OFA Fighting Opposition
Obama’s ‘Organizing for America’ aims to push back against health reform opposition in Iowa
By Jason Hancock 8/10/09 12:05 PM
As lawmakers return to their districts to face angry crowds organized, in part, by conservative groups looking to derail health reform legislation, the network of supporters who helped elect President Barack Obama are working to counter the opposition and make sure advocates turn out to town hall meetings.
Organizing for America, the successor to President Obama’s 2008 campaign machine, is asking its supporters to visit the district offices of their local members of Congress to urge support for health care reform. They are also holding meetings, looking for supporters willing to attend health care forums to counter the well-publicized efforts of conservatives who aim to disrupt the events.
Bob Zientara of The Ames Tribune reports that around 25 people, including Story County Democratic Party Chair Jan Bauer and former 4th District Congressional candidate Becky Greenwald, attended a meeting on Sunday with Organizing for America staff at the Ames Library.
In an e-mail to individuals on the group’s massive voter list, Mitch Stewart, director of Organizing for America, warns that “insurance companies and partisan attack groups are stirring up fear with false rumors” about Obama’s plan.
“As you’ve probably seen in the news, special interest attack groups are stirring up partisan mobs with lies about health reform, and it’s getting ugly,” he writes. “Across the country, members of Congress who support reform are being shouted down, physically assaulted, hung in effigy, and receiving death threats. We can’t let extremists hijack this debate, or confuse Congress about where the people stand.”
Protesters in recent weeks have disrupted forums held by legislators in their congressional districts. Critics of the protests describe them as “astroturf, ” or fake grassroots, motivated by the insurance industry and its lobbyists. Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin was the latest lawmaker to face an angry crowd when he discussed health care reform in Des Moines Saturday.
