Every bid for public office needs a thousand, if not hundreds of thousands, foot soldiers. The higher the office, the greater the need for massive support.
Barack Obama’s 2008 “Yes We Can” historic presidential run turned into a genuine movement. Folks nationwide not only felt the need to get involved at any level, but volunteered in any capacity.
Even his extraordinary operation had a pecking order. There’s the upper rung for the powerful that beg the financial elite. No money, no campaign. His Internet-savvy plan banked over $600 million from $5 and $20 donors.
The next level(s) down had consultants, strategists, tacticians, etc. Surrogates here are more than likely well paid.
The bottom rung? The Few. The Proud. The Grunt. The True Believer with pizza-break perks.
Yes
Cindy Andrew became one of them working in New Mexico, part of a group nationwide so gigantic and enormous, media coined Obama’s numbers “ginormous.”
It wasn’t a difficult decision for the Dallas lawyer.
“I came to a point in my life where I could do something that I enjoyed without having to sacrifice my retirement or my economics,” the Fort Worth native says. “I’m not postponing my career or putting it on hold. It’d be more like I’m on vacation for five weeks.”
The alternate delegate received an Obama eblast while attending the Denver Democratic convention. The general email requested volunteers to work in battleground states for five weeks.
Says Andrew: “That sounded kinda like fun, but I didn’t take it seriously until I got back. I watched the Republicans’ convention and saw how they considered doing in 2008 what they did in 2000 and 2004, rely on people’s fears to vote Republican.
We
“Personally, I felt that surge of fear from the convention and thought, there’s a real chance that Obama won’t win. Even though the economy is bad. The war continues with no end. America has lost its standing in the world as the country to look to for justice and equality. It motivated me to think, do I want to go to one of these battleground states to help him win? I thought about my finances and whether I could afford to leave my job. I talked to my sister, Frankie, about where I was in my life, stepping outside the box. I prayed about it.”
Andrew, 38, gave notice on September 9 about five days after making her decision that ended her seven years as a trial lawyer at Jones Day, a prestigious firm with offices in 14 cities nationwide and 14 other countries. She and other colleagues were impressed with Obama when they first heard him at a Harvard event in 2005.
She first considered the long vetting process of forms, resume and references overkill since she was just volunteering. Then, she says, “in less than a week life changed: from studying briefs, writing motions, and prepping clients for trial to packing up enough clothes, getting folks to check on my house, and preparing for the unknown ins-and-outs of campaign work. To living in a home with folks I’d never met, whose only link to my lifestyle is the single desire to eat and sleep details, forecasts, strategies and revisions. All in order to have the same guy lead the country. Huh, only in America.”
She became a deputy field organizer in Albuquerque.
Andrew’s been involved in presidential campaigns since Michael Dukasis’ in 1988, but never to this extent. She’s considering a memoir.
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Supporters don’t usually quit their jobs and become full time campaign workers either, primarily because they feel they can’t afford to financially. That’s giving up too much.
“Well I could afford to not work for five to six weeks. My skills won’t suffer. I’m not married and have no children. Perhaps it’d be different if I had them.”
She loves history and is adamant that historians can point to a time where great civilizations peaked before they declined. For her, the country is built on very simple and pragmatic principles of liberty, justice and equality. She wanted to do her part to preserve them.
