Obama Supporters Rally In Lake Elsinore

Wildomar, Lake Elsinore and surrounding areas are predominately red, but there’s a small blue streak running through the community. The 2012 presidential election is more than a year and a half away, but some local residents are already campaigning for their candidate: Barack Obama.

The national organization known as Organizing for America (OFA), which is backed by the Democratic National Committee, is working to expand its network of volunteers, and Lake Elsinore has become one of several local cities with representatives actively spreading the word.

At a recent May 5 OFA meeting, 13 people showed up at the Lake Elsinore home of Carl and Cindy Petersen to hear what they can do to help get President Obama re-elected.

The meeting was headed by Rolf vom Dorp, a retired economist who is now an OFA community organizer for the 49th Congressional District.

“This is a call for people to take a commitment to support the president,” vom Dorp said to the group, which ranged in age from 20-somethings to 70-somethings. Men, women, white, black.

“This is a long journey that started in 2008,” vom Dorp continued. “It’s not a hero worship of Obama. It’s about the issues.”

Policy reform for healthcare, education, the environment, transportation, immigration, social justice, caring for the elderly: these are the issues, vom Dorp said.

Organizing for America officially came onto the scene in January 2009, just before then President-Elect Obama took office. With representatives in all 50 states, the group’s mission has been to support the president’s legislative agenda.

“Lake Elsinore is doing quite well and going in the right direction,” vom Dorp said of OFA’s local efforts. “It never starts in Washington. It starts at the grassroots level, in neighborhoods.”

He explained that the 2012 election will sharply contrast with 2008. Building a base and getting out the vote will be more challenging. The Bush agenda helped pave the way for fresh leadership, he said, but locally a Republican majority is still in place.

“There are many Republicans who have the same ideas we do,” vom Dorp contends. “We have outreach beyond the Democratic Party.”

As a means of opening the door to potential volunteers and votes, the OFA works in the community, sponsoring events like food drives and trash clean-ups.

Temecula resident Kathy Katz said such events help volunteers cross the aisle into Republican territory.

“We are in a very protected environment in those settings,” she said.

A longtime Democrat and activist, Katz said, “I am really committed (to the agenda) more so than your typical white lady who is pushing 70.”

Privatized healthcare is one of her top concerns, but she admits it’s an uphill push.

“How can you get people to support a single-payer system when they can’t admit the current system is broken?” she said.

Lake Elsinore resident Suji Fox, who teaches school in Moreno Valley, said she’s committed to the Obama agenda.

“When you consider the alternative to president Obama,” there is no alternative, she said.

Both women supported Obama in 2008, but they haven’t agreed with him on all the issues.

“While there might have been some disappointments, he compromises well,” Katz surmised of the president.

Despite some of the obstacles, vom Dorp said he expects support for President Obama to be stronger than it was for Senator Obama.

“I expect our turnout will be equal to or larger than 2008,” he said. “We have the energy.”

The Democrats also have a clear front-runner, which is something the Republicans have yet to produce.