About 200 hundred enthusiastic Democrats packed a downtown Eugene storefront late last week for the opening of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign’s regional field office, the sixth for the Obama campaign statewide.
The following day, Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign opened its headquarters in Oregon City, signaling that the presidential race is headed back to the state.
The grand opening of the Lane County field office at 150 West Broadway attracted what has become the norm for the Illinois senator: a diverse group of people in terms of age, sex, race and dress, all willing to cram together in sweltering heat.
“This is a camp that is truly on the move,” said Nancy Weber, a volunteer who has traveled with the Obama campaign since January. “And I think it is often not because of a single issue, but because of the content of this man’s character.”
The most recent Rasmussen Reports poll of Oregon voters in mid-July showed Obama leading McCain among likely voters, 46 percent to 37.
Local politicians hope to benefit from a slew of new Democratic voters. On Thursday, Mayor Kitty Piercy, State Sen. Floyd Prozanski and State Superintendent Susan Castillo all spoke at the Eugene Opening.
“We’ve been through a very difficult time in this country,” Piercy said. Republicans will engage in “Rovean tactics,” she said in reference to President George W. Bush’s former strategist Karl Rove. She asked those in attendance to do their part to combat attacks.
“And I’m going to be selfish enough to say, ‘Vote down the ticket, folks,’” she said.
Embroiled in her own expensive and hotly-contested run-off race with former Mayor Jim Torrey, Piercy said that though her office is non-partisan, “you bring your values with you.”
Piercy and others asked the crowd to volunteer for the campaign and to leave handprints on a wall with an Obama logo as a symbol of unity.
A 10-year-old from a local Montessori school named Cedar, who asked that his last name not be printed, was the first to place his print on the wall.
Cedar said he began volunteering for the campaign when he bought an Obama button at Saturday Market and was asked if he would like to canvass for voters.
“I’m probably going to keep volunteering until the election’s over and Obama wins, which he will,” Cedar said. He supports Obama because he “appears to not be corrupt like most other politicians. He knows what’s good for our country, because I’ve read his education plan.”
The plan includes the recommendation that children should read a book instead of watching 10 hours of television each day, Cedar said.
The fifth-grader might run for office some day himself, he said. “If I can manage to make myself famous (so) that I have a chance at winning. But I don’t want to end up like Dennis Kucinich. I’d vote for him in a second, but he’s never going to win.”
[email protected]