Congratulations, Jackie Cornell-Bechelli, NJ State Director for Obama's Re-Election Campaign

by: Rosi Efthim

Wed Jan 04, 2012 at 05:51:00 PM EST

Today, we learn that Jackie Cornell-Bechelli has been named the President's State Director for NJ. Jackie put time into Organizing for America (OFA) as NJ State Director after Obama's campaign morphed into the OFA structure. I'm not a fan of OFA, which always struck me as trying hard to look like a bottom-up organizing effort when it was actually quite the opposite. And not a fan of curtailing DNC's wildly-successful 50-State Strategy (under which we took the White House, and both Houses of Congress, and many state & local offices) in favor of OFA's expensive concentration on the fortunes of just one candidate, the President. That said, it makes sense that Obama's re-election campaign rely on somebody already "in the family" who is both known and appreciated by the Obama campaign structure.

Plus, Jackie Cornell-Bechelli also spent a year as New Jersey Citizen Action's Political Director, a well-staffed citizen watchdog organization I admire. She leaves that job for the Obama position. For 7 years, she also worked for Planned Parenthood, for which organization every woman I know is grateful.

It's a struggle to suppress my dissatisfaction with the President's first term. Well, until I look at the GOP alternatives, particularly the clown car passenger who nearly won the Iowa caucuses last night. And Romney hisself, who has yet to rise above platitude and the reciting of patriotic song lyrics (as one @BlueJersey Twitter follower pointed out, bet we won't hear 'ole Mittens recite Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land on the stump).

Congratulations to Jackie Cornell-Bechelli. We'll be interested to see how she intends to wean New Jersey away from Chris Christie's idea of the best direction.  

What is Jon Runyan Hiding?

by: deciminyan

Wed Aug 17, 2011 at 09:38:47 AM EDT

In a representative government, our legislators are supposed to support all the people, not just those who voted for them or plied them with cash contributions. It's easy for Runyan to appear before a friendly audience, but he is shirking his responsibilities by refusing to listen to his constituents and answer the difficult questions.

In response to a question about public meetings, one of Runyan's aides sent this e-mail to a constituent:

Tell the Democrats.

by: Rosi Efthim

Tue Nov 23, 2010 at 03:10:04 PM EST

I'm on record here as a non-fan of the deconstruction of 50-State Strategy, and its replacement Organizing for America, which looks grassroots but isn't, and seems to take a cookie-cutter approach, with a prime directive of protecting President Obama's position, no matter whether it's right or wrong. Problem is, I've learned to expect more of my Party. Don't get me wrong. People who come running when OFA calls an action are awesome; I'm sure state leaders are too. My issues are with whether OFA empowers people for change, or just uses their power for aims that don't reflect those folks. Nevertheless, this survey came via OFA. I was glad to get it.

It never asked where on the spectrum my politics lie. On the first page (takes less than 5 min. from soup to nuts) it wants you to self identify: Are you African-American? Native American or Alaskan? Entrepreneur? LGBT? Student? Educator? Labor? Vet? All well and good, but I'm a progressive. That's my prime directive, but thanks. Also asked: How you feel about OFA? Were your expectations of OFA high or low? Were they met?

Also - what resources you'd have liked to see OFA provide that you didn't already have, what new goals OFA should tackle, your comments how OFA should go about achieving the goals you suggest. All good questions. I said I hoped to see a return to better uses of the national voter file, that if local organizers no longer had access, they couldn't feed new info in, keeping it fresh, with more detail about what voters are concerned with.

Asked for an overall assessment, I said this:

DNC (via White House) made a poor decision dismantling 50-State Strategy and putting in its place the fake-grassroots, top-down organizational structure which has as its main goal protecting the President's position. The party should be doing much more than that.

Click SUBMIT and you land on a page asking for money. But I don't have a problem with that. It's what the national party should be doing, and I like the fact that an amount as low as $10 is suggested. The great power of the tubes makes requests like that possible without the investment of a direct mail or farmed-out dialing-for-dollars company that has to generate a certain level of raising just to stay afloat. Yay, internet.  

