Christina Montague
Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign staff says it is hard at work in reaching out to voters in Michigan.

“We believe that bringing new people into the process and registering as many voters as possible is going to help our campaign win in November,” said Brent Colburn, spokesman for Sen. Obama’s Michigan campaign. “In other states, the senator proved in the primaries that by upping the number of new voters he was able to be more successful.”

To that end, the campaign is putting major emphasis on voter registration, and has opened more than 25 offices across the state. All are involved in organizing neighborhood teams and neighborhood leaders who can go out and register people in their communities.

The campaign plans to open a total of 40 offices across the state, which Colburn said is part of what he feels is an unprecedented grassroots operation, based on neighbors talking to neighbors.

The campaign is also trying to do outreach through a variety of programs, including one that took place in the Detroit area the weekend of Aug. 23 called the Barber Shop and Beauty Shop program.

“It’s a program that reaches directly out to owners of barbershops and beauty salons and tries to engage them and their customers in Barack Obama and his message,” Colburn said.

The campaign recruits businesses to put up posters in their shops to spur conversations about the campaign and Obama. The campaign then gives them information that they can give out to help people in the community register to vote, or just get involved.

Colburn said campaign supporters will work to register voters by going door-to-door; as they go about their daily activities, and at large events, such as county fairs.

“On top of that, another thing we like to try to do is involve people who are already interested in the campaign to help us get the word out,” he said, adding that Usher stopped by the campaign office to help rally supporters when he was in town on Aug. 21.

Obama was one of four Democratic candidates who withdrew from Michigan’s Jan. 15 primary because the state violated Democratic National Committee rules in moving its primary to Jan. 15, before the traditional start of the primary season. Colburn said he hasn’t seen any blowback as a result of that decision. But he acknowledged that the campaign’s biggest challenge is that it hasn’t spent much time in the state. As a result, it has an organizational hurdle to get over in terms of getting up and running and getting the message out to voters.

Colburn said it’s still a long time to Election Day, and that the campaign will be working hard and hitting the streets over the next two months to make sure Obama’s message gets out to the people of Michigan.

As to Obama’s strengths in Michigan, Colburn said those are the same ones he has everywhere: that he has a message of change, and people are ready for change after eight years of George W. Bush and Republicans in control of the country.

“I think most Americans feel like the country is headed in the wrong direction, and Barack Obama has a plan and a vision to get us headed in the right direction,” Colburn said. “We feel that message is resonating with people and connecting with voters.”

Christina Montague, state director of Michiganders for Obama, a grassroots organization, said her group continues to get the word out about the Obama campaign. During the primary, they spearheaded the “uncommitted” vote, encouraging people to write in “uncommitted” rather than vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton (D- NY), the only major candidate who kept her name on the primary ballot.

“We organized it and the 15 congressional districts all over the state, and recruited people to work at the polls and in communities to vote uncommitted,” Montague said. “We needed to know that some kind of way people would know that there was strong support in Michigan for Sen. Obama.”

“More recently her group held a statewide campaign to have people run as precinct delegates. She called precinct delegates an important part of the Democratic party.

“We know that once Sen. Obama is elected president, we’re going to have to stay active and stay involved with the Democratic Party,” she said. “He talks about change and here in Michigan, we really need to make changes and bring new people in, have a new vision, and just have that more people have more involvement, and more to say, and also people who strongly support Sen. Obama and all things he’s going to be doing. So we’ve got hundreds of new people to run as precinct delegates.”

She said they’re most proud of Oakland County, where lots of people who’d never run for precinct delegates are doing so now.

Montague said Michiganders for Obama continues to share e-mails and information, and have people advocate for Sen. Obama’s position. They also forward information from the national campaign and share information among each other.

In addition, they respond to smear tactics against the senator.

Colburn encouraged everyone who wants to get involved in the campaign to visit www.mi.barackobama.com.