Obama Grass Roots California Supporters Buoyed by Iowa Win

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

A couple of hundred enthusiastic supporters of Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama packed into the Tosca Café, a local 40’s style cocktail bar in San Francisco’s North Beach area to watch the returns coming in from the Iowa caucuses. There were smiles all around when the returns started coming in, and as Obama’s numbers climbed throughout the evening, there were periodic whoops and roars. The loudest may have been when it was announced that Obama had won the women’s vote—there may be a few folks wandering around with permanent hearing losses inside—as folks walking along the sidewalk outside craned their necks to see what was going on with a television camera truck parked outside.

While there was a celebratory mood, what struck me was the relative youth of the crowd, with a significant number who had not worked in a political campaign before and the decidedly grassroots feel for the campaign—a few younger than 21 who had to stand in the foyer because they were not of legal age to enter. And the diversity of those who have been already at quietly at work in the nuts and bolts of contacting voters, identifying those who will vote for their candidate, and preparing to get out the vote. There was a smattering of elected officials and notables in the crowd—but this had the feel, the smell, and the aura of a campaign from a bygone era—with many new precinct leaders signing up to work.

Standing on a chair with a bullhorn, Brent Messenger, the regional field director whose territory goes from Sonoma to Bakersfield, told the crowd that “We have an organization in every one of the 53 Congressional Districts in California.” Carried away, he boasted, “We believe we are more organized than any Presidential campaign in California—ever. We have more offices in the state open now than anyone in the state. We can put in place exactly what we have been building for since August.”