OFA May House Meetings and 2010 Strategy Planning

Written by Marcia Hamilton | 31 May 2010

OFA held five house party meetings this month across Mason county focused on (1) sharing the OFA 2010 election strategy; (2) planning the June 5 Kick Off event for each team; and (3) building our organization by inviting new folks.  The five meetings took place in Belfair (at Fay Marley Clarke’s); in Grapeview (at the Rowloff’s); in Union (at Andrea Love’s); in Shelton #1 (at the Nelson Kings); and in Shelton #2 (at the Gallaghers).

In Union, the meeting to which the most “new” folks came was charged with the commitment to our President's agenda.  It was a true meeting of minds.  In a nutshell the strategy is to find all of the first time 2008 Obama voters in Mason county and to get them to the polls in November.   Since only 50% of first time voters vote in off year elections, if we only increase the percentage by 8% across the country, we get hundreds of thousands more  votes.  And on a smaller scale, this is what we are going to do in Mason county.  We want to increase the percentage of turnout we are aiming for. 

At the first meeting in Belfair, the group decided to combine with Grapeview to do a phone bank on the 5th, inviting the first time voters to a BBQ on the 19th.  The Union group liked this idea and will first do a phone bank and plan some sort of FTV get together as well.  On the 5th the Shelton groups will use the new Mason County Dem HQ as a staging location for a canvass during the forest festival.  At all meetings we talked about races and the importance of our senators and representatives and the need to ensure our incumbents’ re-election—particularly Patty Murray.   We also discussed wall street reform (Mike Rowloff gave an excellent presentation) and our local bio digester issue.

If you are interested in joining any of the OFA teams in the county, please get in touch with me and I’ll point you to the team leader for your area so you can chat one on one! Gobama! This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 360-275-6701

Marcia Hamilton
OFA Community Organizer