Obama Montco Office Opening

This evening the Obama campaign office in Montgomery County opened.  The office is in Cheltenham Township, in the shopping area at the corner of Old York Road and Church Road.  This is the same space used as one of the Shapiro / Richards campaign offices last year. 

The room was packed.  How crowded was it?  I continually bumped into the woman in front of me and the person behind me clapped frequently and his / her hands touched my hair in the process.  It was crowded.  It was very crowded.

Dan Siegel, the Montgomery County Regional Field Director started off the festivities.  I think he covers Bucks County, too, but am not sure of this.  Siegel said Obama's campaign collected 47,000 signatures to get on the ballot, more than any other candidate in the history of the Commonwealth.  He acknowledged candidates and officials in the room.  The first speaker was Carol, whose last name I missed, one of the neighborhood team leaders.  Both of them talked about the importance of the Affordable Care Act in their families.  Carol talked about her work with the campaign.  Another neighborhood team leader, Michael, whose last name I also missed, spoke later in the lineup. 

State Senator Daylin Leach spoke first, as he was on daddy duty this evening.  Leach talked about the worries people had about a drop in enthusiasm in Obama supporters from 2008 to 2012.  He said this year Obama was running on his record, not on hope.  In 2008 no one knew if he could get health care reform passed or don't ask, don't tell repealed.  Now we know.  Let's see what he can do in a second term. 

State Representative Eugene DePasquale, who is running for auditor general, spoke.  He also mentioned the health care bill.  One of his brothers died young of muscular dystrophy and if the Muscular Dystrophy Association had not helped them, the family would have been devastated financially.  DePasquale said if he is elected he will review the safety of natural gas drilling and environmental concerns about water in drilling areas. 

Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro talked about seeing then Senator Barack Obama in 2006 in Montgomery County.  He said the 2008 presidential campaign was a bottom up campaign not a top down campaign.  Recently Shapiro talked with Obama's re-election campaign.  They told him the Philadelphia suburbs were key to winning Pennsylvania and possibly the country. 

Shapiro's fellow Democratic commissioner Leslie Richards was also in the room but did not speak.  Steve McCarter, who hopes to succeed State Rep. Lawrence Curry in the 154th district attended as well.   Heidi Morein, who ran for Cheltenham Township Commissioner in 2011 was in the crowd. 

The campaign had a refreshment table at the back but I don't think many people got that far.  There were small sandwiches, soda, a pastry of some sort, and cupcakes. 

One note -- Josh Cook is the campaign's Digital Director for Pennsylvania.  I am pleased to discover he is a man of his word.