FInal Preparations for Ohioans for Obama

By: Sean Balewski
sbalewski@gmail.com

It was only last week, with less than 7 days before the election, that I received a call from my media contact at Obama Ohio Headquarters, informing me that a NEW field office had been opened. Less than 7 days, and still the Obama Campaign was growing; so fast that they had to accomodate the influx of volunteers by opening up new sites for them to gather and work. So away I went, to the West Side of Columbus, to view the new field office.

Upon arrival, I was greeted by an elderly woman who was busily making phone calls. Inside the small office, I was shocked to find that the field supervisor was a man no older than myself, and his second in command was also a man of similar age. Yet, all the volunteers in the room were men and women who were at least in their late 50's.

This was exciting to see because right there in front of me was the change that we have heard of over and over again in the media. There, in that tiny office in West Columbus, was the new face of politics in America.

On the east side of town, on the campus of Capital University, I found the same to be true at that Obama Field Office. There, again, were young men and women running the office, while older volunteers took instruction from these young campaign staffers.

So there it was in plain view. While the focus of my piece for television was that new volunteers were showing up and new offices were opening up, the real story behind it all was the new face of politics in America.

The next week should be very exciting and historic....

Inside Obama Ohio Headquarters: Late Nights, Long Days, and Lots of Phone Calls

By: Sean Balewski
sbalewski@gmail.com

It has been a long year and a half for Doug Kelly, the Executive Director of the Ohio Democratic Party. Doug and his family moved from Cleveland to Columbus, so that Doug could spearhead a project aimed at jumpstarting the Democratic party in Ohio. Long before the Clinton-Obama drama over who would be the party's nominee, the Democrats had been raising money and organizing support, so that when the nominee was announced, the presidential campaign in Ohio could hit the ground running.

From my one-on-one time with Doug, he seemed very confident and determined to not only get Senator Obama elected, but to bring home the Buckeye state for the Democrats. As Doug joked, in Ohio, this will be the only year that Ohioans will be saying, "GO BLUE!!!"


But besides the Presidential race, Doug says the Democratic party is also working hard to get all the other Democrats running in the state of Ohio elected. Because as Doug says, those who work in the State and local levels of government actually have greater impacts on the daily lives of citizens.

As Doug jokes, the best way to get all of this promoting done is by being locked in a small room and by being glued to a phone. And when we were at Ohio Democratic Party Headquarters, that's exactly what Doug was in between doing. He had taken a quick break to do our interview, but then as we were leaving, he was back working the phones.

And so, in the final weeks and days before the election, Doug said that his crew would be still doing what they had been doing all election season, but special additional plans were in the works; Doug just couldn't comment on them.

We'll see on November 4th if Doug's Democrats have done their duty....

The Man Behind The McCain Campaign in Ohio

Jessica Demczar
jdemczar@gmail.com


I was fortunate enough last week to be able to sit down with the Ohio state director for the McCain Campaign, Ryan Meerstein. It was interesting to meet with someone on the campaign staff, not just volunteers.


This is Ryan's job; he gets paid to organize the various events, volunteer efforts, and anything else the campaign needs done in Ohio. He does everything from help decide who should come to the buckeye state, to calling supporters for donations. It seems like it would be an overwhelming job, but he holds a lot of power and is always up-to-date on what's going on with the campaign.

But with only two weeks left until the election, Meerstein says it's all about getting the vote out. There are going to be lots of visits by Senator McCain and Governor Palin, and in these last two weeks, there's still a lot of work for Meerstein to do!

McCain Campaign: The Student Factor

Jessica Demczar
jdemczar@gmail.com


The youth vote has been a big focus of the Obama Campaign throughout this campaigning season. It seems like the McCain campaign hasn't focused on getting the youth vote out nearly as much as the Obama campaign, but I spoke with the head of the College Republicans for the state of Ohio about how much they do to promote the youth republican vote in the state. He spoke about all the chapters around the state and how much they do to get the vote out and draft volunteers.


I also spoke with the Athens County Victory Director for the McCain Campaign about how a small town like Athens stays connected with the campaign.

It's interesting to talk with some of the smaller outlets of the campaign. To make the big, national campaign come together, it really is all about the small town Republican organizations working hard to get the vote out. John McCain doesn't have time to come to every small town in America, so he really has to depend on the headquarters in Columbus to spread the word to the smaller town headquarters throughout the state.


Though I was unfortunately not able to talk with any students, I was happy that I was able to talk with someone from Athens, who could give me the perspective of a small town organization trying to keep up with a national campaign.

Behind the Scenes: A Real Look Inside an Obama Rally

By: Sean Balewski
sbalewski@gmail.com

You just had to be there! That is the best way I can describe what I experienced last Thursday at a rally for Senator Barack Obama on the campus of Shawnee State University in Portsmouth.

We arrived at the rally site before even the Secret Service showed up. We wanted to be nice and early, so that we could plot out a good spot. Not only did I have to cover the event for 19 Action News, but I was also doing a live-shot for WOUB's evening newscast, NEWSWATCH. So, I wanted to make sure that we had enough time to get what we wanted for both stories.

The line for the public to get in grew larger and larger by the hour. At roughly 2:30 in the afternoon, the line consisted of about 40 to 50 people, but by the time the gates opened at 6:00 pm, the crowd had swelled to what some estimated at 20,000.

