Report from the Ground in North Texas

[crispini]

In the last two weeks I have attended:
- a Bill Clinton rally in Tyler, Texas, about 2 hours east of Dallas.
- the Obama rally in Dallas
- and the Hillary rally today in Dallas.

I'd like to talk a little bit about what I saw at those rallies and the political landscape I am seeing in North Texas.

Bill in Tyler:
We only got the email about this event the night before. Maybe they wanted to keep it small. About 1,000 people turned out for this standing-room only rally. It was packed tight and it seemed very well organized. Campaign staff collected contact information from the crowd beforehand. Bill was only about half an hour late, and when he spoke, the first thing he told us was to go to the caucus. He got a lot of support from the crowd. Bringing the troops home got a big cheer. He spoke a lot about policies and programs and the state our country is in today. I wish he had spoken a bit more about Hillary as a person -- shared some personal anecdotes or something. Also, as he continued to speak, people did drift away. By the end of his speech, I would estimate about a fifth or a sixth of the crowd had left. Admittedly many had probably been standing for several hours, or had somewhere to go, but the crowd was noticeably thinner.

Overall, a solid campaign event, but not extraordinary.

Obama in Dallas:
This event was impressive for its sheer size: about 16,000. But also for its logistics. They had 300 volunteers and these volunteers were collecting contact information and giving everyone in the crowd a "ticket" which we actually were allowed to keep. This "ticket" had early voting locations and dates and times, not just for Dallas, but for four surrounding counties. There was a panoply of local Democratic officials attending: The DA, the sheriff, almost every Texas house representative, the DA, a state senator, and congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson. The speakers before Obama reminded us about the caucus, twice. Former mayor Ron Kirk and football champ Emmitt Smith really brought the 'star power' and of course, Obama himself had the crowd pretty much in the palm of his hand. He really is a wonderful speaker. There were plenty of specifics in his speech too.

Overall, an extremely impressive campaign event. We haven't seen anything like THAT down here in a looooooooooong time.

Hillary in Dallas:
First I'd like to point out that I'm quite sure she did not know about the fatality of the motorcycle officer before the rally. It is very sad and my heart goes out to his family.

We didn't hear about the event until last night. There were probably about 1000 people, all told. The parking lot was packed. However, nobody was collecting names and address and contact information. Also, there was no 'takeaway' for the crowd to tell people where to vote early, or to remind them of the caucus. Hillary herself did remind us of the caucus, but the speakers before her did not. Her speech was quite good -- she has some wonderful, very specific things to say, and the crowd loved her.

Again, overall, a solid campaign event, but the fact that the campaign didn't have a list of early voting locations to give out was not good. Also, the fact that they didn't collect contact information was not good either.

Outside of the rallies, in general, the people I know who are supporting Hillary are, by and large, some of the "old guard" party members who have been around for quite some time. The party regulars who are supporting Obama seem to be mostly the Deaniacs from 2004, some of whom have also been around a while, some of whom were new. And, the campaign is bringing out new people in droves. I mean, boatloads, busfuls, incredible amounts of new people. I have been used to going to Dem events and knowing half the people there. Nowadays, the Obama events are filled with fresh faces. Also it really does seem to me that the Obama grassroots is tearing it up. A search on Obama events 100 miles from my zip code gets 214 events. The same search on Hillary events gets 25.

I'm thinking Obama is going to do quite well at the caucuses.

[gateley]

1. I hear over and over such glowing reports of Obama's campaign staff and

volunteers. It says a lot about a candidate who can generate that much excitement in the populace and DOES spark hope in some of us old jaded souls.

I'd also heard that Hillary's campaign 'machine' was tight and very good - I wonder if what you observed is a result of her not having the money to spend that she once did.

I love reading these on-the-ground reports -- thanks!!

[crispini]

4. You're welcome!

I am having SO MUCH FUN. :D

Edited to add -- yes, it does take money and people and time to print up flyers and get them to a crowd. Perhaps that just got lost in the logistics of the event, but I would have thought that it should be a bit higher priority.

[Pirate Smile]

2. Thanks for the info and analysis.

:)

[jasmine621]

3. Thanks for the report.

It appears that Hillary's campaign folks have let her down. Realy sad. She needed to get more involved rather than allow Penn to screw things up. I wonder if he really wants Hillary to win?

[housewolf]

5. Thanks for the info and the grevoat report

I love reading about events going on across the country!

