Obama’s grass-roots network builds Va. staff to promote agenda

They elected him to the White House, and now they're pushing his agenda.

Voters who made up President Barack Obama's corps of supporters are again huddling in living rooms and community centers, but this time, it's to promote the administration's political wish list.

Organizing for America, which is basically a transformation of the Obama campaign's grass-roots network, is building staff in Virginia as it prepares to organize community events across the state.

"In the'08 election, folks got a sense that, I think, had been lacking for some time -- that their voice and their vote mattered. We want to continue that energy," said OFA's recently named state director, Brandyn Keating.

"They can really play a key role in making the change they voted for in'08."

A few Virginia staffers were named Thursday, the day after Obama held his second town-hall meeting on health-care reform, this one in Annandale.

Recently, OFA community organizers say they held more than 50 events across the state to encourage supporters to volunteer for a local health-care cause.

On June 6, the group held get-togethers at a home in Chester and at a medical center in Richmond's East End as part of a national effort to get people on board with Obama's health-care plan.

OFA is a project operated out of the Democratic National Committee, which is led by Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine. Mitch Stewart, who served as Virginia state director for Obama for America in the general election, runs the national OFA.

"Organizing for America's effort to transfer the energy of President Obama's grass-roots campaign to supporting his agenda for change is something that has never been attempted before," Stewart said.

"In the weeks ahead, as Congress considers legislation to reform our nation's broken health-care system, OFA will be in a unique position to highlight how Virginia's families are struggling with the high costs of health care, and bring it to the forefront of that debate."

The effort not only keeps campaign volunteers in the loop, but it gives the president an organized base should he run for re-election in 2012.

Virginia OFA staff will continue to grow as they try to establish presence across the state. A "listening tour" is in the works to ask volunteers how the operation should function here, and staff is planning more health-care events for July 20 to 26, including phone banking and canvassing, according to Keating.

The Republican Party of Virginia is also working on expanding its presence in the commonwealth in preparation for the November gubernatorial election battle.

Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman with the state party, said its operation will be "particularly muscular."

"By the end of the week, we will have 20 different victory offices around Virginia with about 30 staff members. We feel pretty good about where we are on that."

Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or .