Obama backers now set organizing sights on health-care reform

JENEAL HOBBS, a 27-year-old social worker and self-described e-mail junkie, was pretty much untouched by political activism before she was zapped by the Barack Obama campaign.

Her aunt e-mailed an invitation to join a debate "watch party" last fall, and before she knew it Hobbs was going door to door for Obama.

"It was amazing to meet and work with these people from different racial and economic backgrounds," she said.

But for Hobbs and many others, it isn't over.

She's now one of thousands of former Obama partisans drawing on the inspiration and organizational tools of the campaign to push for national health-care reform.

Hobbs is connected with Health Care for America Now, a national grassroots organization that's using the sophisticated Internet appeals, house parties, text messages, Facebook sites and social networks developed in the Obama campaign to advance their agenda.

"We've identified 6,000 activists in the state," said Marc Stier, a Democratic activist who's the movement's Pennsylvania director. "Our goal is to have 25,000 by March."

There's no health-care legislation before Congress now, and organizers know that Obama will focus on the economy first. The group's goal is to build broad support for universal health care and have a network poised to mobilize when Congress is ready to act.

"We want to be able to generate 5,000 calls to Washington on a single day when there's a vote," Stier said.

While much of the organizing is on a grassroots level, the campaign is targeting influential politicians and major institutional players in the health-care debate.

Pennsylvania's Health Care for America Now network has gotten all but one of the state's Democratic Congressional representatives to commit to its statement of principles calling for "a truly inclusive and accessible health-care system in which no one is left out."

Stier met with Cambria County U.S. Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., last week and got him to sign on.

A particularly important target for the group is Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, a moderate Republican seen as a key vote.

Next week, Stier will hold a news conference in Scranton during which the mayors of Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown will endorse the effort.

Nationally, the campaign expects to spend as much as $50 million, and is getting major help from unions, including the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

But the campaign is rooted in grassroots activism. It held 15 house parties in Pennsylvania in December in cooperation with the Obama transition team. Obama has endorsed the campaign's principles.

Stier said that he hopes to keep adding to the 55 organizations who've signed on to support the campaign in Pennsylvania, eventually getting the big organizations that fight diseases like cancer and diabetes involved.

Hobbs said that for now she's working to build a small team of friends and acquaintances that will focus its efforts on a particular group.

"Whether it's homeless people, those coming out of prison, pregnant mothers, immigrants, they all have health-care needs and we'll find a way to reach them," Hobbs said. *