Having friends in high places can be an asset—particularly when that friend is president-elect Barack Obama. This morning, National Public Radio began a series on the impact of grassroots organizing efforts on the Obama administration—and started with Charlottesville’s own Virginia Organizing Project.
With a more sympathetic ear in the White House, VOP Executive Director Joe Szakos is pushing advocates, used to working at the state and local level, to go national. Organizers have decided to travel to Washington D.C. every week for the first 100 days of the new administration. With the help of national databases, like the Voter Activation Network, organizing and personalizing voters’ sentiments got a lot easier. The most effective tool, however, is still the old knock on the door.
"In the past, a lot of elected officials just refused to meet with you," Szakos told NPR. "And what we found is we’ve switched their political calculator a little bit, because there’s almost a direct relationship: The more doors you knock on, the easier it’s going to be to get that meeting."