Need to Borrow Obama Lawn Signs!

The Utah for Obama group is looking for as many Obama lawn signs as possible. We need to borrow them for the SL County Convention this Saturday.

If you can loan yours to us, please put your name and phone number inside the sign, so we can return it to you.

You can email me at saintless@gmail.com or call 386.7729 if you're able to help.

Healthcare and Barack

Dimitri recently organized a group of Utahns who support Senator Obama to participate in the MS Walk. Nikki took her camera down and got a really good interview with him, and another supporter, Brooke.

Listen to Dimitri, and tell me that you can continue ignoring healthcare issues in this country. I dare you.

South Carolina Results Watch Party

We're meeting at SLC Obama HQ to watch the South Carolina primary results come in. As always, you're welcome to join us, even if you're not sure that you're going to support Barack.

The address is 1747 South 900 West, Salt Lake City. Make sure you head for the back room, since the volunteers and staff will be making phone calls in the main room. You're welcome to bring food and drink to share, but it's not required.

See you there!

New Hampshire Primary

I need to make this brief, because it's time for bed, but here's a quick post about how tonight's New Hampshire watch party went. I think turnout was about 150, but I didn't get a count. It was definitely more packed than last time. We had Fox 13, KSL 5, and the Deseret News there. I don't know if I missed any other news organizations. I haven't had time to watch it, but here's KSL's coverage. We saw part of Fox while I was still there. They showed an interview with Theo, one of the Steering Committee Members. I think they also interviewed my sister, Jenee, but I'm not sure if it aired. I'm pretty sure there'll be a good article from the Deseret News tomorrow.

Obama apparently placed 2nd, with 80% of the votes in last I heard. Did we wish he had come in first? Hell yeah. Does it mean anything bad? Hell, no. If anything, it means we need to get more fired up. And we will!

Our 5 Iowa staffers got here tonight, including the new Utah State Director.

I'll have photos and more detail tomorrow.

One question - what was with Edwards giving the same downer of a speech??

Here's a teaser photo of when Barack was giving his speech:



If you were there and have other photos, please send them to me!

Iowa Watch Party at Obama Utah HQ

I'll update this with other photos as they come in, but here are the ones I have so far, from Kasi.

Mark Rothacher

Aaron, our local director, and his daughter who is apparently helping him drink.

All told, we had over 100 people there last night. We're doing it again Tuesday for New Hampshire. Won't you join us?

Grand Opening - SLC HQ

I'm sorry I'm so late in writing this, but better late than never, right? Between the hustle and bustle of the season, having a sick child and then getting sick myself, this is my first chance.

These photos were from the Official Grand Opening of Obama HQ in Salt Lake City, Utah on December 8. We had over 200 people attend the event, even though we had a really bad snowstorm that morning. We signed up over 50 new volunteers. It was an amazing way to kick off the opening of the new office!  

Janet Lee made this wheel for people to spin to win prizes, such as bumper stickers.



Theo and Dianna spent 7 hours decorating these cookies!



Lots of us wrote why we support Senator Obama on this white board. It reads:
Why I Support Obama
An Optimistic Vision for America - Derek
Judgement / World View - Theo
Change for the better! - (Moni?)
Fresh Ideas -> Leadership, So Much More - (?) Nikki
Hope - Misty, Bill, Moni(?), Jenée
It's time for Barack Obama, and I believe in the Senator. Go Obama!
Integrity - Janet
No Health Mandate - J
Victory - Brett
New Direction
They say his lack of experience in Washington is a negative. I see it as a refreshing, positive sign. - Heloise (?)
Understanding of the people of the world. - Strider
Because he's cute and has funny ears. - Anonymous
Diplomacy - Kim
All of the above - Bill




Everyone that could crowded into the main reception hall while I spoke to them about why it is so important to volunteer time, and what kinds of ways they could help, and then Aaron elaborated on volunteering.



Aaron Wiley, Utah's Field Director, with Ivonna, our "Mamma for Obama" leader and her new baby.



One of three cakes we had for the reception. - Ready to Go!


One of three cakes we had for the reception. - Oops it should say Fired Up!


One of three cakes we had for the reception. - Obama '08

Much thanks to Nikki Norton for these photos! The rest of them are on Flickr. If you have more pictures, please let me know, or add them to the Flickr group! 

KSL covered the story, as did Channel 2.

If you haven't been down yet, stop by 1747 South 900 West, or call 801-88-Obama (801-886-2262) to let Aaron know you'd like to come down. And don't forget to volunteer to make phone calls! 

Green Gathering for Obama [Updated]

This Saturday, Utah for Obama will be joining Tree Utah to plant trees along the Jordan River Parkway. Our Events Coordinator, Janet Hurley, came up with the idea for us to help a few weeks back, and oddly enough, the Obama Campaign came out with a request for us to do a "Green Gathering" that same day, with suggested activity ideas including tree planting. Damn, are we prepared, or what?

