Obama volunteers hit the pavement in Newark

While the other side dozed strategically in parts of New Jersey’s biggest city, the Obama campaign stood 1,000 volunteers on the pavement of Newark Saturday and mobilized through all five wards.

Two days ago, Zora MeObama volunteers Zora Menguelti and Peter Geiernguelti and Peter Geier worked in an otherwise empty room in Obama campaign headquarters on Broad Street, handing out the makeshift literature they had, and waiting for reinforcements and supplies. On Saturday, they stood with two dozen volunteers amid stacks of glossy new Obama fliers and signs.

"Timing is everything in politics," said Council President Mildred Crump, an Obama delegate candidate. "We have a few critical days now to energize people."

Spearheading that effort was Central Ward campaign organizer Jermaine James, who stood casually in the center of the room in baggy street clothes, preparing to assign volunteers to their respective district coordinators.

"We’re going to win big," said James, veteran of the 2002 Booker-James mayoral campaign. "Right now we’re neck-and-neck. As of yesterday I think there were six points between Hillary and Barack. They’re both up on TV, so right now it’s all about getting out the vote. ...We need desperately a good turnout in New Jersey." (For more of James' remarks, please see Max Pizarro's Video Blog on this site).

The door opened, and someone blew off the street and announced that Obama had just received the endorsement of the Los Angeles Times. Another jolt of excitement ran through the room. Clinton was supposed to be strong in California, stronger than Obama. The feeling was maybe the poll tightening in Jersey was simultaneously happening elsewhere. Maybe the post Caroline and Sen. Ted Kennedy momentum was real, and big.

Leading a caravan that hit the campaign headquarters in each of the city’s wards on Saturday, Newark Mayor Cory Booker now appeared, shaking hands and hugging the Central Ward volunteers.

"I’m all Obama all the time until Tuesday," said the mayor. "I’ll pick up the paperwork on Wednesday and get back to work, but right now we’re focusing on transforming our country."

With volunteers crowded around, he gave a tightknit speech that hit on big themes just before James unleashed the volunteers into their districts.

"We may not have been called to the greatness of a previous generation," said Booker. "We’re not being asked to storm the beaches of Normandy. We’re not being asked to ride Freedom buses in the South, where we will be chained, whipped or beaten, but to me the urgency is still the same."

By contrast, the Clinton campaign presence was subdued on the streets. They conceded the early sign war on Broad Street, on Springfield, and on South Orange Avenue, where Navy blue Obama pole and lawn signs stood in force. But the campaign’s volunteers worked the phones in dedicated fashion in their Broad Street headquarters. Field coordinator Selvin White, Jr., a former aide to U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, helped volunteers, including Maritza Barahana, with the nuts and bolts of phone-banking.

"In the past, I helped with Booker’s campaign, and I loved it," said Barahana, a working mother who said she’s struggling with healthcare and childcare costs. "I believe Hillary Clinton brings the qualifications of a mother, not just a very well-prepared person."

Aside from that clutch of phone-bankers reaching out to Democratic voters in Essex County and a few door-to-door diehards, Team Clinton waited to stand up the machine on Election Day.

"By not doing a lot of street and ground ops they think they’re going to lull people to sleep," said Crump. "If you keep it quiet, people won’t remember there’s a presidential election on Tuesday. Right now we have to be vocal."

In the city’s South Ward where she headed up GOTV efforts with Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker and Assemblyman Oscar James, Jr., Assemblywoman L. Grace Spencer said she wasn’t certain Obama’s final four-day momentum was going to be sufficient.

"If he had mounted a serious GOTV effort earlier it would have been a costly primary but Barack Obama would be in an even better position now," said Spencer. "The trouble is, unless you’re politically astute, you don’t know there’s a presidential primary on Tuesday."

Others said street level campaigning for the duration should get the job done.West Ward Councilman Ron Rice, Jr. pounds pavement with Obama volunteers.

In the West Ward, Newark Councilman Ron Rice, Jr. went door-to-door, car-to-car, hand-to-hand with a newly minted stack of Obama fliers under his arm and in the company of a small contingent of campaign volunteers: a handful of what he said were about 30-35 Obama troops deployed throughout Rice’s home ward. (For Rice on the campaign trail, please see Max Pizarro's Video Blog on this site).

"The key for us is putting things in people’s hands, as you see them on the street, as you see them driving - give them something tangible to remind them that there’s an election going on," said Rice. "We have a piece of sound that we’re going to put on cars tomorrow, blasting the word out for people to come out Tuesday for Election Day. They’re going to know, because the amount of activity is going to rev up now, and it’s going to be palpable."