Hovey teams work for Obama

Obama volunteers Tiffany Bennett, Nick Cream, David Singh and Raye Witte try to collect signatures of support on Witherspoon St.

Down in the polls by double digits and up against the big money presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton, the rucksack rebellion waged by Sen. Barack Obama’s youth army spread across portions of the state Saturday in a door-to-door canvassing effort.

"People are still politically conscientious given the primary on Tuesday and realize since Obama declared, we’re halfway to the first caucuses," said grassroots NJ for Obama head organizer Keith Hovey, a 30-something attorney from Montgomery who rallied his team of over 20 volunteers in Princeton University’s Robertson Hall before they took to the streets.

"We want to be part of a campaign for a government that is inclusive and intelligent," said Hovey, who’s watched the movement grow from 25 NJ Draft Obama volunteers a year ago to 500 faithful. On Saturday, his organization was backing 200 on-the-ground volunteers mobilizing in Edison, Newark, New Brunswick, Hoboken, Camden, Madison, Hamilton, Plainfield and Sparta. They carried two sets of petitions: one to end the war, and one to make Obama president.

"We want to make sure Obama doesn’t just become president, but that we hold him accountable," Hovey said.

Keith Hovey, head organizer for NJ for ObamaTo that end, he urged the volunteers to ask voters not only about the war and Obama’s candidacy, but specifically what issues are important to them, and his team backed him up on this point.

"In my work in sales, I’ve learned that asking questions is better than telling someone something," said Eric Lybeck of Hopewell.

"This is supposed to be fun," volunteer Brian Andrews told the mostly young crowd. "If you see a house that looks scary, if you see a dog out front, if you see a George W. Bush sign in the front window, feel free to keep walking."

Hovey assured that such Bush-world encounters would be unlikely, as they had picked a friendly haven for Democrats, where doorbell ringers weren’t likely to face hostile opposition, and where voters are probably against the War in Iraq, a key issue for Obama, who opposed U.S. military action in that country from the beginning.

Steve Weiss of Freehold was one of the volunteers Saturday.

"I went to the same high school as Bruce Springsteen," said Weiss, who’s watched friends go off to war in Iraq and pondered what he sees as the senselessness of his generation dying in a Middle Eastern combat zone.

"There’s no reason for this war, which is a wild global duck hunt for oil and terrorists," said Weiss.

Hovey estimated that in one day his people made contact with 6,500 New Jersey households.

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