Cathy Wittel is a resident of the state of Washington. Her volunteer work for Hillary did not stop after the Washington Caucus. She chose to stay connected to the campaign by traveling to other states. I will be sharing her experiences a little here, and more on our blogs.

Cathy traveled to Texas, and eventhough TX is also a caucus state, her blog entries reveal to us that it is a whole different world in Texas! In April, she will be traveling to Pennsylvania to work for the campaign there. Click on the blog icon to the left of the title on this page to read the rest………

Volunteer To Travel

If you want to enjoy the excitement of being on the ‘front lines’ of the campaign, then maybe you would be willing to travel to volunteer for Hillary in other states. You can volunteer and find out more information on the Hillary Clinton website, here:
–> Travel For Hillary Clinton

BLOGGING FROM TEXAS
By Cathy
(A Clinton Volunteer from Redmond, Washington)
Feb 28 – Mar 4, 2008

Thursday Feb 28 2008
Hi Y’all,

After traveling all morning, I arrived in Austin at 1:45 pm today and was busy at work at the Hillary Headquarters by 2:30 pm. They didn’t waste any time getting my assignments to me. The Headquarters is in sort of an industrial area next to a discount furniture outlet, not what I had expected, but perfectly suitable. It is an organized chaos of very excited Hillary supporters. Phone banking is going on with a different sort of a script than what is online. Apparently Bill Clinton was here yesterday and helped to inspire the troops.

There are so many people here who love Hillary. I was out at an early vote location today recruiting voters, and so many people honking their horns giving me the “thumbs up” sign (I’m assuming “thumbs up” means the same thing here in Austin as it does in Seattle).

Most of the voters here are unaware of the way delegates are apportioned in Texas. Two-thirds of the delegates are awarded according to the results of the voting primary. Then, as soon as the polls close on Tues, Mar 4th, a caucus convention is held at each precinct. One third of the delegates are awarded according to the caucus results. An important effort is underway to educate people about the importance of caucus and there is a lot of confusion about that. There is also “early voting” — which is voting at specified locations. The last day for early voting is tomorrow, Fri, Feb 29th, so we will be out in force trying to get people to vote early and encourage them to show up for caucusing on Tues, Mar 4th.

I have had the most wonderful partner today (and hope to get her tomorrow). Her name is Graciela. She is a powerhouse and an inspiration to me. She has made me feel so welcome in Texas and said I can’t go home without making sure I get the best Mexican food in Texas, so we’ll go there one evening this week.

People have been arriving from all over the last few days. I have met other volunteers from Florida, Tennessee, Maryland, Massachusetts, Colorado, Oregon, California, and Nevada. The mood is electric and everyone exhibits an absolute determination to get this job done.

One of the ways I have been most helpful is talking to supporters about our experiences at the caucus in Washington. Graciela is now going to bring an extra “5″ people with her. I emphasized it would probably be a lot easier to bring extra bodies who will vote for Hillary than to try to convince others at the caucus.

I am inspired being here, the weather is beautiful, the people are beautiful, and there is no place I would rather be right now. I’m tired because I have been up since 3:30 this morning. My offer still stands for anyone who would like to join me. I am in a room at Homestead Suites with a refrigerator, microwave, and small stove.

I better get in bed and get rested up. Tomorrow we staff the early voting locations and shuttle people to the polls. Tomorrow is the last day for early voting, so this is an important time.

Keep making the canvassing phone calls — it is an invaluable contribution.

Cathy

Friday Feb 29 2008
It has been a very long day. We have been contacting precinct chairs and offering training to make sure they understand what to expect at the caucus (they call it the precinct convention) and how to hold on to their Hillary delegates. Texas has been doing this “part primary/part caucus” for more than 20 years, but this is the first time the caucus will have any significance.

I am amazed at the large majority of voters we have contacted that know nothing of the caucus, and yet it is where one-third of the delegates are decided.

