Spring Break
Obama campaign expecting record caucus numbers
Katy Hallock
Issue date: 2/4/08 Section: News
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"I'm really sorry for the mess," a staffer said of the new Fort Collins Barack Obama campaign office. "When (we) first came, (we) organized and filed things."
The campaign office, which now occupies the old building, has bustled since mid-January with growing anxiety for Feb. 5, when Colorado and 23 other states will choose their presidential candidate.
In the parking lot, most cars are plastered with Obama bumper stickers. Posters, stickers and shirts line the walls just inside the door. The volunteers and staff are covered in Obama campaign merchandise.
The office is full of flyers about the candidate and his idealistic policies on everything from women's rights to the war in Iraq.
Fort Collins residents, college students, business people, housewives and staff from all over the country make phone calls to advocate political participation to Fort Collins registered Democrats and to make sure they will caucus on Tuesday, be it for Obama or another candidate.
The average day in the life of a campaign staffer consists of arriving at the office in the early morning to coordinate volunteers for the day, making phone calls by 9 a.m. and sending literature via snail-mail until about midnight.
The building even has what the staff calls a "toy room" where many CSU students make calls in a much louder, rambunctious environment.
The prison cell-sized room, designed to hold three people, held about ten students Thursday afternoon. They all shared one computer and three phones and joked with one another while making calls.
Obama campaigners for the most part work at the office around the clock with very few breaks. It's a constantly moving environment. But everyone stays light-hearted despite the lack of sleep.
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