The Obama Phenomenon hits Berks County

OK, I’ve been involved as a volunteer in campaigns for some time now, local state, and federal. Everything from township supervisor to president of the United States. I know when a candidate gets support, and I can sense the level of support, from disinterest to, well, passionately absorbed. I have to tell you that the Obama campaign, which has a small cadre of paid staffers in the little town of Reading PA (pop. 75,000?) has taken the region by surprise. The story is in the numbers. As was reported in these pages a few days ago, Berks County had about 3000 new Democratic registrants since the beginning of the year, while the Republicans have had 179. Well in less than a week, those numbers will increase by several thousand. Teams of enthusiastic volunteers from Berks County, under the direction of Obama staffers, are swarming out to all high traffic areas in the city and county and registering new and cross-over voters in droves. Yesterday, thanks to my wife, I had the grunt task of adding those new registrations to the Vote Builder data base. Folks, the two of us spent over 4 hours there, and barely made a dent in the pile. This man, and this campaign are combing through the under-story of the local political landscape to find tons of new registrants (folks who never bothered to care, from their early twenties to oldsters in their eighties), and party-switchers (about 10% of the registrations I handled). The story is plain and simple. No other candidate on the political scene in my memory has tapped into voter radar like Barack Obama. And these new registrants are being entered in to the state and national Democratic databases, under the Obama tag. Don’t think party regulars (read super delegates) aren’t taking notice. Another update: The Philadelphia campaign office has already exceeded its registration goals. Bob Roggio (candidate U.S. House of Rep. 6th Cong. District) do you know where your coattails are being made? Pollsters tapping Pennsylvania’s mood, do you understand why you will be way off mark in your opinion polling for this upcoming primary? (For the under-informed, pollsters contact likely voters… those who have voted often in several previous elections, and they don’t call cell phones, which I entered a lot of yesterday.). Hey Hillary… ‘a cold wind is gonna blow.