ATLANTA—Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign announced a ‘fifty-state strategy.’ The Campaign for Change is making a strong push to bring as many new supporters as possible into our movement’ said Alex Lofton, Georgia Field Director, in an email. They intend to “fight for every vote,” according to Eli Pariser of the partisan group MoveOn.
Georgia has been such a solidly red state that few national candidates have spent any money on advertising or campaigning in the past eight years. The Obama campaign opened eleven offices in Georgia this August. The purpose of having so many offices is to build local grassroots teams, said spokesperson Carolyn Adelman, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Senator John McCain’s ‘regional office for the southeast’ is in Tallahassee, Florida. He visited Atlanta supporters this week for a closed-door fundraiser at a downtown hotel. The event drew protests partly because invitations came from controversial former Georgia Republican Party Chair Ralph Reed.
‘The outcome of this presidential election is going to determine the future direction of this country,’ said Ralph Reed in his invitation. He thanked his potential guests for their support of conservative values.
Obama volunteers have been registering voters at barbershops, hair salons, parks and shopping malls. The parking lot of Obama campaign headquarters in Atlanta had no more spaces on a recent rainy Tuesday night. A security guard at the building next door gave practiced advice: “Circle around Twelfth Street but stay on the west side of the lot, the front is Turner Broadcasting. Don’t forget to put money in the slot, they do tow.”
Georgia went Republican in 2003 when Sonny Perdue defeated Roy Barnes for governor. The day Perdue took the oath of office, trucks, cars and one airplane sporting versions of the Confederate battle flag appeared in downtown Atlanta. Governor Barnes supported removing the Civil War symbol from the state flag. The State legislature had voted to put it there in 1956. ‘Flaggers,’ those who wanted the flag to stay unchanged, backed Perdue against Barnes. Perdue did not reinstate the Confederate symbol.
