Change You Can Register: Obama's New Strategy to Redraw the Map Come November

Like I've said before, one key reason to support Obama is his clear dedication to the 50-state strategy.  I was with some other Bay Area volunteer leaders last night getting briefed on a brand-new campaign initiative that takes this to a whole new level.

On Saturday, May 10, Obama for America will kick off a 50-state, nationwide voter registration drive on an unprecedented scale.

So while Barack Obama is still facing a primary opponent, he is already thinking way ahead to the General Election.  And he's thinking not just about how he can eke out a swing state victory - he's thinking much, much bigger.  He's thinking about how to build the Democratic Party nationwide by bringing in more new voters than any national candidate ever.  He is doing it the same way he's set record fundraising levels and won more delegates, states and votes than Hillary Clinton.  

Gate, meet your latest crashers.

Typical for Obama, the new plan is big, bold and the kind of thing political insiders don't usually do or value.  He will be putting campaign resources to work in all 50 states registering as many new voters as possible, beginning right after the Indiana and North Carolina primaries and going through the summer.  Rather than take the existing electoral alignments as a given, the Obama campaign will be out expanding its base in a concrete way, by bringing many new people into the fold.

Here's how Howard Dean famously described the new approach of the Democratic Party, the so-called 50 State Strategy:

Election by election, state by state, precinct by precinct, door by door, vote by vote . . . . we're going to lift our Party up and take this country back for the people who built it.

This massive voter registration drive is just that kind of painstaking grassroots work that can win elections but also build the party in the long term.   We will be registering new voters in many states that probably will go for McCain in November.  We will of course be registering all comers, Democrats, Republicans and Independents.  But some of those new voters just might make the difference to Democrats fighting key downticket races in red states.  And they may help the Democrats carry key swing states, or move previously red states to the blue column.

On Saturday, May 10, there will be simultaneous voter registration events across the country.  Go to MyBO, the campaign's online tool, click events, put your zip code in, and find out what's happening in your area.  (It may take a day or two for all the local events to get loaded).  Or you can even organize your own event using the tool if there isn't one scheduled where you are.  Just be sure to get details about the rules for voter registration in your state, and remember you need to register anyone who approaches you, no matter who they support or what party they want to belong to.

Here's the best part - the benefits of this project will spread far and wide.  One goal is to connect with as many existing, local grassroots organizations as possible to maximize the reach of the project, and to build a stronger progressive political network.  A second goal is to target areas where downticket races need the most help.  In the East Bay, we'll be gathering on the 10th at a staging location in Hayward, and sending teams to places like CD-11, where Jerry McNerney will be defending his newly red to blue seat in the fall.   And a third goal is to take advantage of the incredible teams of activists and organizers the campaign has been training across the country, and build even more.

Obama's campaign is about changing our politics for the better.  The old way of doing business would be, once a state's primary ends, to tell volunteers "thanks, and we'll call you in October to phonebank Ohio."  Here, the campaign has not been wasting those resources.  We've been deployed to help in other states, and now we are being organized for this massive voter registration drive.  One of the unexpected benefits of the extended primary season has been that the campaign has trained people and built teams in virtually every state in the union.  Rather than have us sit on our hands until fall, we are going to turn that huge grassroots energy into unprecedented numbers of new voters.

Of course, there's something in it for Obama, too.  It will help him win in November.  New voters have turned out for him and voted for him in record numbers, across the country.  More new voters can only be a good thing for the top of the ticket as well as the bottom.

It is unusual for campaigns to put resources into voter registration.  Because the expectation is that it won't make a difference.  Signing up young voters, in particular, is a waste of time, goes the conventional wisdom - we can't depend on them.  New registrants simply do not turn out.  Better to focus on those "likely voters."  Like the "swing states," that is where the only action is.

Obama for America has blown that logic out of the water from the very first race in this campaign, where dramatic turnout from young voters was one of the keys to his victory.

It's continued in other states as well

Experts for years have labeled young voters the American electorate's sleeping giants, engaged in community and charitable activities but feeling no real connection to the political system.

This year, though, in state after state they've been pouring into election booths in numbers rarely seen in recent years.

In 2000, among 18- to 29-year-olds, nearly 575,000 voted in the California primaries; this year, 850,000 did. The Georgia number tripled; so did Massachusetts', traditionally one of the states where young people were already active.

In Pennsylvania, the most recent example, Obama for America focused heavily on registering new voters.  In PA, Obama won new registrants by 20 points.  

Not only can the campaign get those folks registered, they have figured out how to get them to vote.  They have done what others in the Democratic Party have talked about for years, but never achieved.

Way back in December, I wroteabout how appropriately Barack Obama named his campaign - Obama for America:

Obama For America lives and breathes a 50 State Strategy, unheard of in a primary campaign.  When Barack Obama famously challenged the red state/blue state dichotomy, it was appealing rhetoric.  Now we know it is more than some pretty words.  Obama for America is running a bold national electoral strategy that is good for Obama, good for the Democratic Party and good for progressive politics.

That was long before Iowa, before Super Tuesday, and before his amazing series of victories in states across the country.  His campaign, which typically went in earlier and built infrastructure in a lot of places Democrats traditionally ignored, allowed him to build the commanding delegate lead he holds today.

And a lot of people have taken notice of his focus on all states, not just the ones that matter, his ability to lock in the Millennial Generation for the Democrats, his ability to put many new states in play than Democrats in the past, and his potential for a long-term Democratic realignment.  

We have seen already seen that Obama helps downticket races.  He has been diverting resources to help cut ads for Democrats like Bill Foster or tap his volunteer network for Robin Weirauch.  Obama's new voters helped Donna Edwards win her primary.  Red state superdelegates go for Obama, because they think his coattails will be good for the state party.

These actions all show how Obama has the potential to "change the map" for the Democrats.  Now we have yet another reason to believe he can make that happen, and yet another reason he needs to be our nominee in the fall.    We've got 50 states to hit, and a lot of new people to reach.  We can give them the most important tool they have to take back our government - the ability to cast a vote.  Let's get to work.

Disclaimer: I am a volunteer for the Barack Obama campaign in California, but when I post here I speak for myself and not for the campaign in any way.  The campaign has had no input on this diary.  The ideas, and all the words in it, are my own.