Hillary and Obama are in a dead heat here in Texas, though people continue to be surprised when we bring up the facts. Austin is a more liberal part of Texas and the war in Iraq seems to be the biggest concern. In talking to an Obama precinct chairperson today who seemed very well informed, I commented to him that he was obviously well informed and so how did we reconcile the fact that since being in the Senate Obama’s votes on Iraq have only been to support the war. He voted for funding of the war as did Hillary. However, he continues to croon on in Texas how is the only candidate who has been against the war since the beginning. The precinct fellow I was talking to was very quiet and then said he would have to check it himself. Amazing.

There is a huge difference in the caucus process in Texas compared to Washington. Each precinct is assigned a chairperson and then a precinct “captain” for each candidate. In addition, there are Precinct Judges who oversee the entire process and are represented by each party. After reading and attending the Texas caucus training, it makes me realize how slack and unstructured the Washington caucus is. It sort of seems anything goes in Washington including mishandling of ballotting and unethical attempts to prevent people from speaking (you all know what I’m talking about). In Texas, there are about 3 layers of checks, the precinct chair, the precinct captains, and the precinct judges, as well as the regional judges. Only Democrats are allowed to participate in the caucus and to do so they must have voted in the primary and voted for a Democrat. They receive a stamped ticket that allows them into the caucus. The caucus is held immediately after the polls close at 7 pm and is carefully watched by judges who are not allowed to vote in their precinct.

I have been asked to share my experiences at our caucus continued to do so today during the training. The Hillary supporters are very hungry for information and are all concerned about making sure they get it right. We will be working all day long on election day transporting people to the polls but specifically between 6:30 and 7:00 pm to the precinct conventions.

The people here are very warm and friendly, and I am touched by the diversity of people here at the headquarters. Each day we team up and today I was teamed with two African Americans, one Hispanic lady, and a guy who looked like a healthy Texas football player but I later found out had been diagnosed with HIV 3 years ago. I especially appreciated hearing all the different perspectives. We aren’t being teamed up in a purposely way, but instead by just moving into a table or group, and it has been an amazing experience.

The volunteer effort is amazing. We have people bringing in lots of food to headquarters throughout the day — they are feeing 300 to 900 people each day. There is a guy who is in charge of all the food, drinks and organizing the tables and he is wonderful. I know how tired he must be because he is there from 8:30 am each morning until 9:30 pm at night and then does clean up afterwards. The dedication is very inspiring.

There is a huge contingency of female students from UT Austin who are supporting Hillary and are they ever focused and efficient. Dang I like watching those young women pulling everyone together and running their own show.

Today was the last day anyone could early vote, and we made our last efforts to get out the vote to those early voting places. Tomorrow we step up efforts at block walking with literature drops and door knocking, then on for visibility events in the evening. Sunday will be much of the same and also providing more caucus training. Monday will be an all-out blitz to re-contact known supporters and schedule transportation.

If I do go to San Antonio, it will probably be Monday, but my help here is badly needed, so I may end up staying in Austin.

Sorry if this seems sort of rambling — I’m writing this late at night after a long day. I am so happy to be here and feel fortunate to have a chance to work for Hillary’s campaign here at the ground level in Texas.

As always, the media loves Obama. When he is ahead by 1 point, they say he is ahead. If Hillary is ahead by one point, they say it is a dead heat — go figure.

The sun is still shining!!!!
Cathy

Saturday Mar 1 2008
Today was a great day at Headquarters in Austin. We finished phoning every precinct chairperson in Texas — there were 800 pages of names and numbers and every single one was called. There are around 1000 out-of-state volunteers. Today the tables were filled with workers from all over the country and a lot of energy. I stopped looking at the polls because I realized it does not have any bearing on what I’m doing.

It was amazing once again the diversity of people just walking into the office, asking what they can do to help. I picked up a huge batch of stakes at Home Depot and a group of guys in the warehouse were putting signs together as fast they could. There are visibility events all over Austin by the Hillary supporters and I believe they outnumber the Obama events. It could be my imagination, but amongst men, Hillary sure does have a lot more support from Hispanic males of all ages. And they don’t seem to have a problem with supporting a woman for president.