Of course, I had lined up an interview with the first person who was in that initial line for WOUB's 6:30 hit, but by the time my live-shot was supposed to go off, the man was nowhere to be seen. However, Jessica found a perfect person to interview in our last minute scramble. Her name was Sherri Culbertson, and she was there with her 3 daughters. She had already decided to vote for Senator Obama, but was still excited to see him for the first time in person. Thus that statement alone became the focus for my story....

The aura and magic that Senator Obama brought to the stage was truly a sight to see. The entire crowd was literally hanging on every word he spoke. It was the first time that I was seeing him in person, and I was impressed at just how good of an orator he is.

After the speech was over, and after we had rubbed elbows with Lee Cowan from NBC News, we set out into the crowd to find Sherri, and see what she thought of the speech. She said that there was an electricity in the crowd, that you just couldn't feel through the television. Another man we talked to said he was pumped up about seeing Obama. This man, who looked in his 50s, said that his young son had turned him onto liking Obama, and now after seeing him in person, he too felt that Obama was well-qualified for the job.

And to supplement the behind-the-scenes piece, I found a local resident who was volunteering at the event. She said that there had been many long days of hard work in preparation for the event, but that it was all worth it. She felt strongly that the message and the excitement that was present at that night's rally would spread throughout Southeastern Ohio, and Obama would carry the region in November.

It was truly, a spectacular event to be at. Plus, on a side note, for my reporter on camera part of the story, CNN let me use their set, with all their excellent lighting!! That was pretty awesome as a journalism junkie!

Again, as we near the end here, the campaigns are making their last great push for success. I am hoping to line up an interview with someone big, so again, stay tuned...

Buckeyes For Barack: 7 Days to Save the World

By: Sean Balewski
sbalewski@gmail.com

You saw them on every street corner here in Athens, and especially in Columbus on the campus of the Ohio State University. And as the deadline to register to vote in this upcoming year's Presidential election creeped nearer, Obama Headquarters in Columbus gave one final push. Leading the way in this effort were the student volunteers at OSU.

So, in my first week embedded with the Obama Campaign, I saw a whirlwind of activity. I arrived at Obama HQ early in the afternoon on Tuesday, September 30th, and immediately when I walked in, there in front of me was none other than Governor Ted Strickland himself. The Governor was just stopping by to check in on the progress of the campaign. As one Obama volunteer told me, the Governor has made a strong concerted effort to help out, since Senator Hillary Clinton dropped out of the race. So after my brief glimpse of the Governor, I was whisked downstairs to where all the real action was going on!


At the command center for the Ohio Obama Campaign, I was greeted quite quickly by the head of communications for the Ohio campaign, Isaac Baker. Isaac told me how impressed the campaign was with the overwhelming effort that the student volunteers at Ohio State had displayed. So, of course, I told him to point me in the right direction so I could find the excitement...

So, to the heart of campus I went. And there, right on High Street in a small storefront was the Obama OSU Headquarters. Although small from the outside, once inside I felt as if I were in the center of the universe. The place was a buzz with activity, and there was a palpable vibe in the room! The excitement and sense of importance that I could see on the faces of these young students was contagious. They huddled around maps of campus and shouted out locations that were prime spots for recruitment. One young lady that I talked to informed me that the volunteers had nicknamed this last push, before the deadline of registration, after the popular Madonna & Justin Timberlake song. The nickname was, "7 Days to Save the World." The day I arrived was the first full day of this campaign because it not only was the start of the 7 day countdown, BUT it was also the first day of early voting. So, the Obama camp had devised a special plan on the OSU campus for this "7 Days to Save the World" campaign: they were taking newly registered voters down to the actual early voting site so that they could register AND vote on the same day.

I decided to head down to the voting site to see all the action. Although it was late in the day, there was still a good number of people coming in and out of the site. One woman I talked to, who was a resident of Franklin County, said she showed up so that she could take her absentee ballot home to look up candidates, their stances, and the other major issues on the ballot.


Photo Courtesy of Joe Balewski

Now, the 7 day campaign is over, but to close it off, OSU had a special guest come to campus last Sunday. Although I could not attend, my brother, Joe, a sophomore at OSU, was there, and snapped some good shots of Bruce Springsteen, playing a free concert on behalf of Barack Obama. But don't think that just because registration is over you won't see any of the Obama people; they're still out, and strong as ever, except now, instead of asking, "Are you registered to vote?", they are posing a new question: "Have you voted yet?"

The campaign will only get more and more interesting as we inch closer to the November election, and as I've said before, stay tuned....

McCain Campaign: Phonebank Fun

Jessica Demczar
jdemczar@gmail.com


It was my first week of going inside the McCain Campaign Headquarters in Columbus, and I got to know just what it means to volunteer for the campaign.

I visited the headquarters to speak with volunteers working the phone bank and to see what it means to volunteer. I spoke with two volunteers from Columbus, who volunteer hours and hours each week. They make phone calls, go door-to-door, and do just about whatever else that they are asked. And they explained what a committment they have made to ensure John McCain gets elected.

I was also able to speak with Ohio House Speaker John Husted, who is also the co-chair of the McCain campaign. He explained the importance of volunteers and how people can make a difference in the campaign.

It was interesting to talk with some of the volunteers and hear just how dedicated they are to the campaign. They are each taking their own, valuable time, and calling people who sometimes aren't very receptive to the calls.

But overall, it was an interesting first week and I am looking forward to going even further in-depth with the McCain headquarters over the next few weeks!


19 Action News story about volunteering with the McCain Campaign.