Obama gets out the vote in DC

By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff
 
WASHINGTON -- As the lunch hour approached, Barack Obama's DC campaign office today was gearing up for a final get-out-the vote push with one objective in mind: running up the score to capture as many of those ever-so-critical delegates as possible.

With polls showing Obama the odds-on favorite over Hillary Clinton to sweep today's Democratic primaries in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia, his DC campaign team was planning to knock on doors, drive supporters to polling stations, and otherwise roust every last possible voter to cast their ballot for the Illinois senator before the polls close at 8 p.m.

The District of Columbia has 15 pledged delegates at stake and Obama, who early in the day was mobbed when he made a brief appearance at the Eastern Market subway stop in Southeast Washington, was apparently leaving no stone unturned.

While leaving some polling stations unattended, hundreds of college students and other grass roots canvassers are scheduled to gather in the Home Depot parking lot in Northeast Washington. Each will receive a packet listing primary voters previously identified as Obama supporters and will "keep knocking until we find them and get them out to vote," said John Falcicchio, the Obama campaign's DC get-out-the-vote coordinator.

"This is our big focus," Falcicchio said in the campaign's Pennsylvania Avenue office, about 30 blocks from the White House. "This is our moment. This is where we can really show how well we are doing. We're trying to win and to capture as many delegates as possible."