A TV crew showed up today and said they had been traveling around the country to many of the campaign locations and that the Austin Headquarters was by far the busiest, most exciting and populated headquarters they had seen. Also it was their perception that the Obama camp did not have nearly as many out-of-state volunteers as the Hillary campaign.

There were several training sessions offered at headquarters for precinct captains and chairs as well as others who are interested in learning about the caucus (they call it the precinct convention).

There has been a huge change in the number of people who are now informed about the caucus process. A few days ago, it seemed anyone we contacted was unaware that there was such a thing as the caucus. Now when we call people, most are now at least somewhat informed and wanting to know where to go to caucus.

I met up with Emma Margraf from Ballard and we are sharing a room at the Homewood Suites. She is working long hours with scheduling and placing out-of-state volunteers.

We had dinner tonight at a Mexican restaurant with one of my favorite people in Austin, Graciela Soliz. She is amazing and makes all of us out-of-staters feel very welcome.

My plumbing skills were put to good use today. With the hundreds of volunteers in the headquarters, the plumbing has been stressed. There were two toilets out of order and they said they needed new mechanisms. They were waiting for someone to come fix them when I volunteered my plumbing skills. I have some pretty good plumbing experience from my own work on our home and condo and was able to get two of the broken toilets working and then will get the part for the other toilet tomorrow. Well, I didn’t think I would get a big cheer and a thanks for being a toilet worker, but it was pretty cool.

It was very sunny today again — I feel very energized during the day and very tired at night, so I’ll get moving and get to bed.

Cathy

Sunday Mar 2 2008
Wow, only 2 more days to go! Today I spent a good portion of the day passing out tickets for the Hillary rally in Austin for Monday, Mar 3rd. It will be held at Berger Activity Center — a very large venue. I was assigned to a HUGE event that was going on in Zilker Park in Austin — the kite festival. It was a huge crowd, mostly college age and it was a tough crowd, but I stuck it out. I was thrown out twice by the park manager who told me I could not be there and could not pass out literature. After I went back the second time there was a woman there who had staked an Obama sign in the park and was passing out literature standing next to the “park manager” — John Wright is his name. I decided to ignore it and just get back to work.

By the end of the day, I had a good experience with lots of support. At 5 pm, I went back to headquarters and phone banked until 9 pm.

Here is the funniest thing that happened today and I hope everyone enjoys it: The supply people loaded me up with literature and tickets to the event. I was wearing a Hillary shirt but had given my button away, so they gave me another one, pinned it on me and sent me on my way. Throughout the day I noticed people were staring at my button and I assumed it was because they were noticing which candidate I was supporting. After taking the button off at the end of the day, I saw it said in big letters “African Americans for Hillary.” Not one person questioned me on my button, but I did get a lot of stares. I guess we all have our ancient roots in Africa.

We have VIP seating at the rally tomorrow and I will be there early to help set up. Also, at 7 am I will be out with a large group at a “visibility event” waving Hillary signs for the morning commuter traffic.

I am a little sunburned today, but feeling we are making progress. Seattle’s caucus process is so horrible compared to this and we certainly were not as organized. We have lots of Hillary precinct captains who have phone banked the entire precinct and are brining in 20, 30, 40, and 50 extra people. This is the first caucus for most Texans. It has been around for more than 20 years but apparently the nominee has already been determined before the Texas primary, so nobody attends the caucus. This year is different and we’ll see what our efforts have reaped.

I’m getting to bed a little early tonight. I plan to party Tuesday night after all the caucuses are done, but for now am trying to keep it going.

Keep up the phoning — it helps — even when people are hanging up on you.

Monday Mar 3 2008
Okay, maybe I’m being a little giddy, but it sure seems like things have changed here in Texas. Two or three days ago, everyone we talked to was so confused and were making assumptions based on a lot of media distortion.

