OFA: 300K Calls to Congress Tuesday

by: peacemonger

Wed Oct 21, 2009 at 01:59:46 AM MDT

Your voice was overwhelming -- with reports in the media of congressional offices "completely crushed with calls." CBS News described your effort as an "onslaught." And a congressional aide was quoted with a common response, saying their office was deluged by "pretty much non-stop health care calls from OFA.

OFA set an ambitious goal of 100,000 calls to Congress, and by 2:30pm eastern, a new goal of 200,000 was set.  At several points throughout the day, all phone numbers to CO legislators were busy. The Colorado Democratic Party Headquarters, home of the CO OFA, was hopping with volunteers making hundreds of calls, tying up all the phones in the process.  Many Obama supporters responded to robodial calls and emails urging them to contact their Member of Congress by emailing them instead. Twitter had so many tweets, it asked people to come back later.  

Senator Udall's voice mailboxes filled up quickly (what else is new?).  Doug Lamborn and Mike Coffman's staffs were on-the-ball to answer their phones with something that sounded to this blogger like, "Office of Congressman _________, whatever you want the answer is still 'No'".

Not to be forgotten were the other groups that also made calls such as "Colorado Change That Works", "Health Care for All Colorado", "MoveOn.org", etc. "Change That Works" set up an easy "one stop calling" phone number members could use to make all three calls, with brief suggestions on what to say. When mailboxes were full, calls were re-routed to mailboxes in rural areas.

Westminster City Council candidate Aurita Apodaca, Change That Works staffer Cammie Pavesic, and organizer Diana Caille ran a contest on facebook, messaging people to ask them to stop what they were doing to make calls. Their facebooking generated 436 calls, and the winner, Aurita Apodaca, won a "golden clipboard" (an honor only a community organizer can appreciate fully).

From Ft. Collins to Pueblo, from Grand Junction to Julesburg, community organizers were making calls and keeping track. Organizers closed the calling day saying, "If you didn't get through today, do it tomorrow". (Why not do it everyday?)

Congratulations to Colorado's progressive community and to OFA leaders Gabe Lifton-Zoline, Jennifery Cheyne, Noah Glusenkamp and others, for a very successful event. Let's hope it registered with the  people who matter.

Oh, and keep calling. Tell them you blog, you donate and you organize (the three things legislators fear most), and you appreciate their work on your behalf.  

Senator Michael Bennet
702 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5852

Senator Mark Udall
317 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5941

House of Representatives links