Thursday, August 28, 2008

We the Voters Can Take Action


UPDATE 6-4-08: Riding a wave of superdelegate endorsements and delegates won in the final two primaries, Obama reached 2,118 delegates last night, June 3, and clinched the nomination in a historic victory. Working together, we made a difference in this race. We helped voters from around the country generate an estimated several thousand e-mails and phone calls to superdelegates, and gathered thousands more signatures on petitions in seven states including North Carolina, where we first organized. Thanks to our coalition members and supporters, plus everyone who visited our site and used the tools here to e-mail, call, or sign a petition to superdelegates. We let our party leaders know their constituents wanted Obama to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2008, and they listened!

We are contacting local superdelegates, and gathering signatures from voters in our communities asking superdelegates to back Obama. Our focus is on states and districts where Obama won the popular vote.

This site contains a state-by state list of superdelegates, who is backing Obama, Clinton, or undecided, and how to reach them.

For instructions on how to use the list, CLICK HERE.

NOTE: As of June 4, when Hillary announced her intention to suspend her campaign, we stopped updating this list and removed most contact info.



What We Can Do

Call or e-mail our states' superdelegates

Sign on-line petitions

Start a petition to local superdelegates

Spread the word about this website



If superdelegates hold the key to the 2008 Democratic nomination, we the voters can take action to help determine the outcome.





UPDATE 6-2-08: Two days after the May 31 compromise to seat the MI & FL delegations, there is hope that this endless nomination fight is wrapping up. House Democratic Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) has leaked his pending Obama endorsement, MSNBC is reporting 34 House members will announce for Obama tomorrow, and CNN says most of the remaining undecided 17 Democratic Senators will back Obama later this week. Hillary will appear at a Tuesday night event in New York that many anticipate will be her concession speech. Will it all be over tomorrow night? We'll see.

UPDATE 5-29-08: Our Massachusetts supporters have launched an online petition to the MA superdelegates. If you want to sponsor an online superdelegate petition in your state, contact us.

UPDATE 5-15-08: Now that Obama has won North Carolina's May 6 primary by a large, 14-point margin, we have launched an online petition asking all N.C. superdelegates to unite behind his candidacy. N.C. voters can sign the petition HERE. Virginia voters can sign the online petition to VA superdelegates, started by VA state Democratic officials in April.



UPDATE 5-13-08: A costumed team of SuperVoters for Obama today delivered petitions from 2,000 North Carolina voters to Gov. Easley, asking him to support Obama in his role as a Democratic superdelegate. Our costumes may have been a little silly, but our message to Gov. Easley and the other N.C. superdelegates was serious. On May 6, North Carolina voted for Obama by a large margin, and now it's the superdelegates' turn to act.

UPDATE 5-9-08: On the heels of Obama's May 6 victory in North Carolina and Indiana near-win, has the logjam broken? News organizations including ABC News and Politico reported that Obama picked up nine SD's today and has pulled ahead of Clinton in the superdelegate race, overtaking her long-time advantage. Yes We Can!

UPDATE 4-16-08: Voters for Obama wants to thank both Democratic Reps. David Price and Mel Watt for their endorsements today. We're glad they listened to North Carolina voters, 2,000 of whom have signed petitions in the last two months asking N.C. superdelegates to back Obama, including more than 500 in Rep. Price's district.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

I already support the idea. good luck though.

Anonymous said...

go obama! thanks!

OBAMA '08
vacaville, CA

Anonymous said...

Obama has more delegates - But, when have the Clintons ever played fair? Perhaps that is the question the Democratic Party has to answer - and live with.

Anonymous said...

Fine, urge away. Just don't get all self-righteous about it. (I'm not saying you are.) People don't like feeling bullied. Let's face it, we're not living in a pure democracy. There are many, many vestiges of the notion that "the people" can't be trusted to make decisions directly.

Anonymous said...

I think that what you are doing is very important. My age group isn't aware of how important this election is...it frustrates me sometimes.

You rule!

Kimmy
Ventura, CA

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad I found your website and want to thank you for your effort.

Just curious, though - why is the date on your home page "Thursday, August 28, 2008"?

Best wishes,

Jan
Sunriver, OR

Voters for Obama said...

Hi Jan,

Thanks for your support.

We're hosting our website using Blogger, so all the site's "pages" are actually blog posts, and they all have dates. The site's main pages are dated during the week in August when the Democratic National Convention will take place (Aug 25-28).

Our home page is the chronologically last post on the blog, so it's the first thing people see. The post is dated Thursday, August 28 because that's the last day of the convention, and the eventual nominee's acceptance speech is scheduled for that evening.

It's up to all of us working together to make sure Barack is the one giving that speech!

Erik
Chapel Hill, NC

Anonymous said...

Here in PA, a large number will vote Obama.

Those who won't will vote thinking Obama is Muslim. Some because he's black, since Hillary is putting up her racial slurs.

I'm a white woman, age 47. I'm old enough to have heard Bobby K. When I heard Obama I thought of Bobby. Hope, dreams of the future.

Tell Obama to hit hard, he's not Muslim. Hit Philly, Pittsburgh. Biggest cities here. Me, country first. Obama, I don't care if he's from Mars and is purple. In a foxhole we are all Americans.

