Feb. 2, 3008
Powerful Political Action Group Backs Barack
Moveon.org's 3.2 Million Members Vote Obama
By Tony Seaton
Huntingtonnews.net City Editor
Barack Obama became the first candidate offically endorsed by the progressive Internet-based political action group Moveon.org Friday, February 1, after clobbering Hillary Clinton by 40 percent in Internet balloting. Obama led the final tally 70.4% to 29.6%, clearing the supermajority required for the endorsement.
A voting ballot unique to each Moveon member was sent out in the past few days to the nearly 3.2 million members of the grassroots organization that started in 1998 as an email group in response to the impeachment of President Clinton.
Created by computer entrepreneurs Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, the married cofounders of Berkeley Systems, they started by passing around a petition asking Congress to "censure President Clinton and move on", as opposed to impeaching him
MoveOn, which has never endorsed a presidential candidate before, boasts that it has 1.7 million members in Super Tuesday states. The group has over half a million members in California alone – roughly one out of ten primary voters in Tuesday's largest state.
"We've learned that the key to achieving change in Washington without compromising core values is having a galvanized electorate to back you up," said Executive Director Eli Pariser, "and Barack Obama has our members 'fired up and ready to go' on that front."
Obama welcomed the endorsement on Friday. "In just a few years, the members of MoveOn have once again demonstrated that real change comes not from the top-down, but from the bottom-up. From their principled opposition to the Iraq war – a war I also opposed from the start – to their strong support for a number of progressive causes, MoveOn shows what Americans can achieve when we come together in a grassroots movement for change," he said in a statement. "I thank them for their support and look forward to working with their members in the weeks and months ahead," he added.
Moveon has raised millions of dollars for Democratic canidates around the country and backed Senator Robert Byrd's reelection bid for his 10th term in 2006. They were also behind the Stop The War peace rally held on steps of Huntington's City Hall last year.
Moveon also was a key mover behind the successful effort to get Democratic presidential contenders to boycott debates Fox News tried to organize and televise, leading to Fox News currently having dismal Neilsen ratings. as most of the excitment in this year's presidential campaign has been on the Democratic side.
Organizers said they would "immediately" begin mobilizing on behalf of Obama, leading turnout programs and phone-banking members of MoveOn in targeted states. The group made seven million "GOTV" calls for Democrats in the mid-term elections, and it has an extensive voter file database.
The decisive victory shows that Obama is consolidating support from the netroots in the wake of John Edwards' withdrawal. Obama also won the Edwards vote in Thursday's Daily Kos reader poll. He bounced 35 points to reach an all-time high of 71 percent, while Clinton held steady at 11 percent. If Super Tuesday is a tie and both campaigns brace for a protracted delegate hunt, Obama could draw fundraising, volunteers and advocacy from a united front of MoveOn, netroots activists and bloggers.
Matthew Smith, an Ohio MoveOn member who voted for Obama yesterday, said he was excited by the Obama's "ability to draw people to him, to energize people who generally don't vote [and] to create an atmosphere of long-overdue possibility."
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Moveon.org's 3.2 Million Members Vote Obama
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By Tony Seaton
Huntingtonnews.net City Editor
Barack Obama became the first candidate offically endorsed by the progressive Internet-based political action group Moveon.org Friday, February 1, after clobbering Hillary Clinton by 40 percent in Internet balloting. Obama led the final tally 70.4% to 29.6%, clearing the supermajority required for the endorsement.
A voting ballot unique to each Moveon member was sent out in the past few days to the nearly 3.2 million members of the grassroots organization that started in 1998 as an email group in response to the impeachment of President Clinton.
Created by computer entrepreneurs Joan Blades and Wes Boyd, the married cofounders of Berkeley Systems, they started by passing around a petition asking Congress to "censure President Clinton and move on", as opposed to impeaching him
MoveOn, which has never endorsed a presidential candidate before, boasts that it has 1.7 million members in Super Tuesday states. The group has over half a million members in California alone – roughly one out of ten primary voters in Tuesday's largest state.
"We've learned that the key to achieving change in Washington without compromising core values is having a galvanized electorate to back you up," said Executive Director Eli Pariser, "and Barack Obama has our members 'fired up and ready to go' on that front."
Obama welcomed the endorsement on Friday. "In just a few years, the members of MoveOn have once again demonstrated that real change comes not from the top-down, but from the bottom-up. From their principled opposition to the Iraq war – a war I also opposed from the start – to their strong support for a number of progressive causes, MoveOn shows what Americans can achieve when we come together in a grassroots movement for change," he said in a statement. "I thank them for their support and look forward to working with their members in the weeks and months ahead," he added.
Moveon has raised millions of dollars for Democratic canidates around the country and backed Senator Robert Byrd's reelection bid for his 10th term in 2006. They were also behind the Stop The War peace rally held on steps of Huntington's City Hall last year.
Moveon also was a key mover behind the successful effort to get Democratic presidential contenders to boycott debates Fox News tried to organize and televise, leading to Fox News currently having dismal Neilsen ratings. as most of the excitment in this year's presidential campaign has been on the Democratic side.
Organizers said they would "immediately" begin mobilizing on behalf of Obama, leading turnout programs and phone-banking members of MoveOn in targeted states. The group made seven million "GOTV" calls for Democrats in the mid-term elections, and it has an extensive voter file database.
The decisive victory shows that Obama is consolidating support from the netroots in the wake of John Edwards' withdrawal. Obama also won the Edwards vote in Thursday's Daily Kos reader poll. He bounced 35 points to reach an all-time high of 71 percent, while Clinton held steady at 11 percent. If Super Tuesday is a tie and both campaigns brace for a protracted delegate hunt, Obama could draw fundraising, volunteers and advocacy from a united front of MoveOn, netroots activists and bloggers.
Matthew Smith, an Ohio MoveOn member who voted for Obama yesterday, said he was excited by the Obama's "ability to draw people to him, to energize people who generally don't vote [and] to create an atmosphere of long-overdue possibility."
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