland)
Daniel Kirschner (New York, New York)
Jan Kitchel (Portland, Oregon)
Eric Lewis (Bethesda, Maryland)
Ellen Lubell (Newton, Massachusetts)
Lawrence S. Lustberg (Newark, New Jersey)
J. Triplett Mackintosh (Denver, Colorado)
Emi MacLean (New York, New York)
Brian D. Maddox (Brooklyn, New York)
Neil McGaraghan (Boston, Massachusetts)
Brent Mickum (Bethesda, Maryland)
Nicole M. Moen (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Daniel P. Moylan (Baltimore, Maryland)
Richard G. Murphy, Jr. (Washington, DC)
William J. Murphy (Baltimore, Maryland)
Brian J. Neff (South Orange, New Jersey)
Stephen H. Oleskey (Boston, Massachusetts)
Charles H.R. Peters (Chicago, Illinois)
Kit A. Pierson (Washington, DC)
Jason Pinney (Boston, Massachusetts)
Wesley R. Powell (New York, New York)
Robert D. Rachlin (Burlington, Vermont)
Jana Ramsey (Brooklyn, New York)
Michael Ratner (New York, New York)
David H. Remes (Silver Spring, Maryland)
Jeffrey D. Robinson (Laurel, Maryland)
Brent Rushforth (Washington, DC)
James C. Schroeder (Chicago, Illinois)
Jessica Sherman (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
R. Michael Smith (Baltimore, Maryland)
Michael J. Sternhell (Brooklyn, New York)
Jeffrey M. Strauss (Chicago, Illinois)
Mark Sullivan (Bedford Hills, New York)
Danielle R. Voorhees (Denver, Colorado)
Vincent Warren (New York, New York)
Carolyn Welshhans (Arlington, Virginia) 
P. Sabin Willett (Boston, Massachusetts)
Jill M. Williamson (Takoma Park, Maryland)
Elizabeth A. Wilson (Washington, DC)
Jeff Wu (Rockville, Maryland)


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