Anyway, if you'd like to join us, sign up here.

Utah for Obama will also be resuming our bi-weekly meetings at the SLC Main Library that afternoon. Come find out more about Obama or volunteer to help with other upcoming events.

[Update] I forgot to include other events that are going on in the state. There's a River Trail Cleanup, also part of the Green Gathering effort, and then that evening's USU for Obama meeting, both in Logan.

If you can't make it in person, or create your own, you can always check out the Virtual Green Gathering that another grassroots member has created.

Bowling for Change

If you're an Obama supporter, or want to find out if you could be, join us tonight at AMF Ritz Classic Lanes to Bowl for Change. This is a low-dollar fundraiser for the Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign. The suggested donation is $5, and you do pay for your own bowling costs. It'll be a lot of fun, and there will be plenty of people there to answer your questions, whether it's how you can help the campaign, or even what the campaign is all about. You can also pick up a bumper sticker, and we'll have some t-shirts for sale ($15, I think). There will also be prizes for the high and low scorers (Obama's books, I think).

Generation Obama Utah is hosting the event. Generation Obama (GO) is about trying to involve the under-40 crowd in the political discussion. GO Utah is closely aligned with Utah for Obama, but with the aim of these types of low-dollar events and socializing.

Join us from 7:00 PM to midnight tonight (October 19) at AMF Ritz Classic Lanes, 2265 South State Street in Salt Lake (look for the giant bowling pin).

Generation Obama Countdown for Change Fundraiser

Saturday night, the Utah chapter of Generation Obama held a fundraiser at The Woodshed. It was a wonderful success, and a great time!

The suggested donation to the Obama campaign was $5, or $12 if you wanted food, too. Many people donated more, and some purchased t-shirts. I think that the total campaign donations we recieved were around $500, though I'm not certain yet how many people contributed. The idea behind Countdown for Change was that we had a goal of raising $1 for each day left until the Nevada Primary (since Nevada is one of the first 4 "Primary States"), so our goal was $126. We blew that out of the water! And had a good time doing it!

Here are a few photos of setting up:



This is Benny, the owner of The Woodshed, who offered to host the fundraiser to support Senator Obama. Much thanks to him for all of the effort he put into the event! On the right is Paul Lohrenz, who has offered to loan us PA equipment for future Obama events.

Photos of us enjoying the Generation Obama event:


Rob Miller, Vice Chair of the Utah State Democratic Party, speaking to us about becoming more involved with the Utah State Democrats, and how to become a Delegate to the National Convention next year:


This was a very fun event, and I look forward to Bowling for Change, which will be the next Generation Obama event, October 19. And if you'd like to learn about the process of becoming a Delegate, the process is listed here.

P.S. If you'd like to help Utah for Obama reach the group fundraising goal of $5,000, click here to donate.

The Senator's Visit (Update 1 w/ Video)

Sunday's "Roadside Rally" that Utah for Obama put together was amazing! I only helped a little with the planning, since I had out of state relatives visiting. Nikki Norton headed up the effort, and it really paid off!

We found out Friday that the Senator was going to stop and give a speech (which I'll blog about separately soon), and we couldn't tell anyone until the press was notified on Saturday evening. It was very hard to keep my mouth shut and not tell the whole world! We had expected around 50 - 100 people to show up, and it turns out that we had over 1,000, according to Secret Service estimates.

The next three pictures (taken by climbing some stairs attached to the Visitor's Center) will give you an idea of how many people attended. They were taken about 30 minutes before the Senator arrived, according to the timestamp.

Far left side of the crowd.

Center part of the crowd. By the time Barack Obama arrived, there was not an empty spot on that hill, as you can see in later photos.

Far right side of the crowd.


Strider had the privilege of introducing Senator Obama when he arrived.


Strider also had his shirt signed, later.


During his speech, Senator Obama had people pretty much on every side, so he turned a lot, in order to speak to the whole crowd.


We had a couple of people take photos for us of the Senator with (mostly) just Utah for Obama Steering Committee members. Mark Rothacher was missing from this one, unfortunately.


I thought Gail might pass out from excitement!

Here's some video taken by Adam Forgie

(h/t Aramis of Wasatch Watcher)

Here are the news articles, blogs and other people's photos that I know of covering the event. If anyone knows of more, please let me know!

Official Campaign Blog

Mike Place's photos

Salt Lake Tribune and more Salt Lake Tribune.

Photos taken by our group (still growing)

ABC 4 News

Deseret Morning News

MSNBC

Photos of the sign-making party on Yahoo!

Chicago Sun Times

I will update these links as more become available.

Utah for Obama at the State Convention

Saturday morning, at least 10 of us (I hope I'm not forgetting anyone!) ran a Utah for Obama booth at the Utah State Convention. As all of our events have been, this one was a blast. We got a few special treats this time, though!