Yesterday and today, almost every person I talked to understood a lot more about the primary and the caucus as being two separate events and also started questioning us on what does Clinton have to say about ….. Even a few days ago, people didn’t even ask, they just assumed. The feeling is very positive. I have refused to look at any polls because they have no bearing on what I’m doing and are more of a distraction. I think Texas is going to break this thing wide open for Hillary.

My schedule today included a visiblity event at 7:00 am in the pouring rain where we held up signs for rush hour traffic and got pretty wet. We were visited by the mayor of San Francisco, who seemed so nice. I then went into the office and worked on replacing some parts in the toilets at headquarters for about 30 minutes — wooo hooooo — we got the entire bathroom back up and running. I then had to take a number of people out to the town hall session with Hillary. I helped two precinct chairs phone all of the voters in their precincts — it felt great and was very successful. My approach was that I was calling for his/her neighbor who was a precinct chair — people liked the idea that it was a neighbor thing rather than a large campaign calling them. I then worked at the rally for Hillary. My job was checking tickets and shuttling people into the right areas. There was a huge crowd and Hillary looked great — refreshed, positive, strong. I understand the town hall was also excellent. She was on the Jon Stewart show and did great. Jon Stewart can be pretty intimidating, but Hillary kept it light and interspersed with response to real issues.

Movie stars came to the headquarters today. Melanie Griffith, Christine Lahti, the former Miss America, and some others — can’t remember. It was a little surreal. It seemed weird in that we had so much work to do, but had to stop to cheer on the movie stars. It was a little funny, but everyone sure seemed to enjoy the visit.

Sunday was such a tough assignment for me out at the kite festival, and today was much better — I felt like I made a solid contribution to the cause. I asked the waitress at the diner if she had voted yet. After I found out she was voting for Obama, we talked about it. She actually wants to go to the caucus and put her vote in for Hillary. I called her back this evening with her polling location (South Austin Recreation Center), and I told it would be a good way to take part of her vote back which she decided she wants to do. She said she did not realize Obama never voted against the war because that was her whole reason for supporting him. She thought he was the only senator who voted against the war. Weird!

I am getting some fallout for wearing the “African Americans for Hillary” button the other day and one of the African American precinct chairs thinks I should be assigned to his precinct tomorrow since we African Americans need to stick together (for those of you who do not know, I am pretty darned white but had mistakenly worn an “African Americans for Hillary” button all day on Sunday).

My assignment tomorrow: Shuttle some elderly and disabled people to the voting polls and observe the caucus. I am attending a precinct caucus where we do not have a captain. I know there will be at least a couple of Hillary supporters because I am taking them to the caucus. I will be allowed to speak but will not be allowed to vote. The expectation is that many of the caucuses will not be over until possibly 10 pm. At that point, I am going to bed and I’ll find out the results in the morning.

I am very satisfied with the effort that has been made by all of the volunteers here in Texas and all over the country. We have all pitched in and you have stepped up and made the calls and/or offered a contribution — I know this is making a huge difference in Texas and I expect the same results are felt in Ohio.

It is so gratifying being here and feeling like we’re making a difference. A funny thought I had was how much work we are putting in to Texas, a state which very likely will vote for a Republican come November.

I better get to bed and get ready for the big day tomorrow. More later…

Cathy

P.S.I am also sending a copy of the email that was sent by the Obama camp to all registered Republicans and independents:
Email sent from Obama camp:
Subject: Republicans for Obama -Be a Dem for a Day in Tx
Date: Sat, 23 Feb 2008 13:10:45 -0600
Repubs for Obama group urging flooding of the Dem Primary for Barack etc.. democrats for a day.

E-mail sent to Texas Republicans:
Attention All Texas Republicans and Independents!!
On March 4th, Texas Republicans and Independents will have an opportunity to end Hillary Clinton’s (and Bill’s) presidential ambitions once and for all!

Since Texas has on open primary, Republicans and Independents should sign in at their polling place and request a Democratic ballot. They should then vote for Barack Obama. Even James Carville admits that if Hillary loses Texas, “she’s done!” Republicans can help make this a reality!!! Just think, no more Clintons in the White House!

