Obama for America registered more new voters in N.C. than anywhere

National Democratic officials say North Carolina will remain a key target through the fall.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic chair, said the party and the Obama campaign have made major efforts to win the state for President Barack Obama.

“The reason we are going to win North Carolina is because of how well-organized we are here,” Shultz told a North Carolina delegation breakfast Thursday morning. “We began organizing in 2008, and we never left. The Obama for America organizers have registered more new voters here than any state in the country.”

David Simas, the Obama campaign’s national director for opinion research, said Obama’s North Carolina organization is the most active in the country in measurable terms.

“Every Monday morning when I am at my desk in Chicago and get the statistics back on how many conversations have occurred, how many doors have been knocked, how many phones have been called, how many votes have been registered, North Carolina blows away everyone. It’s not even close.”

He said the Republicans have still not realized that North Carolina politics has undergone a shift.

“To this day,” Simas said, “they do not believe that North Carolina is a swing state. They believe North Carolina is a red state. North Carolina will be a swing state not only for this election but for the election after that, for the election that, and for election after that.” (Raleigh) News & Observer

Local, state candidates get convention bounce

National political conventions are about building momentum and support for a presidential nominee. But for candidates running for local and state offices, they’re also about building support for their own campaigns.

Pat Cotham, a Democrat seeking an at-large seat on the Mecklenburg County Board of County Commissioners, networked with local supporters and met potential donors this week.

Matthew Ridenhour, a Republican running for county commission in District 5, learned some campaign strategies at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., last week.

And Jack Brosch, 54, a Republican opposing Democratic U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, raised “a little bit of money,” while also in Tampa.

Though she has not aggressively campaigned, Cotham said fellow delegates from North Carolina this week have come up to her and asked about her campaign.

“I tell them the convention is the focus this week; I’m focused on the president,” said Cotham, who is also a member of the Democratic National Committee. But she will follow up with supporters and people who have said they’d make a contribution to her campaign.

Brosch, 54, met some of the party leadership during the RNC last week in addition to raising money. He found people – including North Carolina delegates outside his district – who said they would support him by working phone banks, knocking on doors and hosting meet-and-greets for his campaign. Overall, he said, he met 150 new people. Carmen Cusido

Fired up and ready, but late to the party

Early Thursday afternoon, Rock Hill’s Bump Roddey was about to head to Time Warner Cable Arena so he wouldn’t get “left out.”

Hard to blame him, because that’s just what happened Wednesday, when Roddey arrived at the arena for the second night of the Democratic National Convention to find that security wasn’t letting anyone else in.

“I could have come to the arena earlier,” he said. “I was on schedule, but apparently I was behind schedule.”

Roddey had stopped by a reception before heading to the convention activities, which concluded Thursday night when President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden accepted their party’s re-nomination.

As a result, Roddey missed all of Wednesday’s speakers – including President Bill Clinton’s rousing discourse – and the delegates’ roll call, where each state took turns casting its votes.

The South Carolina delegates who managed to make it to their seats – located to the left of the stage near the delegations of Puerto Rico, Washington and Montana – stayed long after Clinton spoke and well after midnight to cast their votes for Obama and Biden.

Edith Childs of Greenwood acted as spokesperson for the S.C. delegation, casting the votes after leading the delegation in a chant of, “Fired up! Ready to go!” Childs used the civil rights-era chant to rally volunteers setting out to register voters, and started a round at a 2008 Obama campaign stop. It caught on and Obama has often used it since. (Rock Hill) Herald

Rep. Clyburn echoes JFK in speech

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn echoed former President John Kennedy in his speech to the Democratic National Convention Thursday, saying President Barack Obama has taken the country out of darkness “only to see Republicans douse the flickering flames and amuse themselves cursing the darkness.”

In his 1960 speech accepting the Democratic nomination, Kennedy said, “We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us through that darkness.” Clyburn’s speech went on to cite the “candles” that Obama has lit during his presidency, including killing Osama bin Laden, ending the war in Iraq and passing health care reform.

“We should not run from the term Obamacare,” Clyburn said. “In fact, I embrace the term and am glad Obama cares.”

Clyburn of Columbia, S.C., was the only South Carolina Democrat to speak during the three-day convention. Last week, U.S. Rep. Tim Scott of North Charleston, S.C., and Gov. Nikki Haley of Lexington, S.C., addressed the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. The (Columbia) State

DNC interlopers head for N.C. good seats

Because North Carolina Democrats have such a sweet spot at the front of the convention floor, they have had problems with interlopers sitting in temporarily empty chairs.

David Parker, the state Democratic Party chairman, told the delegates they should challenge unfamiliar people with a password, or security question, of sorts. Ask them what county they are from, he suggested, and then ask them to name the county seat.

Of course, Parker said, it only works if you actually know the names of the county seats of all 100 counties. N&O