Obama Campaign Cultivates the Art of Record Crowds
arack Obama is well known for his ability to draw large crowds, but 75,000 in Portland, Ore.?
The mass of people who converged by foot and by boat on a Willamette River park on Sunday was the largest rally to date for the Democratic presidential hopeful. Organizers credited the sunny, spring day and enthusiasm for Obama in the well-educated, largely liberal city as key factors helping drive turnout.
But the Illinois senator already has seen plenty of eye-popping crowds.
Thirty-five thousand crammed into Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia last month, and 30,000 filled a Columbia, S.C., arena in December to cheer him at a rally with Oprah Winfrey. His events often dwarf Hillary Rodham Clinton's, even though her crowds are far larger than most political candidates ever enjoy.
Praised for its attention to the mechanics of grass-roots organizing, Obama's campaign has taken the art of crowd building to an unprecedented level _ using networking tools and old-fashioned word of mouth to drive turnout, which aids fundraising and organizational efforts.
''Rallies are very helpful for three major reasons: to provide momentum, allow a large number of people to be exposed to Barack and create an organizational mechanism to win the election,'' deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand said.
From the beginning, Obama's campaign has benefited from a sophisticated Internet presence and a broad grass-roots fundraising network, both of which have been instrumental in helping the campaign build its crowds.
When a city and venue are chosen for a rally, the campaign immediately sends an e-mail to area supporters inviting them to attend. Organizers also engage social networking Web sites like Facebook, as well as the campaign's own networking site, mybarackobama.com, to allow supporters to blog and tell others about the event.
The campaign also uses more traditional methods to draw people to events, such as radio ads and automated telephone calls.
Organizers host public meetings where supporters are asked to carry out certain tasks, such as distributing fliers on college campuses or staffing phone banks. They also engage local TV and print reporters, who are eagerly covering the historic Democratic nominating contest.
Josh Earnest, who served as Obama's communications director in Iowa and Texas, recalled how the campaign had just 48 hours to draw people to a rally outside the Texas state Capitol in Austin.
''Texas was a challenge because we didn't have much of an organizational structure in place,'' Earnest said, noting the campaign had relied on its volunteer base and ''earned media'' _ shorthand for news coverage _ to help publicize the event on short notice.
Among other things, Earnest said the campaign invited local TV morning shows to carry live shots of the street in front of the Capitol being closed off to traffic and the event stage being assembled.
In the end, some 20,000 people came out for the rally.
Earnest is now helping organize a rally in Tampa, Fla., where Obama is scheduled to campaign Wednesday. It will be held at the St. Pete Times Forum, which holds about 20,000 people.
The campaign also uses rallies to collect as much contact information as possible from each person who attends, including e-mail addresses and telephone numbers, to expand its supporter base. These people are then invited to upcoming events and solicited for donations.
Hildebrand noted that major rallies usually are put together with a specific organizational purpose in mind, like a voter registration drive or an effort to get people to vote early in states that allow it.
But the campaign has learned that big crowds don't always translate into success at the polls.
Obama lost Pennsylvania's primary on April 22, days after the Philadelphia rally. He also lost the March 4 Texas primary, even after holding a series of arena-sized gatherings across the state.
Those losses and other concerns about how Obama was connecting with individual voters helped motivate the campaign to prioritize smaller gatherings in more intimate venues so voters could question him and discuss issues important to them.
Obama himself has insisted that smaller gatherings be part of his schedule, too, Hildebrand said.
''Barack has been very instructive to us to say, 'Big rallies are great but it gives me no opportunity to hear from people in these states. Make sure I have a wide variety of options,''' Hildebrand said.
05/20/2008 09:14 AM
By BETH FOUHY Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., waves to supporters at Waterfront Park in Portland, Ore., Sunday, May 18, 2008.
(AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
arack Obama is well known for his ability to draw large crowds, but 75,000 in Portland, Ore.?