Voting Democratic this one time will have NO effect on your ability to vote in the next Republican primary or obviously on your vote in November. Since John McCain has the Republican nomination locked up, voting for McCain or Huckabee at this point will have no effect on the outcome on the Republican side.

After you vote during early voting or on March 4th, you ARE NOT done! Report back to your regular polling place at 7PM on March 4th to sign the Barack Obama list for caucus delegates. In a little known Texas voting quirk, 67 delegates to the Democratic convention will be seated because of these caucuses. This is a full one-third of the total number of Texas delegates. For Hillary to lose, she has to lose the primary votes AND the caucus votes.

I urge you to vote against Hillary Clinton by voting for Barack Obama. Please forward this e-mail to all your Texas Republican and Independent friends so that we can help ensure the Clinton’s defeat on March 4th!!!

Tuesday Mar 4 2008
Just a quick report, then back to work. The turn out has been phenomenal for Hillary, but so has the abuse. We have all been pulled in to help follow up on hundreds and hundreds of reports of Clinton supporters being locked out of the caucus including 21 women. This is happening throughout Texas and very heavily in south Texas. Many Hispanic voters were just “locked out” of the caucus location.

Trying not to dwell too much on the negative, but on a personal note I had an incident tonight that was very disheartening. My assignment was to pick up several elderly people and get them to their caucuses. It was a task that was unbelievably difficult since many had walkers and wheelchairs and had to be taken and then picked up later.

One of the very elderly ladies was coming out to the car and when I told her where I was taking her, she said that it was incorrect because the Obama person who was in charge of the caucus told her she had to go to the convention center. I told her that I had thoroughly checked out her caucus location and that Odom Elementary was the correct place. I had a friend of hers in the car who supported me on that. However, the woman was very worried and very tired and very confused and was concerned that I would take her to the wrong place. Earlier in the day she had voted at the polls and the person “in charge” asked her who she voted for and then told her she needed to go to the convention center for caucusing which was a blatant lie and I believe was an attempt to deny her the right to caucus for Hillary, and it worked. I felt so bad for her and did not want to pressure her, so I apologized and said not to worry. She was really distraught.

On an VERY UPBEAT note, I accompanied an amazing 90-something year old woman to her caucus. She told me her mother was a suffragette (sp?) and never missed a single election since receiving the right to vote. She also told me that her mother told her never to let anyone know who you are voting for because it would put your right to vote at risk — she told her to “keep it to yourself but you make sure you make the decision yourself.” This wonderful woman told me she couldn’t believe she was voting for a woman and it made her feel like she was making history all on her own and that she was voting for the right candidate. In addition, her voting place (this is going to give you goose bumps) was Ann Richards School which is a magnet school in Austin that was designed by Ann Richards for young girls who were high academic achievers and wanted to be leaders. It was a girls leadership school and that is where she cast her ballot. I can’t tell you how proud I felt to be her companion for the night. She walked 4 blocks in a very, very slow pace with a walker. I kept asking her if she needed to rest and she told me she will not slow down until she casts her vote for Hillary. I will have a good cry tomorrow.

I have to get back to work because we are being required to input all the incident reports throughout the night.

Hillary has taken Ohio, Rhode Island, and I still think Texas is going to break it all the open for her, despite the dirty tricks.

Go Hillary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cathy
Tues Mar 4 2008
MSNBC & CNN projects Hillary as winner in Texas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You all did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We all did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those phone calls were the magic that shut the door on Obama!!!!!!!!!!!

Don’t ever underestimate the power of a dedicated group of people with a mission!!!!!!!!!!!

Cathy

Late at Night (almost midnight) on Tues, Mar 4th:
Bill Clinton showed up at headquarters – I thought something was happening because lots of secret service guys showed up about 5 mins before the President arrived. When he arrived, he was talking to the legal team in the back but insisted that all of the volunteers come back and join in a talk. He was so personable and talked a bit of strategy and thanked all of us for our hard work. I had my photo taken with him. He is a very warm and compassionate person and very passionate about Hillary’s campaign.