Clinton, Obama open headquarters in Austin

Volunteers and local and national Democratic politicians convened in the Frost Bank Tower on Congress Avenue Saturday for the opening of presidential hopeful Barack Obama's Texas campaign headquarters.

Volunteers were phone banking, canvassing and training to be precinct captains, said Ian Davis, coordinator for the grassroots organization Texans for Obama. He said 1,500 supporters attended the opening.

Nick Kimball, an Obama campaign spokesman, said staffers arrived in Texas last Monday to help volunteers in the final push before the March 4 primary.

"Here, more than any other state that I've been to, the volunteer force is incredibly well-organized. It has been for several months," Kimball said. "They have been running a real campaign."

Kimball said the campaign will open 10 offices in Texas and that the bulk of the organization will be run by the Texas volunteers. He said the Texas campaign will be similar to that of Iowa.

He said Obama made it clear that he wanted a "very volunteer-focused, very grassroots" campaign.

"Young people have been integral to the success of the Obama campaign thus far," Kimball said. "They're like anyone else. They are desperate; they're looking for something to believe in again. They are looking to change the way that things are done in Washington, and they're seeing that Sen. Obama is offering that."

Austin City Councilman Mike Martinez, Democratic state Sen. Kirk Watson and Democratic state Reps. Mark Strama of Austin and Joe Deshotel of Beaumont turned out to support Obama.

Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, N.J., headlined the event.

Booker said Obama heads a generational wave of great leadership for America. He said the presidential election is a chance for young people to heal the country and reclaim national spirit.

"The core of every great movement for social change around our globe has been young people, so we have got to be those who lead the change now," Booker said. "Young people can either surrender their power and allow it to be abused by those who work in the system, or they can claim their power and control their destiny and take back their country."

Comments

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out