Janet Lee made this incredible banner:

I'm truly amazed at her talent!

This photo was taken for us by a passer-by:

Mark Rothacher (Co-Chair of Utah for Obama), Gail Turpin (Voter Registration Coordinator), Me, Janet Lee, Nikki Norton, Rafe Langston (Left to right, top to bottom)

We had t-shirts available for a $25 donation to Obama for America, one of which Nikki is wearing here:

Janet Lee and Nikki Norton

Our booth was right next to the Young Democrats booth. They had a Guitar Hero setup going, and it looked like a lot of people had fun with that. Goodies that other booths had, that just had to come home with me, were: a Democratic Women's Caucus LED fan (for Maria, who was wonderful and volunteered to watch my munchkins and take them to the zoo), a couple of light-up flag pins (from the guy with the huge red-white-and-blue Cat-in-the-Hat style hat), and an Obama pin from the "pin guy".

Gail Turpin went to the Women's Caucus, and I never did really get details about how that went. It seems that the whole day was a flurry of activity, between people stopping to either argue that Barack is for the war (huh, what planet are you from?!) or wanting to see how they could help us. We sold quite a few t-shirts, which made me quite happy. I think I'm going to have to carry some with me, though. But, I'll get to that story in a bit.

Nikki went to the store and got some post boards, and we each made signs. I wish I had photos of Janet Lee's - she's one of the most talented people I've had the chance to meet! We had our own little cheering section for Obama during the main caucus.

Bill Richardson didn't end up speaking, because he had to go out to California for some other fundraiser or rally. I wish I could have heard him at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner, though. I really respect a lot of what he's accomplished, and I'd love to hear him speak.

Chris Dodd did show up, though. Turns out his wife is from Utah, and she has a huge family. Since I didn't know much (or anything, really) about Dodd personally, it was very interesting to hear his wife's introduction of him. I have to admit, I haven't watched Dodd closely, because I don't have any prior knowledge (like I did of Richardson's accomplishments in Darfur, for example). I do have a bit more respect for him than I did previously, though. I still don't think he's got a snowball's chance in hell of winning the primary, but then again I do think of Utah as hell at times, and it does freeze over regularly. I will say this - should the unexpected somehow happen, and he won the primary, I wouldn't feel the least bit bad about casting a vote for him in the General Election. The one thing that he said that bothered me a bit was something to the effect of mandatory service. I got the idea that he was talking about volunteer programs, rather than military service, but I still think that would be a bad, bad thing. Maybe having incentives for volunteering would be good, but mandatory would be wrong. At one point, I went outside and Dodd was standing out front, so I shook his hand and thanked him for coming to Utah. I fully believe that the more Democrats pay attention to Utah, the more that the popular vote will lean toward Democrats, which can only make our state better, especially given the current Imperial Presidential administration.

After Dodd spoke, Mike Moffo, the Nevada HQ Field Director, took his turn. He showed a video by Barack that was quite impressive, and I think (in general) sent exactly the message it should have. Mike spoke for a bit, and I wish I had a transcript. Our cheering section made quite a bit of noise, and many in the audience participated with us. Prior to the caucus, we handed out most of the remaining signs that we had, but I don't think anyone but our group used them. I had been hoping they would.

Oh, on a side note - I had noticed that Dodd had quite a cheering section, but it turns out that most of them were related through marriage. But, that's still impressive, considering the stories Chris and his wife, Jackie, told about them being die-hard Republicans.

I was surprised that Edwards and Clinton didn't have anyone speak, or if they did, I must have missed it. I went to check on the booth before it was over, and there were a lot of people coming by, so I stayed out by the booth.

One last picture:

Myself, Theo Cowan (Secretary) and Paul Sticca (Treasurer)

I spoke with Christian Burridge, chair of the Salt Lake County Democratic Party, about what I need to do to get a fill-in delegate spot, and he mentioned needing some kind of coordinator to help with events. He suggested I speak with Angela Romero, Secretary of the SL County Dems, to get more information. I'll be doing that in the next few days.

Something that was very interesting to me (and this ties into the t-shirts thing I mentioned above), is that in the past when I've worn an Obama t-shirt, no one has really said anything to me. But, Saturday I had at least 5 people stop me to ask about Barack, including one lady at the gas station that went out of her way to drive over and ask where I got the shirt. I think I should carry some, so that people can buy them. Regardless, that tells me that people are definitely taking notice.

Go Obama!!!!

And thanks very much to Saturday's volunteers:
Theo Cowan, Janet Lee, Mark Rothacher, Rafe Langston, Nikki Norton (especially for making the run to the store for more supplies!), Janet Hurley (she still came, even with her sprained ankle!) Gail Turpin, Duchess Schuman and Paul Sticca