He can take this state through the schools and outlying communities. Talk jobs!!!!!

Diana, Monroeville PA

Anonymous said...

Great!!! GoBama!!!

serrano
Phoenix, AZ

Anonymous said...

A wonderful effort -- many thanks for providing an opportunity for positive action.

The Obama graphic with sign language is way cool.

Anonymous said...

Great idea-- even SDs pledged to HRC might switch IMO if enough people write and call them

anonymous, PA

Anonymous said...

While I support the actions you recommend, I doubt that the remaining superdelegates are going to need that much persuasion.

The conventional wisdom is that superdelegates are establishment figures, and Hillary is an establishment figure, and therefore their natural inclination is to support her. But that's completely wrong. Nearly all her superdelegate support was garnered when she was viewed as the "inevitable" nominee, and the earlier you got on the train, the better seat you were going to get. Since it became clear it was a contest, almost all of the superdelegates have gone for Obama.

The superdelegates are by and large elected officials, and their foremost concern is the effect the top of the ticket will have on their own races. Obama brings out heretofore alienated and apathetic independents to vote Democratic. Hillary brings out currently alienated Republicans to vote Republican. It's a no-brainer.

Gregg Gordon
Columbus, Ohio

Anonymous said...

Keep up the great work!

Anonymous said...

I believe Hillary's current list of superdelegates should be called upon to take their thumb off the scale.

It was inappropriate for them to stack up an intimidating list of superdelegates even before the first voters went to the polls. Superdelegates are supposed to weigh in at the end to give us a certain nominee. Instead they were used at the beginning to lower the bar for Hillary.

Now they are being used to keep her in the race and give the appearance of parity in spite of the fact that Obama has taken a commanding, even insurmountable lead.

Sun dog
Iowa City, IA

Anonymous said...

The superdelegates need to punish both Clinton and Obama by voting for Mike Gravel at the convention.

Anonymous said...

Cool list!

I hadn't realized that my rep, Eshoo, was supporting Obama.

Anonymous said...

I have done this ad nausem. But I will download your petition and keep going. The super delegates need to stop this - it's going to kill the party.

Anonymous said...

Keep it going!

You just inspired me to create a new superdelegate letter to send out... After all, its been a week or so since my last ones and a lot has happened in a week.

Keep the pressure up!

doctorgirl
Washington State

Anonymous said...

Great site

Am saving and forwarding the URL to some of the listservs I'm subscribed to. Thanks for setting this up!

lirtydies
AAPI Wellesley grad in Austin, TX for Obama!

Voters for Obama said...

lirtydies, thanx for your help.

For other ways to spread the word to friends and Obama supporters, see our Get Involved page.

There are some cool widgets to use to link to us on your blog or website, posters & flyers you can download and put up around town, plus more.

Erik
Chapel Hill, NC

Anonymous said...

it's strange that - although obama won our state, the majority of our superdelegates who've pledged their support have done so with clinton, with a large group not speaking their choice yet (which has also created unnecessary drama).

what is it - favors? fear of crossing the almighty clinton machine? DLC ties? whatever it is, it's not in our party's, our state's, or our country's best interest.

Jackie
Washington State

Anonymous said...

Hey, great resource, and nice job keeping it on the 'high road'.

Lisa Lockwood

Anonymous said...

I'm out of country, but have passed this to my brother in Washington state, as he has some links to the party there. Also went out to friends in Texas (turning that state blue is a personal grudge match of mine...).

I've e-mailed Murray and Cantwell, my senators, and asked them to reconsider. I must e-mail them once a month at a minimum. The next time I'm in either Washington I ought to drop in and say hello. Pass out some literature or something.

Anyway, good luck in NC! Keep it real, turn it blue!

John
Toronto

Anonymous said...

Clinton only won PA by 9%

Spread the word!

The media aren't doing their job:

http://www.electionreturns.state.pa.us

Daniel
Beaumont, Texas

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your link. I could have used it yesterday. I have now bookmarked, and will use in the future.

Land of Enchantment
New Mexico

Anonymous said...

Great site.

I just wish the 3 holdouts in NY would get off their ass. If they didn't endorse HRC by now, they're not going to. Unfortunately, they are Party Elders and Officials that I can't contact.

David, NYC

Anonymous said...

Great site. I've called the offices of supers in my state and emailed others.

Unfortunately, my district has a Republican congressman and local supers pay more attention to local constituents (I kept getting asked for my zip code, etc.).

Still, it feels better to do something, even if it's less effective than it might be if there were a Dem in my district.

My message was simply that this nightmare of a primary must end because if the Democrats are divided, while the Republicans unite, it virtually guarantees us four more years of Bush policies.

AnitaBee

Anonymous said...

Hillary wants Obama to lose this election and she is trying to hold superdelegates hostage. I think that if Gore, Pelosi and Reid stepped in earlier when it was clear she could not step up, then this would not have happened.

Can someone tell me why in the world did they allow voters to vote in Michigan and Florida when they knew they would not count the votes? That is why I did not go to the polls but some people went anyway. If I knew that this would have happened then I would have voted for Obama.

fair1234, Florida

Anonymous said...

Whoosh! Up in the sky... look!

It's a Byrd...

It's a Plame...

No! It's Suupperrr Voterrrr!