Pressure Your Non-Voting Representative

Harnessing the power of Internet was a coup for the Obama campaign last year, and now the White House and Democrats in Congress are attempting to drum up support for the House health care bill in a similar manner. Except that all the tech-savviness in the world can't find votes where there are none.

In a mass e-mail that went out to supporters this morning, Organizing for America (the Democratic National Committee-led Obama campaign network) instructs Washington, DC residents to "call your representative right now and tell them to vote in favor of real health insurance reform..."

The message continues, "According to our records, you live in District of Columbia's at-large congressional district. Please call: Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton" and then lists the number of Norton's office.

Problem is DC's representative is a non-voting member of the House. Oops.

In response to our request for comment, an official at Organizing for America said, "We support DC voting rights, and we're just trying to speed the process along."

The e-mail's full text is posted below:

From: Mitch Stewart, BarackObama.com Date: Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 9:57 AM Subject: House vote TOMORROW To: [Organizing for America supporter]

This is it -- the House of Representatives will vote on health insurance reform tomorrow. All signs point to it being incredibly close, possibly even coming down to a single vote.

With the clock ticking, insurance company lobbyists are going all out to stop reform. Please call Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton at 202-225-8050 now.

Today, President Obama is visiting the House to call for reform, and I hope you'll add your voice to his. If you haven't called before, now is the time. And if you have recently called, thank you -- now please ask friends, family members, and co-workers in your district to join you.

http://my.barackobama.com/HouseVote

Everything we're fighting for comes down to moments like this -- and every second counts.

Thanks for stepping up,

Mitch

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http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/11/organizing_for_ameri ca_pressure_your_non-voting_rep.php

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