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Veterans and Military Families
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Staff:
Name Role Email Phone
- Phil Carter Director pcarter@barackobama. com 312-343-9314
- Jonathan Freeman Dep. Director(V) jonathan. freeman@barackobama. com 917-592-0038
- Chris Henderson Intern veterans@barackobama. com None
- Heather Werner Intern heather. bohq@rustnroses. net None
Targets:
- Veterans nationally: 23. 8 million; 19. 0 million registered. (2007 census projection)
- 2, 533, 284 active duty, active reserve, and inactive reserve currently serve in military. This represents ~. 84% of the US population (2007 census projection)
- Key States for Veterans
- FL –1. 8 million veteran residents and over 109, 000 military personnel
- VA –over 780, 000 veteran residents and over 123, 000 military personnel
- CO –over 445, 000 veteran residents and over 50, 000 military personnel
- PA –more than 1. 2 million veterans, 5th highest veterans’ population in country
- NC –over 790, 000 veteran residents and over 125, 000 military personnel
- NV –over 235, 000 veteran residents and over 14, 000 military personnel
Achievements to date:
- Organizational Infrastructure.
o National Veterans Policy Committee. More than 40 members on a national veteran’s policy committee which has participated in high-level surrogate work, political outreach, convention operations, and other outreach.
o Generals / Admirals. More than 80 generals and admirals now endorse us
o Special Veteran Endorsers. We have a # of Medal of Honor winners, senior enlisted personnel, & prominent veteran’s advocates working as surrogates
o Next Generation Veterans for Obama. More than 40 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who represent the best and brightest of this generation, who are doing national surrogate work, outreach, and state-level grassroots organizing.
o Blue Star Families for Obama. National organization of military families for Obama which is organized at the national level and tied together via MyBO
- State Organizations
o Veterans for Obama chairs recruited, vetted and operating in 44 states plus DC.
o These grassroots organizations are connected with each state’s OFA or CFC organization, and taking direction from state constituency or political director
o Each state Veterans for Obama group has a MyBO site and a phone tree
o During last 60 days, state orgs will focus efforts on mobilizing manpower
- Veterans Vote Coordinators
- There are Veterans chairs for all regions and in states with the exception of MS.
- We have staff veterans vote directors in NC, FL, VA, CO, IN, MI and OH.
- Veterans outreach HQ is actively in contact with all other states constituency or political directors who have responsibility on veterans
Plan for the next 60 days:
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Important Dates and Events:
- 15 September: Rec. deadline to register for an absentee ballot (service members)
- 15-17 September: Air Force Association conference (DC). Will possibly deploy surrogate
- 20-22 Sept.: National Guard Association of the US (MD). Working to send Sen. Biden.
- 6-8 October: Assoc. of US Army convention (DC). Will deploy surrogate.
- 28-31 October: Navy League (Kansas City, MO). Speaker TBD.
Work Ahead:
- Grassroots Operations
o Build teams using mybo. com and donor database lists.
o Vet-to-vet phone banking by state and Veterans using Voter Activation Network
o Focus volunteer operations on key states & plan for massive mobilization for GOTV
o National Security fundraiser series in DC area
- BO / MO / JB Events
o Military families’ roundtables. We are currently working with MO staff to identify more locations and plan on including Dr. Biden in future events.
o Events in military communities, specifically key states with high veteran and active military populations. The focus should be on the issues that military can't afford four more years of Bush-McCain; it needs change and Obama-Biden leadership.
- Surrogate Operations
o Generals/Admirals & Special Vets: Push surrogates at national level and encourage states and local pull them speakers to key states for events. Also include senior surrogates in BO/MO/JB events and leverage them for paid and earned media.
o Next Gen Vets: Push out though new media. Use to highlight and support outreach to active duty population including absentee GOTV for deployed troops. We want to make sure they are part of the 'key state convoys' from safe to battleground states.
o Focus on veteran audiences and cross-group outreach like labor, students and seniors.
- Media
o Earned Media – Utilize all surrogates (generals/admirals, special veterans, and next generation vets) with media. Paid Media – We are prepared to provide veterans on demand for TV, web, and radio ads. New Media – Actively maintaining dynamic veterans/military family sites. Developing more videos with veterans for BarackTV. Want to use viral videos, emails, as well as active grassroots use of mybo. com
- Get Out The Vote
o Major online push for absentee voting by military personnel throughout September, focusing on deployed troops due to statistics showing heavy preference for Obama among these voters. Surge of veteran and military family manpower into key states and areas to support and provide further volunteers in GOTV efforts.
o Veteran’s policy committee is to funnel volunteers into key states for 5 days before Election Day. HQ personnel will assist GOTV efforts in VA, FL, CO, NC, and NV.
Goals:
- Voter Registration: Vet registration is usually significantly higher than national average – about 73. 9%. We plan to push voter registration in military communities through aggressive new media efforts, and by recommending paid media purchase on military blogs and websites, focusing on deployed service members due to extremely favorable fundraising statistics. (6: 1 deployed service members give to Obama)
- Dem. vs. Rep.: Plan to focus on military areas with message that Democrats have a strategy for victory in the war on terrorism, and that Democrats know how to take care of troops (see, e. g., new GI Bill and VA budget).
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