I heard a lot today about the so-called "failure" of Hillary's campaign being that the campaign organization didn't plan for anything beyond Super Tuesday and has been coming up short everywhere ever since. Insufficient planning, insufficient ground operations, untrained volunteers and not enough money to build it all in such a short time. Your report seems to bear that out. Contrast that with a report from an Obama event today in Texas where the attendees were invited to go across the street and cast their early-vote, were given 3 opportunities to volunteer and donate, and yard signs were available. They seem to be much better organized.

[RazBerryBeret]

6. great reviews!

very informative! I'm hoping to see Obama here in Ohio soon. hey, Texas and Ohio will be in the spotlight March 4th!

[Cha]

8. Have fun in the spotlight

..we'll be watching from New York and all over the country. Welcome to DU, RazBerryBeret!

[RazBerryBeret]

9. Thanks Zidzi!

I am so excited for this primary and election! I was a precinct leader for moveon in 04. that was a great experience, but I got so disgusted with the way things happened--Ohio and all. the polling place in my precinct was a church--and the minister called the sheriff on us 3 times, because he didn't want us there. we were totally legal, in the parking lot, correct distance from the door. we had people (repubs) yell at us, swear at us, flip us off...I'd never seen anything like it. the third time the Sheriff said he'd have to arrest us if we didn't pack it up in 10 minutes.

anyhow, glad to be here, hoping for the best --I feel we have a great chance this time!!

[skipos]

7. Thanks! nt

[FrenchieCat]

10. Thanks!

very insightful.

appears that there were 2,000 covered via Hill and Bill versus 16,000 covered by one Barack. Fascinating math.

[Scurrilous]

11. K & R

:kick:

[Raine]

12. Interesting

THANKS for the first hand report.

[izzybeans]

13. The "old guard" lost the former majority. We need new blood.

[Johnny__Motown]

14. Obama in Dallas did you say? well this is Houston sorry

This is a cut and paste from the Obama group

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=388x2739

[readmoreoften]

15. You can't compare a rally in the tiny town of Tyler to one in a major metropolis like Dallas.

Also, I'm not sure Hillary's constituency is of the MySpace generation. I wouldn't be surprised if her events were of the mail-in invite sort that my parents receive.

[crispini]

18. No, of course not.

The Hillary event was in Dallas, of course. But, beyond that, both the Hillary and Bill events were sent out to us at the last minute, and the only way I heard of them was via email. Perhaps that does account for the fairly light turnout. It does appear to me that they're not *trying* to do very large events. I don't know if that's a viable strategy or not. The main thing that disturbed me, from a campaign logistics / organization point of view, is that she had 1000 supporters there and did not collect any of their contact information in order to follow up with them, i.e. remind them to vote, ask them to volunteer, etc. Nor did she give supporters a takeaway reminder about where to go vote.

It occurs to me that the Hillary campaign may be relying on the folks with previous Democratic voting history. It's true, these folks do know "the system" and how to work it, and they will vote. However, this is Texas, so it strikes me as a dangerous strategy, because 1) we have an open primary and 2) we do not register people according to primary. So we have literally thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people who may very well consider themselves Democrats who have never voted in a primary. If she's relying on previous primary voters to pull her through, she's missing a lot of people.

[grantcart]

16. great report

[TexasObserver]

17. You are an awesome Texas Democrat!!

I got reports on Bill's swing through East Texas, and they were very similar to yours.

What you reported is happening all over the state. The Clinton campaign is vastly outmatched in terms of organization and campaign people to work events, as well the crowds.

[BringBigDogBack]

19. Thanks for the post.

I'm jealous! I would've liked to been at all three

[WolverineDG]

20. Sounds like here, crispy

although we haven't had a Barack appearance yet. :cry:

Anyway, Hillary made a speech here a few days ago. 1000 showed up. Not a large crowd, but not too shabby for a weekday morning appearance. The only one to mention the caucus was our local rep, who helpfully only told the crowd they could "vote twice." This lead to tons of calls to the TV stations & paper in town asking just what the hell he meant by that. So, the local elections admin was interviewed & he said it meant "vote once on primary day & once in November."

This wasn't corrected on air until the next day.

Still, there is no local Hillary office, no organized campaigning or events. And supposedly she needs our votes. :shrug:

dg

[flor de jasmim]

21. Thanks for the report! One thing that surprises me is....

people mention over and over the lack of organization in the Clinton campaign. Since practically everyone has access to a home printer, and paper is not generally in short supply, the LEAST they could have done was to ask volunteers to take printed information out to the voters. It is amazing that they haven't (even to steal the idea from the Obama campaign--they have had months to see what Obama does differently!). Whether it is lack of thought, lack of care, lack of awareness of the abilities of their volunteers, I don't know, but the lack of ability to learn and adjust is off-putting.