President Barack Obama rallies Democrats

by: Rosi Efthim

Tue Oct 12, 2010 at 07:02:56 PM EDT

On OFA and the Democratic Leadership

by: Hopeful

Fri Jun 11, 2010 at 02:55:02 PM EDT

The transition from being an outside-the-establishment campaign organization to being an inside-the-establishment policy promoter has not been an easy one for O.F.A. The first year was marked by widespread frustration, as volunteers tried to get their heads around the arcane changes in, say, the health care bill as it meandered its way through Congress, while simultaneously being urged not to attack members of their own party who wavered on the agenda. "Sometimes the lack of tangibility can be distressing for people," Plouffe told me. "Because they'll go out there and say: 'I worked hard. I had a press conference. I had all these people write letters to the editor. And my member of Congress voted against health care. It didn't seem to matter.' That's reality, unfortunately.

I don't doubt that some could be disappointed by this -- I was pre-disappointed and didn't waste my time on LoBiondo much. But Bai points at a much bigger problem for Plouffe. What does Plouffe think bloggers, journalists, and anyone paying attention thought when we got press releases and e-mail messages urging us to pressure Frank LoBiondo and Leonard Lance but nothing on John Adler? The important "reality" is not that Leonard Lance isn't afraid of OFA volunteers, but that OFA didn't seem to really care about the agenda. If OFA did care, they'd have pushed Adler. I think it's part of the reason health care remains weak in the polls. (As for the "arcane changes," Bai is being too polite as it was all too clear that Obama reversed himself on what were high-profile issues in the primary and general elections.)

I think there's a lesson there for Menendez and the DSCC too, sending out memos that many take to be attacking unions. Praise your nominee in Arkansas, by all means, but watch who you are attacking. I'm sure your spirits are high that the Chamber of Commerce helped your candidate, but they won't be there in the fall, and most of their ideas are terrible anyway. When the message is that what you do and how you vote is not important as long as you're already in the establishment, failure will follow quickly. It'll be all the quicker when you adopt Republican policies.

OFA to open NJ HQ on Saturday

by: Jason Springer

Thu Dec 10, 2009 at 01:00:00 PM EST

"OFA is excited to establish its New Jersey headquarters in New Brunswick. New Brunswick is a fitting home to continue the grassroots effort to ensure the voices of New Jersey residents are heard in Washington on important issues like the need for health insurance reform," said Samantha Gordon, OFA state director. "OFA's headquarters will serve as the basis for OFA's statewide operation in New Jersey and as place for local phone banks, canvasses and community events."

Hey, Organizing for America - What the hell?

by: Rosi Efthim

Sat Nov 07, 2009 at 08:42:17 PM EST

Obama voters in 31 other districts got the same email, districts Obama won but have GOP congressmen. But it's a complete waste of time to call Republicans, and the DNC/OFA knows it. This is a muscle-flex for the GOP. They've spent all day, in some ridiculous, dramatic and even toddler-juggling vignettes, telling you they're voting no. So why is OFA trying to get you to waste your time on Lance & LoBiondo when you could be calling an actual Democrat who plans to vote no on Public Option?

As Scott pointed out today, with the GOP unanimous, if this is to pass, all the 218 votes have to come out of the Democratic caucus. And Rep. John Adler (NJ-3) is one Democrat threatening to vote no.

In fact, our friends at AFSCME have an easy tool for you Adler constituents to call him now. Just click the green flashing ad to the right of this diary.

OFA is making some very questionable decisions. This is the 2nd thing I've heard just today that makes me wonder what the hell they're thinking over there. The first is news that OFA contacted Maine voters and assigned them voters in NJ to call (read the email) apparently never mentioning the vote on the same day for marriage equality - in their own state!. That email supposedly benefitted NJ, but I don't care. We lost on marriage equality in Maine. I've emailed DNC on this, and if their answer adds to the discussion, I'll print it.

Public option on C-SPAN - right now.