1/3/2015
source
- 'We're a built-to-last movement that's not going anywhere,' OFA executive and former Obama adviser Jim Messina said in an email to supporters
- OFA is offspring of Obama's presidential campaign apparatus, Organizing for Action, reconfigured in January of 2013 as he began his second term
- They staying power of OFA is unusual as no other president has maintained a campaign or grassroots operation during his time in office or afterward that is separate from the national party
Organizing for Action wants its supporters to know its around for the long haul and will continue on past the next set of election, even though its founder, Barack Obama, will be leaving the presidency.
'OFA is not a political campaign,' OFA executive and former Obama adviser Jim Messina said in an email to supporters, according to the Washington Examiner.
'We're a built-to-last movement that's not going anywhere. When the polls close and elections end, we're the ones still here, fighting for the principles we believe in.'
President Barack Obama delivers remarks on Obamacare at an Organizing for Action grassroots supporter event in Washington, D.C. in November 2013. OFA's website continues to reside at barackobama.com, and it manages the president's twitter account, despite describing itself as 'bigger than just one person or one cause. Likewise, the president often sends out messages on its behalf
OFA is offspring of Obama's presidential campaign apparatus, reconfigured in January of 2013 as he began his second and final term in the Oval Office.
Previously it went by the nation Organizing for America and its sole goal was to get Obama elected to higher office. After Obama's time as a candidate came to an end it took on the unofficial role as the grassroots arm of his administration. It now has more than 250 chapters around the country.
Billed as a non-partisan organization that doesn't directly support any candidates or political party, it's allegiance to the Democratic Party is evident and it openly advocates for the 'advancement of goals for progressive change at the federal, state, and local level.'
Comprehensive immigration reform, equal pay for equal work, climate change prevention, state and federal minimum wage increases, healthcare reform, gun violence prevention and paid family leave are mainstay issues for the grassroots organizing group just as they are for the Obama-led White House.
Its website continues to reside at barackobama.com, and it manages the president's twitter account, despite describing itself as 'bigger than just one person or one cause. Likewise, the president often sends out messages on its behalf.
In the last six days Obama sent out at least four emails to the group's listserv asking supporters to recommit their fidelity to both him and the group and the principles they espouse.
'It's because of folks like you that I'm able to give this everything I've got in the next two years,' Obama said in an email with the subject line 'I need to know you'll be there, too.'
'The work you do with groups like OFA is how we win real progress. There's a lot left to do, and it's no secret that we'll have our work cut out for us in Congress,' he told them.
Organizing for Action head Jim Messina, pictured with the president here at a March 2013 OFA event, told supporters in an email recently that 'OFA is not a political campaign' and it will continue to live on past the next election
In an even less subtle reference to Republicans gaining the gavel in both chambers of Congress, Obama made not of the soon-to-begin session of Congress in a message on Monday and said, 'I'm committed to working with anyone from either party to put the American people first. Still, I know there will be plenty of obstacles in our way.
'We've never let it stop us before -- on so many of the big issues we've taken on, from health care to immigration to climate change, we've made real, undeniable progress,' he said. 'And we're not done, as long as we keep fighting together.'
In a separate email Messina, Obama's 2012 campaign manager told the group, 'We are — and will continue to be — the sum of millions of grassroots voices calling for change.'
They staying power of OFA is unusual as no other president has maintained a campaign or grassroots operation during his time in office or afterward that is separate from the national party.
Progressive non-profit Center for American Progress, founded by former Bill Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta, did not launch until 2003 - a full two years after the Clintons moved out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And while supportive of the advocacy group's work, the former president and his wife are not directly affiliated with CAP.
Read more:
source
No comments:
Post a Comment