Campaign 2008 Stories: John Geahan, GVSU '08, Part 2

John Geahan graduated from GVSU in 2008 with a major in political science. If you have a story to share from Campaign 2008, please email Professor Richards: richardm@gvsu.edu

Here is part 2 of John's story, in his words:

 

Day 1 on Staff: The Stories in the Middle of the Mitten

It was 11:30pm and it was very dark. I exited off the highway after what seemed like a half hour of not seeing any highway exits. US-127 can be a very long and formidable road, if you've never driven it beyond Lansing. Heading towards Houghton Lake, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of person I was going to be living with. Was she nice? Old? Did she have dogs? Cats? Birds? Fish? Running Water? Part of the beauty of nationalizing a grassroots movement is reaching out to everyone and including them in our campaign efforts. Some people had a knack for knocking on doors or making persuasion calls. Some people were willing to help out in a more passive way: providing supporter housing.

Ramona was my lifesaver. She was the only person in my three county turf that was willing to host a complete stranger for four months in her home. She works as a nursing home inspector for the State of Michigan, working out of the regional office in Grayling. She moved to Houghton Lake to raise her family of 3 in a very small converted summer cottage. The home was cozy to say the least. It was 800 square feet with well water and propane heat. Upon arrival, she warmly welcomed me into her home and proceeded to talk my ear off for the next 45 minutes, before directing me to my bedroom. it was a loft overlooking the office below. It was six feet wide and eight feet long, and the ceiling was very low, as it played into the natural slope of the roof above. Every morning for the first week or so, I would slam my head into the VERY low ceiling. In time, I learned to deal with it. My bed was the same size that my first bed was. My feet literally hung over the ends if i didnt curl up. And if my feet hung over the edge of the bed, then they were probably hanging over the railing of the loft.

Cozy.

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As a grassroots organization, many questioned why we never had enough resources in our offices. There were frustrations that we were forced to have to accept donations for yard signs, bumper stickers, and other forms of "chum." People never had to pay for campaign stuff before. They were upset being asked to volunteer some time on the phones rather than parting ways with five dollars. The campaign was receiving public recognition for destroying monthly fundraising goals, and people wanted to know why the campaign wouldn't give out free stuff. People were pissed that the field offices were charging when our boss was making so much money. To break it down though:

The 50-State Strategyis a very intense plan that requires a massive field staff to reach out to every single precinct to bring every single Democrat or Obama Supporter into the organization. We sought to empower communities and its members to get mobilized. It wasn't the campaign staff that won the election, it was the communities. All we did was to provide a spark to get people to take ownership of their neighborhoods, similar to that of a precinct captain, but on a much larger level. And we created an organization that sought to get Barack elected: we brought people together, like-minded people who might not normally have crossed paths but who shared common values and interests. The underlying goal I ran my office with was to create friendships that would last beyond the campaign, and networks of friends that would be able to come together again to accomplish community activism. These awesome volunteers that were there from Day 1 are the ones that are now community leaders. They are the new face of the Democratic Party. They got it. It was their doing that won on November 4. This was something I had to explain on a daily basis; to ensure people continued to feel they were in charge of the campaign.

 

 

I don't think people really grasped the magnitude of the efforts of the 50-state strategy. It didn't really sink in to me until I landed in North Carolina, but that's for a later post. Along with a paid staff, there is a need to [unfortunately] run media advertisements. And I will say this. I was disappointed when the first negative ad spots went on the air from the Obama camp. I was very proud that my boss was able to last so long in the general election without resorting to the 'mudslinging,' and was somewhat disappointed to see we finally put them up. It is inevitable to have to resort to the ads. Naysayers may criticize the Obama camp for the hard spots against McCain. Naysayers don't recognize that the campaign put out quite a few positive ads, significantly moreso than the McCain camp. But that is neither here or there.

The turf I was working in Michigan was a very rural turf, even though a quarter of the tri-county population lived within or near the cities and villages in my turf. Two of the counties could be called 'battleground' counties, as they narrowly voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004. One county was an overwhelmingly Republican county, which had been trending more and more to the right (66% for Bush in 2004, 69% for DeVos in 2006). Many of the jobs came from small business enterprise, as well as light industrial and service industries, and the struggles of Michigan's economy over the last decade have not made it any easier for people to survive. Many of the residents of my three counties also lived in 'bedroom' communities, meaning that most people didn't work within close proximity of their home and had long commutes. Residents took advantage of low property tax rates and low gas prices to justify long commutes. Clare is a great example of a bedroom community. Residents of Clare, MI tend to commute to Midland, Mount Pleasant, Cadillac, even Grayling, because they have such low property tax rates. And as the economy struggled in Michigan, municipalities had to raise taxes incrementally.

I was making calls to known democratic supporters in Clare during my second week in-turf when I finally got a real understanding of what people are going through. You can read about the hardships and see it from the window of your car as you drive by, but it becomes part of you when you hear it from someone whose been suffering the hardships of life in a dying city. I was calling out to Kerry Supporters to recruit Team Leaders. The television was on very loud in the background and I could barely hear the woman. I introduced myself as a staffer with Barack Obama's Campaign. She stopped me so she could turn down the television, which she pointed out was a VHS tape of a movie she had memorized. I thought this was odd at first, but as she continued on about the VHS, her story really began to unfold. It was the 7,000th time that she'd heard or watched the movie because they couldn't afford to pay for even an antenna for the TV.

Her husband was at the top of his pay grade, having reached his highest pay ceiling and was only receiving nickle and dime raises at a time. She was working as a blackjack dealer in Mount Pleasant. It was once enough that they could save a bit from her tips. For six people, they spent $150 on food, not because it saved them money, but that's all they could afford to spend on food. But now with gas prices rising, property taxes increasing, and cost of living soaring, she and her husband had to make the difficult decision as to what month they would turn off the heat, and which kids would get new winter coats this year. She told me why she was supporting Barack and went into a long 20 minute discussion of how plainly he spoke and how realistic his plans were to provide assistance for families that had fallen behind .  But when she was telling me all of the hardships that her family suffered through, it brought me near tears.

And the worst part about this story was that I told a close friend about the hardships that a married family with four children had and the first reaction to the story was, "Why didn't they go to school or try harder in life. Maybe get a new job, find some new work." I lost it. Some families don't have the luxury of being able to risk unemployment to find a better opportunity. When you live on an income so fixed that any slight hiccup sinks your ship, you cannot afford to quit a job and find something new. With one parent works 2 different day jobs, and the other working nights, just so that someone is home to take care of the kids, it says a lot about the family's dedication to staying together and making do to scrape by. I became irate that this friend could not comprehend why they didn't make a better life decision to be more successful.

This story really brought me down to earth. It reminded me of what I was doing on the campaign trail. This election wasn't only about me, but I knew that going into the race. This story only gave me a real understanding of why I was out here. I was out working to get the best man elected for the President of the United States of America; one who sought to best protect the interests of the working class and middle class.

Coming soon: No, you’re not fired. In fact, you’re going to North Carolina