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Convention To Be A Voter Drive, Too

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The Associated Press

Published: July 31, 2008

DENVER - Those 75,000 Democrats who will pack a football stadium for Barack Obama's convention speech won't be there just to whoop and holler on television. They'll form the world's largest phone bank to boost voter registration: fired-up supporters using computer targeting the campaign has spent months putting together.

The move to the Invesco Field at Mile High stadium for the convention's final night next month - at an additional cost of $5 million - will capture a huge crowd the Obama campaign plans to put to work. They'll be armed with data gleaned through "microtargeting" unregistered voters the campaign thinks are ripe to back Obama if pressed to get on board.

"This convention is going to look different and feel different and be different," says Steve Hildebrand, the Obama adviser overseeing the effort, during a recent visit to Denver. "We're here to win an election, not throw a party."

One key to Obama's victory plan is to expand the electorate, bringing in more young voters, minorities, suburban women, seniors on fixed incomes and people who have been disaffected by politics and might respond to the freshman Illinois senator's message of change over the more experienced Republican John McCain.

The campaign is convening the 4,439 convention delegates in state-by-state meetings during the next couple of weeks, and they will be asked to commit hours each week before the Nov. 4 election to register voters and persuade them to back Obama. That includes delegates who supported Hillary Rodham Clinton, some of whom still have hard feelings from the primary but are being asked to work diligently for the ticket.

The delegates will be part of a massive audience expected at Invesco on Aug. 28, when Obama becomes the party's first black presidential nominee. The campaign wants to use the hype surrounding the historic moment to build a volunteer force in all 50 states.

The Democrats plan to hand out 60,000 stadium tickets to state party leaders, with instructions to distribute them in a way that helps drive up Obama's support.

"What has won elections for 200 years is a neighbor talking to a neighbor, some peer talking to a peer," said Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. "People need other people to do their validating, especially young voters who are more resistant to ads and mainstream media reports."

Enter the 75,000 people who will have to come hours early for Obama's acceptance speech to get through security, most carrying cell phones. As they settle in their seats, campaign aides will be on stage asking them to text message their friends and use call sheets to get people to register. "There will be a lot of idle time. We put idle people to work," Hildebrand said.

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